On a typical day, one ISU student can be seen using a cane to find his way around campus, listening for the everyday sounds piercing his ears – the buzz of a CyRide bus, a murmur of distant voices, feet sliding on a bare concrete floor.

Listening has become more important to James Koopman since he became blind.

Six years ago, Koopman was a student at Iowa State. In 1999, he dropped out of school to take care of his stepfather, who had been diagnosed with colorectal cancer. A year later, Koopman was diagnosed with neo-vascular glaucoma, which raises the pressure of the fluid in the eyes and eventually destroys the retina. He said he wasn’t surprised he was going blind.

Koopman said he has had all his life to prepare for the prospect that he might one day be blind. Two days after his birth, he had two surgeries to fix complications with his eyes.

He is now in his first semester back at Iowa State, with a cane as his new walking companion.

Having to use a cane to get around has not swayed Koopman’s determination to not let blindness stop him from living a normal life.

“I want to be a financial consultant to begin with,” said Koopman, junior in pre-business. “But I would eventually like to own my own company that makes access technology to help differently-abled people.”

Koopman said sometimes he can see about five feet – although it’s blurry – and sometimes he sees nothing at all.

He has a program on his computer called “Jaws” that reads to him everything he types. He also has an accommodation request at Iowa State that allows him to get his notes and textbooks on CD.

Steven Moats, interim manager for Disability Resources, said from fall 2003 to fall 2004 his department provided accommodation resources for more than 650 disabled students. Accommodations range from tape recorded lectures and exams to captioned films.

John Hirschman, coordinator for Disability Resources, said these accommodations are not meant to provide an unfair advantage to the students getting them.

“Most individuals with disabilities want to be treated like everyone else,” Hirschman said. “Iowa State has the same requirements to get in just like everyone else.”

He recently joined MENSA, a society for people with IQs in the 98th percentile, and he is also a recipient of the Roy J. Carver scholarship, which is awarded annually to 20 students with great potential who have faced difficult and debilitating circumstances.

While he was out of school, he also met his girlfriend, Kristen Petersen. Although Petersen is sighted, she said Koopman’s blindness does not stop them from having fun.

“I try to do fun things for him that normally he wouldn’t do,” Petersen said. “He’s never drove, so I took him to this Colfax field, which is just acre after acre, and I told him to go ahead and jump in the front seat. There is nothing for him to hit and he could just tear it up and have a good time,” Petersen said.

“It was supposed to be a surprise,” she said. “I got in this field and I got out of the truck and I was like, ‘Well, you’re driving now.'”

Not all of their outings are hassle free, though.

“When we are together, people would point and stare. They will laugh,” Petersen said. “That’s when I step in. I don’t like to be defensive, and I don’t want to be overly protective, but I come from a background of working with mentally handicapped adults. I don’t think anybody should judge somebody because they have faults that weren’t caused by them.”

Even though Koopman wishes he wasn’t blind, he has made up his mind to adapt. As for some of the negative reactions he has gotten from people, he said he knows the reason behind it.

“It is something I have thought about for a long time,” Koopman said.

“The reason that people react the way that they do is because seeing a disabled person reminds them of their own frailties.”