Keith Sargent went to the awareness of disabilities discussion Wednesday night to ask questions to students with disabilities, but at the last minute he ended up on the panel himself.

“What I had planned to ask,” Sargent said, who had both legs amputated after a biking accident last year, “was how do you cope?”

As part of Awareness of Disabilities Days sponsored by the People Understanding Disabilities, six panelists told Sargent how they manage to cope with both their disabilities and the various struggles a college campus can present.

“It’s like any other crisis in your life,” said Matthew Grillot, a pre-business student who suffered a spinal cord injury when he was young and is now a paraplegic. “You go through a grief process,” Grillot said, “and to get through it can take three weeks or three years.”

“Or it may take 26 years,” said Natalie Rahn, a student in social work who has had di-plegic cerebral palsy since she was born. “I get through the stages of the fear and the anger, but then sometimes I go back through them again. The same obstacles, the same issues keep coming back.”

In order for her to write letters or papers, Rahn speaks into a special computer called a Dragon Dictator that turns her words into writing.

Though using the machine can be time consuming, Rahn said it has improved her self-esteem a great deal.

“Not only does it allow me to write coherent sentences, but even the punctuation looks exactly right,” Rahn said. “I call the machine Annie Sullivan after the character from ‘The Miracle Worker,’ because that’s what it is.”

ISU interdisciplinary student Kimberly Kent was unaware of her dyslexia and attention deficit disorder (ADD) when attending college 20 years ago. Yet Kent knew something must have been wrong when she was asked to leave school at the end of her junior year due to poor grades.

“When I got my learning disabilities diagnosed at ISU I knew I had another chance,” Kent said.

Kent has continued to struggle with written exams. She usually asks teachers to take tests separate from the rest of her class because, “I need time to go through the questions, to get away from them for a little while, and then come back to them.”

Duffie Norr can relate to Kent’s trouble with written tests. Also an interdisciplinary student at ISU, Norr has had trouble reading since she had a brain tumor removed seven years ago.

“Some of my professors are willing to read the tests out loud to me, which helps,” Norr said.

Though Norr has her books and lectures on tape, learning course work by ear can be time-consuming.

“By ear I can process 10 pages per hour, so it takes me six hours to get through 60 pages of information,” she said.

All of the panelists said they’re appreciative when someone asks to help them.

Disability resources coordinator Joyce Packwood said, “It always feels good when someone offers to help you.”

Packwood said along with faith in God and good friends, a smile and offer of help from a stranger is what helps her cope with her disability.