Mesa Legend - NEWS 6


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Volume 40, Issue 6
November 19, 2002

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DRS welcomes additional staff
By Matt Mueller
Mesa Legend

Wink Harner and Gene Heppard
Photo Courtesy of Jack Clevenger
Wink Harner (left) and Gene Heppard are the newest additions to the Disability Resources and Services department and will serve as advisers to students at MCC.

MCC’s disabled student resources and services welcomes two new advisers to its staff this semester.

Wink Harner and Gene Heppard join the department in its 29th year.

During its long history the department has helped countless numbers of students who need special accommodations.

The Disability Resources and Services department was first introduced to MCC in 1973, in reaction to the rehabilitation act passed in 1973.

It began as a federally funded program, for minorities, but evolved into the program in place today.

The department’s main function is to help students with all types of disabilities become more independent, improve self image, and succeed in their academic goals.

“This (MCC) is their lab for life, students have to learn to be independent and capitalize on their potential,” says department director Jack Clevenger.

“There are over 850 disabled students currently enrolled in classes at MCC.”

He first joined the department in 1981 and has since been promoted to program director.

Clevenger also lives with a disability” I have been hard of hearing for most of my life, since one month of age.”

In 2000 he lost what hearing remained and underwent surgery to receive a cochlear implant, which has restored his hearing.

The program offers many options to assist students regardless what their needs may be.

MCC offers an Adaptive Computer Lab which features computer hardware and programs to assist students.

The lab includes dictation software for students who cannot type, text enlargers, for those who have difficulty with sight, and computers that convert text into Braille.

Gene Heppard joined the Disability Resources and Services department earlier this year as an adviser.

Advisers are there to help students to schedule classes that will best help them on their chosen academic path.

Often, advisers need to make accommodations with teachers for students needing to use voice recorders, headsets, or other means for lectures.

“I advise every student as if they will achieve a 4 year degree from a university of their choice,” says Heppard, “I truly believe that with the right advisement and creativity, each student that comes through this office will achieve what ever goals they have in mind.”

Heppard is a former student, and after a skiing accident is confined to a wheel chair.

He has continued on to reach his academic goals graduating from ASU last spring with a Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies.

Wink Harner, another new addition joined the department part time in November of 2001.

As an adviser, she is pursuing her doctorate in Spanish and Portuguese.

She was recently named as the Western regional nominee for professional woman of the year to the Governor’s Committee on Employment of a person with a disability, for her work with disabled students at MCC.

Students with disabilities of all kinds can receive the help they seek by visiting the Disability Resources and Services office located in the student services village behind the Kirk center in building 37, (SS3W).

Students must have documentation of their disability to start a file in the office and receive assistance.

Adequate time must be allowed for resources to become available, it is recommended that classes are scheduled months in advance to allow for arrangements to be made.

Office hours are from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Fridays.