Completing college is a moment of joy for hundreds of students who graduate every year from Unicamp's undergraduate courses. After a lot of study and dedication, receiving the diploma gives new professionals the satisfaction of having fulfilled their duty. But in addition to winning the course itself, some graduates set an example that overcoming can go beyond one's own physical limits. These are students who live with different types of disabilities and, excelling in their studies and now benefiting other people with their professional work, their trajectories have taught teachers and students that it is possible to make the university a more plural and inclusive space. O Unicamp website presents two of these stories, which can be a good inspiration for this beginning of the year.
"Nothing is ready for people with disabilities"
Four years ago, Pedro Henrique Carvalho's performance in the Unicamp Entrance Examination was news. Approved in the selection process shortly after completing high school, the young man was the first blind student to enroll in the speech therapy course at the Faculty of Medical Sciences (FCM). Even with the joy of approval, Pedro was already aware that the highlight showed how the presence of people with disabilities is still not something natural in spaces like universities. "People with visual impairments, when they enter college, are still surprised, it's something like: 'Wow, the visually impaired people made it!', because it's not a common thing and it's not the fault of anyone specific, it's society's fault. Because nothing is ready for people with disabilities, so when someone comes in, it's something new. What's different causes a certain strangeness, a certain shock", recalls the student.
Now in 2020, Pedro begins the year celebrating yet another approval: even before graduating as a speech therapist, he was accepted as a master's student in the Postgraduate Program in Health, Interdisciplinary and Rehabilitation, also at FCM. He will be guided by professor Rita de Cássia Montilha, continuing the research he has already carried out since graduation, during scientific initiation. The new master's student intends to expand the contributions that speech therapy can bring to blind people and people with low vision, such as stimulating other senses, such as touch and hearing; the perception of the environments in which people are; mouth and jaw movements; and even the execution of facial expressions, something common in speech therapy.
"Often, people with disabilities don't have much idea of what a facial expression is, especially those who are congenitally blind, or those who have congenitally low vision. The person doesn't have much idea of what an angry face is, or a face of who smelled a bad smell. So we can work with that", explains Pedro. He also comments that, for speech therapists to work on communication skills with blind patients, such as reading and writing, it is necessary to have knowledge of the available resources, such as Braille. Therefore, he believes he can improve speech therapy methods and protocols. "You have to make use of optical and non-optical resources, you also need to know Braille if you are going to work on reading and writing with a blind person", he analyzes.
The importance of support networks
Pedro's disability is congenital, allowing him to see only figures and lights. Thanks to the efforts of his family and professionals who accompanied him since childhood, he was guaranteed his right to learn Braille and, thus, was able to fully develop his studies. "It was a job for everyone, the whole family, because it involves everyone. You have to have family support, everyone's collaboration, because you depend on others too, it's a process", comments Carmem Lúcia Carvalho, mother Pedro, who even learned Braille with his son to help him with his schoolwork.
At university, Pedro also had the support of his course mates and teachers. He also highlights the assistance received from the Accessibility Laboratory (LAB) from the Unicamp Library System (SBU), responsible for adapting texts and books printed in ink to Braille. Throughout the course, FCM also purchased for the student a laptop adapted to use the Braille Line, a type of tactile keyboard with which the blind person can select Braille characters, which appear in the form of text on the computer screen. The tool made their work more agile and gave the student autonomy.
Pedro's goals are just beginning to come to fruition. In addition to his master's degree at FCM, he also intends to attend a multidisciplinary residency and work as a clinical speech therapist, helping not only patients, but everyone who lives with people with visual impairments, especially children. "When a child is born with visual impairment, it is often a shock for the mother herself. Sometimes the mother does not know how to communicate, because generally, when the child is younger, interactions are very based on the visual system, so how to stimulate this child? How do I communicate with him? A speech therapist can propose solutions on how to interact with this child, how to play with him", he explains.
Asked if he also intends to pursue a doctorate, Pedro still has doubts and prefers to focus on the achievements already achieved at the moment. "For people with disabilities, it is a constant struggle. But we will find our place", he states, aware that the path will not be simple, but that his achievements will open doors for many people.
"You start to see things from a very different perspective"
Despite having similarities with Pedro's story, César Gatto's experience with disability has a significant difference: it began in 2015, while he was in his third year of medical school. Due to the manifestation of Guillain-Barré syndrome, an autoimmune disease that attacks the nervous system, the young man had a sudden paralysis of his body's movements. As he recalls, the symptoms appeared on May 19 of that year. First thing in the morning, he couldn't move his legs. At night, he was admitted to the ICU with complete paralysis.
At first, Caesar believed that the impact of this new condition would interrupt his plans completely. But after a month of hospitalization and another six months of rehabilitation in São José dos Campos, his hometown, and with a network of support and encouragement, he realized that life could continue where he took a short break. "I thought I wouldn't be able to do it. I think I only came back because my parents were insistent. And then things came up that I thought: 'I can't do this, I'm in a wheelchair', but with the help of teachers, classmates, you see Yes, it can. For me, it was beautiful. I thought: 'Didn't it work? Look how silly you are!' (laughter)"
Today César celebrates his graduation in medicine and has already been working in the field as a doctor on duty in hospitals and emergency care units in the cities of Piracicaba and Indaiatuba. His rehabilitation treatment also continues with physiotherapy, which has already allowed him to recover movement in his legs, but it is still necessary to stimulate his muscular strength, so that César can remain standing. The tendency is for young people to walk again, but they themselves recognize that their movements will not be the same as before. "I would really like to walk again, but if I can't, I need to have a plan B. The two are very similar, if I walk again I'll just do a few more things that I wouldn't do as a wheelchair user. I want to have my family, my children, and especially my academic career, being a teacher. I really like Unicamp, I like it here", he comments.
The dream of becoming a doctor began in high school, after César discovered the program Doctors Without Borders and began to want to carry out work similar to that of the humanitarian organization. Another plan was to do a medical residency in the area of infectious diseases. However, with the difficulty in moving around, it was necessary to stop and rethink which paths he would follow in medicine. Now, he plans to pursue a residency in pediatrics.
But the changes brought by César's disability were not just in relation to the areas in which he intends to work. The experience of being a patient and counting on the collaboration of those around him made him look at the practice of medicine with more empathy, an important characteristic for those who care for people's health. "You start to have the patient's perspective. Before that I didn't think much like that, thinking about what he is feeling in hospital, after 20 days in a ward, I didn't take it much into consideration. After I was hospitalized for a month in the ICU, with a great effort to recover, I started to give a lot of value to what the patients are feeling, thinking about what their experience there is like, asking things that I wouldn't ask before. When you become a patient, you understand well ", reflects César.
Attention to accessibility
The perspective with which César began to face the world was not the only one that changed after his illness. According to him, as family, friends and teachers began to have direct contact with their routine and support needs, especially for mobility, the obstacles faced by people with disabilities became more evident to them. "After I became physically disabled, my friends, relatives, everyone started to notice that things weren't accessible, something I didn't notice before either. When you meet someone with a disability, of any kind, you start to think: 'Wow, César wouldn't be able to climb here alone'. It's something that stays in people's minds when they experience it or when they have someone close to them who experiences it. It's interesting then to listen to these people", observes César.
He also highlights that, for those who live with a person who has acquired a disability, support is fundamental in the development process and constant encouragement is necessary so that the person does not stop and moves forward. This is one of the lessons that César learns every day from his overcoming process. "Each person will experience physical disability in their own way. During this journey I met a lot of people who have different disabilities than mine, and one thing that is clear is that it is a limitation, but your head works well. So, if you don't come back to do your things, if you don't try, you'll never be able to come back. A lot of people think it's over, but it's not quite like that. I think that's the most important thing I learned", concludes the boy.
