This article barely scratches the surface about the many benefits that
youth have in connecting and learning from adults with disabilities.  Not
only is it helpful culturally and spiritually, the benefits are also noticed
in educational achievement.  This gold medal blind triathlete accomplished
in six months during four 90 minute sessions a week what highly paid
blindness professionals produce in a whole year.  Incidentally, an audible
pool would not have helped Heidi in the Chicago triathlon as the swimming
portion is in the lake.

kelly

The Chicago Tribune

 LEARNING TO SEE PAST BLINDNESS

   EIGHT-YEAR-OLD AKASH PATEL WAS LIMITED BY HIS BLINDNESS UNTIL
   TRIATHLETE HEIDI MUSSER SHOWED HIM THE POSSIBILITIES.
   By Jon Anderson
   Tribune Staff Writer
   November 2, 1999

   "Heidi, Heidi, Heidi. No wait. Time out. It's my turn to talk," said
   Akash Patel, 8, an excitable, energetic 3rd-grader at Hynes Elementary
   School in Morton Grove, looking for a chance to explain certain
   dimensions of a book called "Toad and Frog Are Friends."

   Last year, at this time, things were notably different.

   "Well, he was throwing things," said teacher Susan Mies, describing
   how Patel acted out in her2nd-grade classroom. It was behavior not
   uncommon for youngsters blind from birth, as Patel has been, a way of
   venting frustration and discouragement.

   Now, fingers flying, Patel can read Braille. He rides a tandem bike,
   enjoys yoga, swims and, as he announced proudly, "I can do `Bombs
   Away."' That splashy entry into a pool off a diving board is known to
   older swimmers as "The Cannonball."

   What caused such a change in attitude?

   For starters, his teachers, like Mies, stood by him. There was expert
   help from a vision specialist, a mobility trainer and from Donna
   Barlow, a special education teacher at Hynes.

   But at the center of what might be called "The Turn-around of Akash
   Patel," suggests Barlow, was "a wonderful relationship, one that
   involved friendship as well as mentoring."

   It was a fortuitous pairing, the linking of Patel with Heidi Musser,
   33, also blind since birth. She has been his volunteer teacher for 12
   months, meeting him four times a week at school for 90-minute
   sessions. They also get together, after school, for fun.

   "She's his friend," notes Erika Musser, Heidi's mother. "That's why he
   learns so quickly." And her daughter, she adds, has learned much from
   her pupil.

   Many of the benefits, for both teacher and pupil, had to do with
   helping each other overcome one of the widespread curses of the late
   20th Century--social isolation, an unfortunate fact of life that hits
   even harder at people with disabilities, especially the blind.

   "I threw things, too," admitted Heidi Musser, recalling her own early
   days in school when she often felt cut off, ignored and unable to
   interact with surrounding sighted society.

   Much of her schooling was at home, after her parents, longtime
   residents of the Edgewater neighborhood, fought a declaration by the
   Chicago Public Schools system that had judged her, at age 7, to be
   mentally disabled, unsuitable for regular classes.

   Later, at Northeastern Illinois University, where Musser graduated
   with a bachelor's degree in music in 1996, she found little social
   interaction with other students, making for difficult days. But she
   did have a breakthrough--in sports.

   An ardent swimmer, she met a lifeguard at the Northeastern pool who
   guided her through the Chicago Park District's annual 2-mile fun swim
   in Lake Michigan. The first disabled participant in the event's
   history, Musser found her spirits raised by the rush of attention.

   She expanded her interests, becoming a triathlete.

   She swam, with a coach beside her in the water shouting commands to
   turn left or right. She rode a tandem bicycle, serving as the engine
   in the rear while a rider in front steered. To run, she used a small
   elastic tether to lightly tie her to a guide, running slightly ahead.

   Two months ago, Musser went to Montreal for the 1999 Triathlon World
   Championships. She won a gold medal, as the first blind triathlete
   ever to compete in a triathalon over the same courses as able-bodied
   athletes.

   The idea of Musser passing her newfound confidence, to say nothing of
   some exacting sports skills, to Akash Patel came about almost by
   accident. "It started last year at `Everybody in the Pool,"' recalled
   teacher Mies, referring to a program at the Leaning Tower YMCA in
   Niles. "I knew Akash was going to be going, with the other
   2nd-graders. I wanted him to swim."

   Mies had seen Heidi swimming there and first contacted her coach, Mark
   Landeck, wondering if he could help Patel. Landeck, instead, showed up
   with Heidi. "It's amazing how one connection can have a rippling
   effect," said Mies, recounting the scene for a visitor.

   "Heidi worked with Akash in the water. `Why don't you sit on my back
   while I swim,' she said, `so you can feel what the movement is like.'
   She did little tricks to get him to put his face in water, like
   dunking his head as part of a song," Mies said. "If you've never seen
   a pool, and can't imagine what it's like, or how deep the water is,
   that can be quite frightening."

   What worked in water might well work on land, Mies thought. She
   invited Musser to work with Patel at Hynes, starting at the piano, to
   develop finger skills, then adding Braille lessons. Now she plans to
   expand her teaching role, taking on more students as her time allows.

   "When you watch them together, there seems to be a real
   understanding," said Mies. "Also, his life now seems more real to
   other children at school. This fall, he has wowed them with his piano
   playing and with his reading of `Toad and Frog,' one of our course
   readings."

   "Heidi was the first blind person he'd ever known," added teacher
   Barlow. "He's become aware of the world, awakened to matters he never
   cared to know about before. In Braille, for example, he learned in six
   months what normally takes a year."


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