Kim has a print processing disability. Throughout school, her parents read all printed material aloud for her. Until she got a scanner and a screen-reading program at university, she had to rely on volunteer readers. Just covering the material was a challenge. For her first grad school course, Kim spent up to 20 hours a week just reading. "Most people read faster than I can, because I have to listen to read—at the speed that someone talks." But the biggest challenge was learning how to get her thoughts onto paper. "I had to learn how to organize my thoughts before I could write," she says. In the beginning, Kim needed a lot of support. Fortunately, she found it through the U of A's program for students with learning disabilities. Kim uses voice recognition software for her written work.
Roman finds that university demands more and better critical thinking, analytical and study skills. With distance education, the challenge is to discipline yourself to do the work—or as Roman puts it, "to keep
slaying the dragon of procrastination."
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