Dunne says she now looks to her department to help her with the administrative details of her academic career and to arrange for exams. But she says in many ways, she resents having to seek out the assistance she says the University should volunteer.

"You don't have to call your professor to arrange an exam--why should I?" asks Dunne.

Shin also says he largely conducts his academic affairs through the department. He has teaching fellows in his class describe diagrams or images, and maintains a close rapport with his teachers.

"If a system is not going to work, I just say `Fine, I'll deal with it on my own.' People have trouble--some people I know even expect the Dean's office to come up with ways to take midterms," Shin says.

"I have no thought of that. I just say, `Professor, this is how we do it. Is that okay with you?'"

But Shin says he sees a problem with what he thinks is Harvard's incredible decentralization and daunting bureaucracy. Shin says often when he encounters problems, he speaks directly with Dingman. But he says he believes Harvard needs a more comprehensive policy in meeting the needs of the disabled.

"I think it will be important to have guidelines to make policies under," Shin says. "Harvard, at least the office, likes to have the same model applicable for everyone, and that just doesn't work."

Working Towards Policy

Marie Trottier, the recently-hired coordinator of the Program for Persons with Disabilities, says she too hopes there will be a more comprehensive policy in the future, and that she can shape it.

Trottier says Harvard, as it stands, really has no other policy beyond section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, which is the civil rights act guaranteeing qualified people with disabilities equal opportunity under the law.

She admits that is a somewhat amorphous guarantee, but she says she hopes the blind students at Harvard will help her make competent policy recommendations in the future by telling her their needs.

"I'm asking them to contribute to me. They're the ones who deal with it day to day," Trottier says.

"I'm kind of putting the onus on them now, so they can help contribute to the community and help me meet the needs of new students coming into the University," she says.

Shin himself has assumed a more direct role in preparing to meet the needs of incoming students. He was hired by Dingman's office to research computers and technology for the blind, and Dingman is confident about the work that Shin is doing.

"He's a user, of course, but he's also very knowledgeable," Dingman says.