[Mt-blind] Danielle Matthaes

[Jim Marks]

Danielle Matthaes was one gutsy person who took much and contributed much to
the MAB/NFB.  Some may remember that Danielle won an award from Montana
State University-Bozeman.  The award was for standing up for her rights.
What happened was that Danielle was dissatisfied with her test
accommodations administered through the disability service office.  The
technology offered was woefully out of date, and the human reader provided
could hardly speak English.  So Danielle went directly to her instructors
for test accommodations.  Somehow, the disability service office found out
about this, and they called each of Danielle's instructors to tell them that
it was illegal to provide Danielle the test accommodations.  Of course, this
was not true, and Danielle fought back by going to her instructors to tell
them the truth.  All but one instructor believed -Danielle.  One instructor
was so angered by the treatment Danielle received that he organized other
faculty members to protest.  They also organized the unique award, and the
MSU-Bozeman President awarded Danielle for standing up against the
oppression.  The Bozeman Chronicle ran a story on this.  I'll see if I can
find it and re-post it to this list.

Danielle was an NFB scholarship winner.  If memory serves, Danielle attended
at least two national conventions.  Her goal was to become a nurse, which
certainly is a challenge for any blind person to master.  I believe Danielle
had the right stuff, and I'm convinced that if her health had held out, she
would have become a nurse.  I miss her very, very much.



Jim Marks
blind.grizzly at GMail.com