Word: hals
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Last year Hal became the first blind student at Harvard Law in recent years. Now there are three new blind students. "I proved," Hal explained, "that a blind student is draft exempt." According to Hal, it is not so easy for a blind person to get into law school. Many of the schools where he was interviewed were quite discouraging about the prospects of his getting in and getting along there. He had a particularly bad interview at Duke: "You mean to tell me you're really that blind?" the Duke interviewer asked. When Hal inquired as to the ease...
However, Harvard Law has been extremely cooperative, Hal says. Joseph E. Leininger, vice dean of the Law School, kept a protective eye on Hal his first year. Blind students were first allowed equal time for their exams; now they have time and a half (on the undergraduate level Harvard allows double time for exams). When there was a reader shortage this year, Leininger recruited extra readers from the Law School to help...
BLIND students may have to spend more time and effort to get through an equal work load, but this does not keep them from outside interests. In high school Charlie managed three sports (both Hal and Charlie are avid sports enthusiasts; Hall has been at almost every Harvard football game this year, accompanied by a transistor radio and a pretty girl). Hal played the violin in his high school orchestra, and was president of Scarsdale High's General Organization. He ran for that position partially because he faced so much opposition from the faculty and the PTA: they were afraid...
...serious problem that every blind student faces is the difficulty of having any normal social life. This is one reason why Charlie liked the fraternity system at Amherst: "I had a system of friends who got me 'blind' dates." Here at Harvard he finds it difficult to meet people. Hal uses his readers as contacts, but seldom dates a reader. "You don't get much reading done," he explains, "and, if you break up, you lose a reader." One problem he ran into in his undergraduate days was the type of girl who was willing to go out with...
NEITHER Charlie nor Hal is at all interested in trying to meet a blind girl. And for a blind person in the sighted world, it is not only hard to find dates, it is even harder to find someone to get serious about. As Charlie said, "I can't see that beautiful girl across the room and run over and ask her out." And any girl who marries a blind man must be prepared to fight. "It's harder to find someone when you're blind," Hal said, "but when you do find her she's exceptional-more understanding...