Goyi Gómez and his son Víctor Cobo are about to finish Business Administration and Management (ADE) at the Talavera de la Reina campus of the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM). When it happens, she will be 56 years old and he will have studied with the notes of her mother and classmate and technological adaptations to overcome the barriers imposed by his 82% disability.
It all started a few years ago, when Víctor, with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, was applying for university and his mother had just become unemployed after working for years as a clerk.
The young man needed adaptations and assistants to attend class and take notes and, during a visit, from the UCLM they encouraged Goyi to also enroll in the race. “I didn’t think about it either,” admitted the university student, aware that only she could give her son “one hundred percent help.” For this reason, she has just been recognized by the Social Council for her “exemplary attitude” at the proposal of the Faculty of Social Sciences.
Along the way, the covid pandemic broke out, but mother and son did not give up and continued with their studies. Now they only have a couple of subjects to pass and their respective end-of-grade projects. Víctor will focus on a business model of a small accessible rural hotel and Goyi on the figure of the Jesuit theologian Juan de Mariana, linked to the city of Talavera, and “very forgotten”, despite the “many economic contributions” he made.
As the Jesuit is for Goyi, she and her son are also an example for colleagues and teachers on campus. “At first it was difficult for us but they accepted me well,” added the university mother, who has shared a classroom with students who are twice her age.
“She studies a lot, she prepares the notes and then we study together”, emphasizes Víctor. However, Goyi points out that, although they go “on par”, “he gets a better grade” because he studies more and she has more difficulties reconciling personal and student life.
In fact, behind the results are the hours of effort, in which Victor also needs to lie down. Goyi explains that while his son is in bed, the young man also continues studying thanks to the fact that the computer reproduces the notes as a mirror. “We don’t have time to watch TV, but we do like to go for a walk,” Goyi said.
In the exams they are separated, so that they cannot ‘blow’ content. In addition, Víctor needs an adapted table to install his computer and a little more time, they explain.
For all these reasons, this young man with a disability about to graduate sends a message to those who want to do like him. “I encourage people with disabilities to study”, he assures while recalling that his effort has also been recognized by the teaching staff for doing the best work in the subjects of Fundamentals of Marketing and Business Management.
But the greatest prize may be the recognition that Víctor makes of his veteran running mate. “I am very proud of her and grateful that she has decided to do the race with me,” he concluded.
Víctor is one of the almost 400 students with disabilities enrolled at UCLM, according to the Vice-Rector for Students, Ángeles Carrasco. The institution works with university students who declare their condition through the Service for Attention to Disability (SAED), which is in charge of talking with them “to find out what they need, their career, and they are supported in everything they need “. These issues can be aids to get around in a wheelchair, elevator, ramps… “The SAED makes reports and steps so that the impediments are less and less,” she pointed out.
Carrasco announced that the next course will resume training so that teachers and students know basic notions about disability and promote greater inclusion of people with disabilities on campus, courses that were suspended by covid.
“To advance in inclusion it is necessary to do it with training, also for the teacher, who often does not know how to act in the face of disability. For this reason, it is important that these courses reach as many people as possible, to be more aware”, explained the Vice Chancellor
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