Volume XIll,
Number 2
Jan. 30, 1991

Leena

CAPILANO COLLEGE'S INTERNAL NEWSLETTER

Celebrating 20 Years 1968 - 1988

Student Captures German Prize
and Good Will Around Campus

Linda Browne is attending Capilano College for the second
time in 15 years. The first time, she studied Spanish. This time,
she is studying German. Linda, 35, also speaks some French and
Japanese. But the language most helpful to Linda is one that
takes no words. It is the language of understanding, the language
that comes without talking when a student or faculty member
sees that she has a disability and automatically helps her make
her way around the campus. It is the language of a smile.

Linda uses that language when she holds Kanaurs
Kulturfiihrer in Farbe, a travel book awarded to her by the
German Consulate for being the outstanding student of German
at the College last year. She also smiles when she talks about
how far Cap has come in 15 years toward understanding the
needs of people with disabilities.

“There’s a better awareness today,” she says. “People will
ask if they can help me, instead of my having to ask them ‘Can
you open the door?’There’s more open communication.’

Diagnosed at age 16 as having muscular dystrophy, Linda
cannot walk and has impaired use of her hands. Nevertheless,
she has pursued her studies with a vigor well beyond that of
most able-bodied people. She credits her instructors, Beatrice
Stadler, Barbara Hankin and Renate Freiberg, for much of her
success. ARC special needs advisor Paul Jones has also been a
big help, she says.

The help Linda needs extends beyond ordinary instruction.

For example, when she got a new electric wheel chair, she
suddenly had trouble writing. Jones and Maintenance solved the
problem by putting blocks under her work table to accommodate
the lower position of her chair.

She also needs help maneuvering her wheelchair around the
campus, but she says students are so eager to assist her that
problems are rare.

Linda, herself, has done a lot to help physically challenged
people. She is on the board of Pacific Transit, which runs the
Handydart system. She does volunteer work at Shaughnessy
Hospital and is on Pacific Transit’s service advisory committee.
She was chosen to ride in the Vancouver Sea Festival, the PNE
and the B.C. Transit parades. At the PNE Parade, she was one of

Linda Browne relaxes in the Student Lounge with the book Kanaurs
Kulturftihrer in Farbe, which she won from the German Consulate.

the first people to ride the wheelchair accessible bus.

This “A” student of German gives Capilano College an “A”
for accessibility. “Ausgezeichnet,” Linda says in German, which
means “excellent.”

The College is planning a Disabled Students Awareness Day
for sometime this year. The Informer will run more stories about
some of Cap’s physically challenged students and will fill you in
on plans for the awareness day as they firm up.

gS CAPILANO COLLEGE