Graduating Senior Angela Winfield Challenges Views of Disability
 New York, N.Y. -- Angela Winfield arrived on the campus of Barnard College in New York City four years ago with an acute vision impairment. By her sophomore year, she was completely blind. Nevertheless, despite her disability and the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, she went ahead with plans to study abroad in England during her junior year, an experience she says gave her the confidence and tenacity to respond to her disability. As she graduates this May 17, she looks forward to attending Cornell Law School next fall and ultimately, a career in intellectual property law. "I like making people think, to reconsider and reevaluate their initial presupposition of who a person with a disability is," says Winfield, 21.
Though she does not consider herself an activist, she has made a point of challenging people's views of her disability. An African-American student and the daughter of retired public school teachers, she grew up north of New York City in Newburgh, N.Y.
Winfield arrived at Barnard in the fall of 2001 with her vision already acutely impaired. She was able to get along with accommodations such as larger-type course materials and this fiercely independent young woman says that many of her fellow students weren't even aware of her disability. Toward the end of the first semester of her sophomore year, her vision deteriorated due to complications from uveitis, glaucoma, and cataracts, leaving her completely blind.
"Many students would have just taken a medical leave of absence," says Susan Quinby, director of disability services at Barnard. "To lose your vision at any age is extremely difficult, but as a sophomore in college, it's a rough time emotionally. But Angela persevered."
Quinby underscores the importance of September 11 in the college lives of the graduating Class of 2005. "Remember, their college careers began with Sept. 11. This was by no means the usual first year on campus."
But for Winfield, in her sophomore year, with her vision lost, Winfield started using a cane and says it was at that point that "people needed to know because I needed more people's help." For her classes, she met with her teachers to obtain course materials early so they could be found in other formats or scanned and spoken back to her using a computer software called JAWS, which she set to read to her using a British accent. Today, she uses a guide dog.
For Winfield, the attack on the World Trade Center gave her pause-- but then fueled her determination--to study in London.
"I couldn't get out of the city and my parents couldn't get in," she says of 9/11. "My disability played into the fear somewhat, but it was more of a shock. And it made me have second thoughts about things when I went to England. But distance doesn't matter: I knew that things like this could happen—whether 50 miles away or across the Atlantic. I couldn't let that stop me. That I couldn't see--I didn't let that stop me."
Winfield enrolled in a program at Queen Mary College in London's East End with her brother accompanying her for the first three days to help her get settled. She credits her time in London for giving her the confidence to better deal with her disability. (She joined about 35 percent of Barnard students who study abroad during their college years -- slightly above the national average.)
"I loved England," she says. "They are a little more forward thinking. They didn't really care about the disability. The attitude is just, we're going to make it happen." She adds, "I'm still soft spoken and introverted, but I'm not as shy about asking for help. Before I would never do that. And the trip helped to bring it out."
Because U.S. attitudes about disabilities are not quite as progressive as those she found in England, Winfield has been both challenged and emboldened by her experiences at Barnard. "I love my education at Barnard," she says. "It's a world class education. But my biggest shock was how the university is so liberal and knowledgeable about diversity--racial, sexual, etc, but not as much about disabilities. I was shocked when [some members of the community] didn't know how to respond to someone with a disability."
The first blind student at Barnard in a decade, she was often asked by other students, for example, if she was in a special program. And she recalls how surprised some were to hear that she was enrolled in the same program as everyone else.
Quinby said Winfield has helped give fellow students new perspectives on people with visual impairments.
Although Winfield doesn't consider herself an activist in any way, she has helped educate the community about disability. "Education through example is the best method," she says. "And I do not mind letting my life be an example of what a person with a disability can be and achieve."
For example, when "Beyond the Box," an annual student-led diversity conference among selective colleges from throughout the Northeast, came to Barnard in November of 2003, Winfield saw that there was no session on disability. So she organized one, the first in the history of the now eight-year-old conference.
Winfield is planning a career in intellectual property law after she completes law school. She has a limitless view of what she can accomplish in life through determination.
As for holding herself back, Winfield laughs. "I let [losing my vision] stop me from doing practical things like driving. Even though I almost tried to drive in England." Winfield explains that a program in England allows blind drivers to operate specially-outfitted dual-hand control cars in open fields when accompanied by a sighted companion.
"I'm still going to do that at some point in my life," she says. "And I'm sure there are plenty of open fields in America."
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