A Place for Austin Stutterers

Behnaz Abolmaali noticed in the first grade that she spoke differently than other children. However, as she grew up it became progressively difficult for her to express herself, and resources were nonexistent in Austin to help treat her speech. Abolmaali had a stutter.

“I knew I needed to use the experience of stuttering, I mean it was too powerful,” Abolmaali said. Abolmaali attends UT to study speech pathology, after graduating in 2008 with a degree in English.

Before Abolmaali came to UT she had years of speech therapy by therapists who were not trained in stuttering. Therapy that she received focused on fluency shaping and left out in Abolmaali’s opinion the most important part of speech therapy, emotions. “Speaking is a very emotional activity and you need to focus on the life impact and negative views that people who stutter face,” Abolmaali said.

At the age of seventeen she attended an intensive stuttering program at the University of Utah which is where she first met others who stuttered. The program dealt with the fear and shame that commonly follows people who stutter. The participants made phone calls to people, and went up to strangers and talked about their stuttering. “I came to realize that I stutter, it is ok, this is a challenge that I can work,” Abolmaali said.

Abolmaali worked for the Daily Texan for 6 semesters, tapping into her writing skills, and gaining courage to make “cold calls” when interviewing people.
Since returning to UT to start her undergraduate work in speech pathology, Abolmaali founded and is the current president of the Austin chapter of the National Stuttering Association.

The Austin chapter had an open house November 8 where the public and speech pathology students were invited to hear a panel of six people who stutter share stories about living with a stutter.

Hayden Lambert, 19, is a member of the Austin chapter and attended the open house. “I like feeling like you have a place to go where people know what you are going through,” Lambert said. Lambert also said that most people have fairly positive reactions to his stutter “at least to my face.”

During this event panel members shared stories of receiving speech therapy as children, and the realities of the harsh world people who stutter can face. “It is like someone had covered your mouth and you weren’t able to speak anymore after that. I am thinking about every word I am saying a hundred times over and it takes every part of me to get a sentence out,” said Rosanel Morales, a member of the panel.

“At the National Stuttering Association meeting it is not a place for them to be taught, it is a place for them to share,” said Dr. Courtney Byrd, a speech pathologist and UT professor.

Although Dr. Byrd is not a person who stutters, she is an active member of the Austin chapter. In 2006, Dr. Byrd opened the Austin Center for Stuttering Intervention and Research where she conducts research on patients to find the causes of stuttering, and in return the center provides free services for children and adults who stutter.

“We know the stutterer knows exactly what they want to stay,” Byrd said. Although many people think that when people stutter they do not know what they want to say, Dr. Byrd’s research shows the opposite.

According to Byrd, ideas such as a parent can cause a child to stutter or telling a child to slow down when they are talking fast are misconceptions that can be harmful to children who stutter. Dr. Byrd suggests for parents to slow down their speech and the child will follow at the same pace. “It allows more time for linguistic planning and less pressure on motor execution,” Byrd said.

Byrd explains that the reason people stutter is that there is a mismatch in the “individual speech sounds segments that compromise the words they say and also the amount of time it takes to say them.” She also notes that while children may be able to become fully fluent the reality for adults who stutter is that they will never be fully fluent.

“The goal is to have struggle free speech, which is not always stutter free speech,” said Byrd. Adults are different from children because therapy focuses on learning to accept their stutter and leave feeling empowered that they can feel at ease when talking.

Geoff Coalson, a doctoral student in speech pathology, has a stutter and was one of the panel members at the Austin chapter of the National Speech Association meeting. Coalson believes that therapy for adults should be more about acceptance and acknowledging that a stutter does not have to hold a person back.

“There has been so many times when people who stutter sit in the back of the class and have not said anything ever. Now we don’t have to do that, we can speak up,” said Coalson.

Electronic health information unavailable for rural Texans

Tamela Griffin from the Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services and Dr. Ron Luke from the Health and Human Services Council watch as members of the committee discuss electronic data transfer in rural communities.






Texas hospitals and doctors’ offices may be switching the way they handle patients’ information because of a new grant program that encourages electronic transferring.

The Medicaid Health Information Exchange Advisory Committee met Oct. 20 to discuss the implementation of the grant program and concerns with the limitations it places on rural Texans.

Executive Director of the Texas Health Services Authority, Tony Gilman, reported to the committee about the progress of Texas Health Information Exchange (HIE) programs. An HIE is a way that healthcare information can be exchanged electronically across organizations in order to provide safer and more efficient care.

According to Gilman, two HIE’s have already submitted business and operational plans. Integrated Care Collaboration, which covers Central Texas, and Healthcare Access San Antonio are on an accelerated plan and are already fully operational.

Six HIE providers were selected to represent rural areas. “I think these organizations will offer a lot of choice to our providers in our white space counties,” Gilman said. These options would offer low-cost and secure basic services. Only one of the providers, Sandlot, would offer the more advanced features available in urban areas.

"The boots on the ground are really supported by these six organizations,” Gilman said. According to Gilman, the committee will be revealing a soft communications-plan to help inform citizens on their options of HIE's, although the responsibility lies with the six organizations to market themselves.

Dr. Joe Schneider, the committee chair, raised concerns about rural HIE’s only providing basic services rather than advanced capabilities. “The patients think that they are going to be able to go to an ER and have their data there. The answer is it depends on what the doctor and hospital have chosen as to whether that will be true or not,” Schneider said.

He was also critical of basic services. “The purpose of government is to set a floor, and we are setting out floor of health information exchange at a level that is being described as sort of electronically doing what we already do today,” Schneider said.

Schneider called for more advanced HIE features to be available for rural Texans. "What if we set our floor higher and say to be a qualified health-information exchange in the state of Texas you have to not only be direct, but you have to provide more classic exchange if the patient were to be in need of it," Schneider said.

Ann Kitchen, a member of the committee, said that the market would have to drive demands and you could not dictate to doctors the type of services they choose to use. “It is going to have to be a situation where a patient says, ‘I am not going to this doctor because they are in the dark ages basically and they have not taken advantage in sharing information in a way that I prefer’," Kitchen said.

Disinterest in these services is one reason that some may not be available in all rural areas. “The reason we have supported this strategy is because what we have seen is in some areas the interest, the technical and the financial capacities to support an HIE is not there," Gilman said.

Joe Schneider believes that the government has pushed doctors and hospitals towards basic services. “We have driven the doctors and hospital towards that sort of service,” Schneider said. “Our standards should be higher than that.”

The next meeting for the committee will be on Jan. 12 when most HIEs will be fully operational and offering basic services to most Texans.

UT Orientation Changes Alcohol Safety Program

This summer marked the first time that several programs during freshmen orientation at UT were not mandatory for students. One program in particular, “Life as we know it: Longhorn Edition,” taught freshmen about campus safety, sexual assault and alcohol safety.

When new student Cori Baker attended freshmen orientation, her and her friends were picked up by fraternity members in cars and driven to a party in West Campus instead of attending the nightly programs that focused on safety.

Baker said that she felt safe going to the party because she was with a large group of her friends. “You cannot go to a party and expect strangers to take care of you,” Baker said. She also noted that many other students at the parties were inexperienced with alcohol. “They had surpassed their limit. They were stumbling and sloppy and just all over the place.”

According to UTPD’s Campus Watch reports, there were six reported alcohol related incidents directly connected to students at freshman orientation in 2011, as opposed to only two in 2010. Of these six incidents, four of them occurred on the same night as, “Life as we know it: Longhorn Edition.”

Cristi Biggs, Assistant Dean of Students who has been with the program for 15 years, said the decision for the programs to no longer be mandatory was made because of parental complaints about the programs being too late at night.

Biggs believes that the biggest obstacle they faced this summer was the attendance at the programs. According to Biggs, the best attendance for 2011 was around 500 students, while it was around 900 students in 2010. One measure to increase attendance was an Ipad raffle for students who attended all programs that orientation offered.

“We didn’t know what to expect because we had never been faced with this challenge. This may actually be a good thing because students have to take more responsibility for themselves now that they are not forced to attend the programs,” Biggs said.

Officer Darrell Halstead of UTPD believes that the biggest challenge facing this freshmen class is that they do not know what to expect when transitioning to college.

“You come in with expectations of college. Those expectations are based upon what, ‘Animal House’ and other types of movies that are directed to the college lifestyle? You are coming in with a false impression,” Halstead said. “When my son gets ready to go to college, life is totally different than what I was living in the dorms.”

Halstead believe that the university is doing a better job at helping students transition to college by inviting students to visit campus from high school. “What I would like to see is the police department more exposed to these students that are coming to visit so their parents have an opportunity to ask questions,” Halstead said.

UTPD Officer Layne Smith says that new students may be “too trusting” and “a little naïve.” “They have never experienced being away from home and they get caught up in the alcohol scene. If a friend gets too drunk or very intoxicated they don’t know what to do in that aspect,” said Smith. “It is a huge learning curve for them when they come in.”

This learning curve may be even more extreme now that programs during orientation covering alcohol safety are not mandatory for first year students. According to the 2010 and 2011 UTPD Clery Reports for June through September there were significantly more Public Intoxication charges in 2011. For September 2011 the number is more than double September 2010.

Kian Gass, 18, a freshman RTF major, attended one of the last orientation sessions and “Life as we know it: Longhorn Edition.” Gass was present in the lobby of Jester East dormitory when he experienced first-hand the effects of underage drinking. “The ambulance had to come because some girl was passed out right outside Jester and was wasted and all that,” Gass said.

Several UTPD Campus Watch reports speak of freshmen during orientation being charged with Consumption of Alcohol by a Minor and Public Intoxication.

Although the change from mandatory programming to optional programming was accredited to how late the programs were at night, students still seem to be staying up to consume alcohol instead of attending programs that teach about the dangers of that very same practice.

Longhorn Libertarians criticize government 'orgy'

Graduate Student Daniel Krawisz talks about government involvement in private corporations at the first meeting of Longhorn Libertarians.

Photo Credit: Cody Permenter

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“It’s all a big orgy up there,” is how engineering graduate student Daniel Krawisz described the U.S. government Sept. 6 at Garrison Hall during the first Longhorn Libertarians meeting of the year.

Several student speakers commanded the front of a small classroom, focusing on matters within the political and social views of the Libertarian Party, the largest third-party political organization in the United States.

According to the National Libertarian Party website, the founding principles of Libertarianism include opposing physical force against others, opposing all attempts by government to limit freedom of speech, and opposing government interference with private property. Other stances include a strong support of a free-market economy, a repeal of the personal-income tax, and the privatization of most public services.

20-year-old history and government major Jose Nino was first to begin the meeting with an overview of influential Libertarian figures and the student Libertarian movement. Nino credited Lao Tzu, an ancient Chinese philosopher, as being one of the first to express Libertarian ideals. “He believed that government should be limited to the smallest possible inaction.”

Ron Paul, a current presidential candidate who switched from the Libertarian Party to the Republican Party before his 2008 presidential campaign, is also very influential in the Libertarian movement, according to Nino. Paul has energized the youth by advocating for auditing the Federal Reserve, bringing the troops home, and a free-market economy.

The two main youth organizations for young Libertarians are Students for Liberty and Young Americans for Liberty. According to Nino, Students for Liberty is focused on maintaining liberty on campus while Young Americans for Liberty is an activist group that is directly involved in getting Libertarians elected to public office. “Despite some of their differences in terms of strategy they are both interconnected,” Nino said. “Our generation is basically writing the next chapter in the Libertarian movement.”

Daniel Krawisz, 29, continued the meeting by explaining another tenant of the Libertarian movement- a free market economy. Krawisz criticized the U.S. government for getting involved with private companies, and forcing them to become de-facto governmental agencies. “Any company that is totally regulated by government or its only customer is the government should be seen as just another government department.”

Krawisz used the example of private military company XE Services, formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide, who’s only customer is the U.S. government. “Eventually we will reach a point of total socialism where all businesses are basically government departments that are being strictly controlled by regulations,” Krawisz said.
Students are drawn to Libertarianism for many different reasons. 20-year-old journalism major Molly Reynolds joined Longhorn Libertarians because she “didn’t like Republicans or Democrats.”

“Being Libertarian appealed to me because it believes in being socially liberal and fiscally conservative,” said Reynolds. Reynolds joined the group her freshmen year after seeing current members tabling on the West Mall. She is currently one of the only female members of the group. “I can tell the guys aren’t used to seeing a lot of girls around.” One of the jokes she hears often is, “If you want to meet a guy, then go to a Libertarian meeting because there are no girls!”

Reynolds says that although she is one of the only female members of the group, she has seen much more interest in women this year. “Everyone loves Ron Paul, so the girls are coming to that.”

Last year Longhorn Libertarians held an anti-war rally on Guadalupe Street, and hosted the Central Texas Freedom Forum for students. The anti-war rally received positive responses from Austinites. “It was pretty fun. We got a lot of honks and people waving peace signs, “said Reynolds.

The group plans to host another anti-war rally this fall with students from Texas State and UTSA. Reynolds thinks that non-Libertarians just don’t understand what the group stands for. “They think we hate people and hate children, but we just don’t want the government to deal with them.”

Sexuality resource centers under scrutiny

The student government at Texas A&M University narrowly passed a resolution on April 20 supporting a controversial bill that would mandate state funded colleges with centers devoted to “alternative” sexualities to provide equal funding for “traditional family values” centers.

The student government bill, in support of the House Bill authored by Republican Rep. Wayne Christian, was passed by a vote of 22-21 after A&M Speaker of the House Hilary Albrecht broke a tie. Rep. Christian was contacted and declined to comment.

“This bill is being perceived as a legislative way to propose an institutionalized homophobia,” said Lowell Kane, program coordinator of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center at Texas A&M.

“This vote is saying that the official stance is 50,000 Aggies agree with this even though half voted against this bill,” said Kane. “Quite honestly I have no idea what ‘traditional family values’ even means.” Kane cites that many gay publications feature same-sex couples striving for the right to marry, and by doing this they are striving for traditional family values.

The house bill would require equal funding for a “traditional family values” center if the “alternative” sexualities center received state funding. The GLBT Resource Center at Texas A&M currently receives some state funding along with the use of student service fees and an endowment. It is not quite certain how this bill would affect Texas A&M, said Kane. “This bill is comparing apples with oranges. Being GLBT is about an identity, this new center is about values.”

The University of Texas at Austin Student Government has not taken a stance on this issue, according to Student Government President Natalie Butler. “Personally I am opposed to the bill; in a time when we're dealing with budget cuts and reductions to core parts of the University, I don't think this is a responsible use of our resources,” said Butler.

The UT Gender and Sexuality Center opened on Jan. 28, 2005 to “build communities, offer resources and strive to promote a greater responsiveness to the needs of women and GLBTQ people,” according to the GSC website. The ‘Q’ in GLBTQ means “queer” or “questioning.”

“The main thing we provide is a safe space,” said GSC Education Coordinator Shane Whalley. “We have the education program with workshops on issues of gender and sexuality, and Peers for Pride, which is a program where students perform monologues to open conversation about GLBTQ issues.” Whalley also stated that the GSC has a library of GLBTQ literature for students to utilize as well as walk-in advising.

News of the controversial bill at first did not worry the GSC because all of the funding it receives is from student fees instead of state money, unlike A&M who receives state funds. “There wasn’t much fear about the bill affecting us, but when we learned about what happened at A&M we thought maybe we ought to be a little more aware,” said Whalley. “I think when Rep. Christian first put the bill in he wasn’t aware of the way we were funded. It’s good for us that he didn’t do his homework.”

Whalley argues that the GSC equally supports family values by supporting loving relationships, people having kids and the right to marriage, although this is certainly not what the supporters of the house bill have in mind when they think of “traditional family values.”

21-year-old UT student Spencer Manka also has a different definition of what it means to express traditional family values. “How many people were raised in a single family home? That’s not traditional. How many people grew up in a home with grandparents? That’s not traditional,” said Manka. “I want people to know that you can’t teach homosexuality.”

Back at A&M there has been some recent news regarding the future of the student government’s vote. According to an article in the Texas A&M student newspaper, The Battalion, on April 26 Student Body President Jacob Robinson vetoed the bill in support of Rep. Christian’s call for traditional family values centers.

According to Ryan Davenport, 20, newly elected A&M Student Government Vice President, the student assembly will vote on whether or not to override Robinson’s veto. Davenport, who serves in the outgoing administration as an education senator, said, “Personally I am going to abstain from voting on whether or not to veto this bill. I do not want my decision to have a negative effect on the next administration. There are legitimate cases on both sides of the argument, and some will be upset either way.”

It is still uncertain how this issue will affect Texas A&M and The University of Texas at Austin’s GLBTQ community. However, this may affect the raking of “GLBT friendliness” that the Campus Climate Index ranks each college based on a scale of one being the worst, to five being the best. Currently, A&M has a ranking of three, and UT a ranking of four. A&M also ranks consistently in the top 20 least GLBTQ friendly schools in the nation, according to the Princeton Review.

“Rankings of GLBT friendliness matter to prospective students and employees when they choose whether or not to come to a university,” said Lowell Kane. “I just hope that this bill does not push away even more GLBT students.”

Life after an explosion

Frank Roberts is a man who wears many hats.

Any day of the week you may see him traveling to the countryside to collect and inspect rocks to feed his passion for geology. He could be listening to rock- and- roll legends in Studio 6A of the Austin City Limits television show as a broadcast engineer. He could even be making use of his pyrotechnic license and creating explosives for war reenactments.

Roberts never thought any of these things that he holds dear to him could be threatened until his passion for explosives nearly cost him his life.

Roberts was working in his basement on Nov.3 for a World War II reenactment that was to take place the following week for a Veteran’s Day celebration. “I was boiling alcohol to purify the chemicals that go into the fuses for the explosives. A small quantity broke from a beaker and caught fire on the stove. I tried to use my hands to push the pot off of the stove and that is when it exploded,” said Frank.
The explosion cost Roberts his left arm.

Still consciousness and aware of the damage done to his arms that looked to Roberts like “hamburger meat” he rushed up the stairs and locked himself in his bathroom so his wife Shirley would not see how badly hurt he was.

“I made sure my wife didn’t see me like that. I locked myself in the bathroom and told her to call 911. I also told her my blood type was A positive in case I needed blood…and I did.”

Roberts was rushed to the hospital where we woke up a few days later. The blast of the impact was so intense that he lost from his left mid-arm down, and much of his right thumb. Other injuries included two missing finger tips on his right hand and a chipped tooth.

“I was really lucky that the blast didn’t do more damage. Before I was trying to push the chemicals off of the stove I tried to blow them out. If the explosion had happened then I would have lost my head,” said Roberts.

The doctors were hopeful however that they could save his right hand through saving the thumb. “The doctors made a point of trying to save this hand because being without both hands I would become pretty useless,” said Roberts.

Roberts had his damaged left right thumb implanted into his torso for two months to regrow the tissue that was stripped away during the explosion. The procedure was successful and Frank now has use of his right hand due to the “re-grown” thumb taken from inside of his stomach.

Roberts is a broadcast engineer at KLRU-TV, the Austin Public Broadcasting Station that produces the popular music series Austin City Limits. “Any electronic equipment in the station has to be maintained and installed, there has to be someone at the station to keep it in tip-top shape. My specialty is the transmitter. I make sure that it keeps running.”

General Manager of KLRU Bill Stotesbery was worried for Roberts’s safety when he first found out about the explosion. “I just felt desperately sad and worried about Frank. It was not clear at the beginning how badly hurt he was.”

During his recovery the staff of KLRU made several trips to the hospital to visit Roberts, and help ease him through the recovery process. According to Stotesberry, Roberts was even able to send emails to his co-workers using a drink cozy slipped over his arm “nub” with a stylus attached to the end of it.

Roberts even made a surprise appearance at the annual KLRU Holiday party where he received a warm welcome. “I heard all of this cheering and I thought someone must have bowled a 300 game or something then I looked up and saw all of these people staring at me,” said Roberts, “That’s probably more than anything what got me through all of this. It was my friends that got me through this.”

Roberts is back at work and continues to be a part of KLRU and Austin City Limits during a time of immense changes not only for himself, but the station as well. Austin City Limits has left its home on UT campus and has moved downtown to the Moody Theatre. “Studio 6A was old and funky; this place is new and sterile, said Roberts, “It’s a great place to listen to music and the set looks great, but something is different.”

Along with a new space for Austin City Limits, he has a new arm. Roberts received a myroelectric prosthesis that is controlled by censors picking up on electrical impulses from his nerves. “I just have to think of moving and I move,” said Roberts.

A new studio and arm are not the only surprises that Roberts has received after the explosion nearly cost him his life. He received a gift that he thought he would never see again. “One of the firemen who responded to the accident called me back after I returned home from the hospital to return my wedding ring,” said Roberts, “He found it embedded in the ceiling.”

Disney college program comes to UT

A little bit of magic ascended on the UT campus when Disney came to recruit for its Disney College Program.

Nearly 100 student met recruiters and former Disney College Program graduates Tuesday to discuss a paid internship at one of the company’s two theme parks: Walt Disney World and Disneyland.

“One of the reasons that we come to Austin is because of the great talent thriving at the university. The students are talented and goal oriented,” said Erica Nowak, a recruiter for Disney. The Disney College Program is unusual in that Disney travels from eight to ten major cities in search of college student to fill their parks positions, according to Nowak.

The program allows students to take college classes online, at a university nearby, or at Disney University, which offers college classes for credit through the Disney program. Along with these classes, interns will work anywhere from 35 to 40 hours a week at their internship at one of the parks.

The internships that could include positions in: lifeguarding, custodial, food and beverage, merchandise, attractions, costuming, and hospitality. There are also a few entertainment internships that students must audition for.

Doug Baker, 21, a Disney rep who attended the program in 2008, interned in transportation and drove the monorail, a train system that runs around Walt Disney World. “The greatest part about my experience was getting to meet people and keeping up with them. I would see over 100,000 people a day,” said Baker.

The internships are starting level positions, but Disney provides many opportunities to move up in the company. Erica Nowak started at Disney as an attractions host, and now travels the country recruiting for Disney. Many other success stories were shown in video clips, where interns started off at low paying jobs and end up in upper-level management positions.

The perks for being an intern in the Disney College Program are not bad. Students participating in the Disney College Program get free admission to the parks, discounts on merchandise, and sneak peeks of new attractions coming to Disney. The housing options for interns include fully furnished apartments, utilities included in rent, and free transportation, according to Erica Nowak.

“This college program really helped me come out of my shell, and the internship opportunity opened doors I never knew existed,” said Baker.

If you would like to learn more about the Disney College Program you can visit their website at disneycollegeprogram.com. The application is open now for next fall and spring semester.