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Many of the letters I have received from readers of the TjG are from paraplegics, quadriplegics and respos who want to go on with college education. This article is intended to pass on a few suggestions that will help you plan more wisely.

FIRST, be assured that if you really mean to work hard at it, do some initial research, letter writing, and personal investigation of your own, and if you have a good enough high school scholarship record to make you eligible for college entrance, you have numerous examples of "pioneer quads and respos" who have made good records in college in the face of their physical handicaps and many obstacles. Read the back issues of the TjG, particularly the Spring-Summer issue of 1962 and the Education Section of the previous issue of Spring 1965.If you are not willing or able to meet these preliminary requirements, you'd better not try to go to a college campus, since research, writing, the inquiring mind and evidence of previous scholarship are requirements of making a success of higher education anywhere and for any student. This does not mean that you can't continue your education in profitable and interesting home-study not aimed at college credit. There are numerous ways of doing this. Later I will write a little article about them, but let's stay with the campus-bound student here.

SECOND, IF YOU WANT A SCHOLARSHIP FOR TUITION, board and room, and other aspects of scholarship grants, you will have to compete for them as any other student has to do. Consult your local high school Principal and/or your State Department of Education about types of scholarships and student aids for which you might compete. Handicapped students should never assume that their handicap is necessarily a factor in scholarship competition.

THIRD, STUDY THE FACILITIES AND SERVICES of colleges and universities that are designed to help the handicapped student in carrying on his studies. The best help available to you to make this study is a monograph entitled Higher Education and Handicapped Students, edited by William V. Tucker, and available from TjG. This lists by states all the higher education institutions in the USA that appear in the College Blue Book and have more than 1000 students and which responded to the questionnaire. It lists for each one, according to its own report at the time of the study, the following: housing ramps, classroom ramps, library ramps, beveled curbs, reserved parking areas, modified toilet facilities, special counselors, vocational rehabilitation service visits, adaptive physical education, and numbers of wheelchair and blind students. After reading this monograph, select two or three that seem to meet your needs and write to "The Registrar for a catalogue and ask to whom you should write regarding the institution's program and facilities for handicapped students. Then write to the latter for any detail not covered in the monograph described above.

FOURTH, many of you will be able to get along fairly well by yourself. Others will need to make careful investigation of the possibilities of student-attendant services. My best advice is that if this is an important factor, do everything you can to get the arrangements made definitely before you go to the campus. Few colleges make special dormitory or housing arrangements for the handicapped. Few of them arrange to employ students as attendants. Even if you have the money to employ a Student assistant, you may find that some institutions have trouble in recruiting the kind of person you need. When you write to the institution about this be sure to be specific about the exact duties you expect from the assistant, the amount of time and times of the day you need the assistance and any other information that would be useful in recruitment. Some of the institutions or possible attendants may be worried about their responsibility to you, legally, and suggest that you sign a waiver. Be very reluctant to sign a waiver; or, at least, consult a friendly lawyer in your community before doing so. Some have advised that you should not absolve a person from negligence, and, as long as a person exercises reasonable care, that is all that is asked of him and he cannot be held liable for anything that happens while he is exercising reasonable care. After all, this is generally the requirement that employees or assistants you have in your own home are charged with.

IF YOU NEED FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FOP ATTENDANTS, inquire from the institution with which you are planning to study whether it is operating under the College-Work-Study Program of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 and whether your needs for student assistance could be financed, or partially financed, within the limitations of this program. Also write your own State Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, in your State Capitol, and ask them whether you can secure financial assistance for student assistance. Both of these agencies have limitations, but you may be able to come within them. You also might try your local Service Clubs, such as Rotary, Lions, Kiwanis, Altrusia, etc. Very often, if they understand the situation, they will get back of an occasional need of this kind.