Aggie students install wind chimes to help guide blind students to class

Aggie students install wind chimes to help guide blind students to class Kevin Reece, KHOU , WFAA 1:10 PM. CST March 04, 2016

Aggie students install wind chimes to help guide blind students to class. (KHOU News)

CONNECT TWEET LINKEDIN GOOGLE+ PINTEREST COLLEGE STATION, Texas - A simple idea turned reality at Texas A&M University is making a big difference in helping guide blind students to their classes. Kaitlyn Kellermeyer was already a bit overwhelmed and anxious at the thought of trying to memorize and navigate the 5,200 acre Texas A&M campus when she arrived as a freshman.

Her anxiety unquestionably magnified when a genetic condition robbed her of her eyesight during that freshman year.But thanks to a simple idea, and the help of a few friends, she now has a bit of music to help guide her way.

She was born with a rare genetic condition called Incontinentia Pigmenti.

Early in life her eyesight began to fade. Blood vessels burst in her eyes causing her retinas to detach. She endured more than 20 surgeries in an attempt to retain what little vision she had left. She entered her freshman year blind in her left eye and with only limited vision in her right eye.

"I started noticing I was losing visual field, kind of from the bottom up at first and from the left side over,” she said. "It kind of looked like it filled up with ginger ale almost." A final surgery to try saving her sight happened during that freshman year. “And that ended up just completely blinding me. So, I’ve been that way for almost two years now. And I still have a hard time with it. Just still adjusting to not being able to see.”

This Economics major, minoring in French, has managed in the few years since by learning how the Aggie campus sounds.

“Well it’s actually helpful to me, she said of the recognizable sounds of different buildings, fountains, and traffic on campus roads.

“The way that I work with noise is that quieter noises that don’t interrupt each other are more helpful for me.”

But when she went to Guide Dogs for the Blind in Oregon to pick up her new guide dog companion Lunar, she came back with a second guiding idea.

The Oregon campus had numerous wind chimes, specifically located to help the visually impaired find their way to and from buildings on the campus.

“And I just thought it was such a cool idea, Kaitlyn said. And then getting back to campus (in College Station) I realized that this campus is huge and it’s wide open and there are people everywhere and there’s not actually a lot of sound clues within the body of the campus itself.”

“We really worked with the administration to make sure we had the best plan possible,” said fellow student Joseph Hood.

Hood and Levi McClenny, both members of student government at A&M, decided to help make Kaitlyn’s idea a reality.

Months of proposals, meetings, and petitions to the proper campus authorities, resulted in the Wind Chime System being installed at the College Station campus in December.

Ten wind chimes are in place throughout the campus, located following Kaitlyn’s suggestions.

They hang discreetly from large trees in front of places like the Academic Building and Evans Library giving Kaitlyn and other visually impaired students auditory beacons to help them find their way. "Oh my gosh they are so helpful,” she said. "It's almost like ping ponging between the sounds, in a way."  
 “When I came to A&M that was one of my biggest challenges was getting around. It took so much time and it was so frustrating personally. So the wind chimes have been awesome for that."

“I hear it and I know exactly which building that is, exactly which way I'm facing, and exactly which way I need to go. Almost every time I need them, I can hear them."

"The idea that we can create an inclusive environment at Texas A&M for students with disabilities was something that I really got excited about,” said McClenny.

"We'll get a message from Kaitlyn like ‘Hey I was lost or I didn't quite know where I was, but the chime told me where I was and I was able to use that,’” added Hood. "To have that affirmation and that confirmation that something we worked so hard on actually has made a difference is exciting.”

"If I leave campus at A&M I can point to that one thing and say it's something I did in student government that actually made a difference in people's lives,” said Hood.

A difference for Kaitlyn and several other visually impaired students at A&M. A Wind Chime System they hope to eventually make even bigger.

Hood and McClenny are trying to get Aggie Nation help to develop an endowment to maintain and expand the system.

But for now, Kaitlyn is happy that a few simple inexpensive wind chimes are helping guide her through campus, while also opening a few figurative doors.

“Opening doors to a conversation about disabilities in general about people's differences and how we can help each other in simple ways. And that's been really refreshing to me. It's been really cool,” she said.

Cool that a simple idea, and a few simple sounds, can help someone keep hearing and chasing their future.

Copyright 2016 WFAA CONNECT TWEET LINKEDIN GOOGLE+ PINTEREST