Muncie, Ind.—
Ball State University is known for going to great lengths to accommodate students with disabilities. One of the 600 on campus this year will leave a lasting legacy when he graduates. R.J. Crace is blind and severely hearing impaired.
"I have prosthetic eyes. My blindness and hearing loss is a result of eye cancer I had as a child," said Crace.
What makes R.J. extra special is that he is graduating from Ball State this weekend with honors and was recently honored as being the top college debater in the country.
"He has an intensity about him but he knows how to project confidence and yet still respect his peers," said assistant debate team coach Nicole Johnson.
BSU Director of Disability Services, Larry Markle, says appropriate accommodations are made for R.J. but he has to live up to the same academic standards and expectations as all other students.
Markle remembers teaching R.J. in a presidential history class.
"Each semester I tell the students I will give extra credit to anyone who can say all of the president names and the years the president was in office. R.J. was the first student I have ever had to get that extra credit," said Markle.
R.J. will need assistance walking across the state Saturday in Muncie, but he hasn't decided who will get the honor. For now he has final exams to worry about.
"You can be a difference maker or an excuse maker and I try to make sure I fall on the side of difference maker as much as possible," said Crace.
