Kei Futamura’s world is a whir of color and motion. He can’t discern such details as facial features or style of dress but recognizes friends through other physical and vocal clues. Although he’s legally blind, Futamura’s combined senses are keen enough to keep him from using a cane or guide dog.

“I’m very independent,” he says, “and I’ve never seen my disability as a limitation.”

A senior social work major, Futamura believes it’s important for people with disabilities to become thriving members of their communities. That’s why he’s such a proponent of Alden Library’s Shostack Room, which provides special equipment and services to the physically challenged.

Futamura uses the room’s technology to enlarge whole pages of type onto a monitor and software that increases the size of computer type and reads aloud scanned pages of print.

“It’s made a big difference in the time I can spend at the library,” he says. “The technology allows me to do research right here.”

The equipment was purchased three years ago with funds donated by Lynn Shostack, president of Joyce International in New York City. Shostack, who is a longtime supporter of organizations that serve people with disabilities, chose to help Ohio University because she coordinated honors programming during President Emeritus Vernon Alden’s administration and considers him a mentor.

“Libraries, even more than classrooms or curb cuts, represent an asset to people with disabilities,” Shostack says. “Through access to the tremendous storehouse of information spanning every possible area of human knowledge, students with disabilities can build the skills they need to improve their lives. They can, in fact, educate themselves.”

After earning his degree, Futamura hopes to return to his native Japan to promote understanding about the disabled.

“In Japan, people can be close-minded because they have not had much experience with people with disabilities,” says Futamura, 24. “Any isolated community should be integrated into the whole community, whether they’re poor, those with different sexual orientations or people with disabilities. We should be respected.”

Melissa Rake is assistant editor of Ohio Today. Landon Nordeman is a graduate assistant in photography with Ohio University Media Services.