Actually, I am really impressed by how people with disabilities in developed countries are given so much opportunity. For example, here at USI, one can always find facilities designed especially for people with mobile disabilities, such as parking lots, restrooms, Braille on every door,… etc. It is not the same in my country, Cambodia, probably because we are still on our way to development so people with disabilities of any form are given little concern. It is the same with student who is experiencing learning disabilities. In fact, I have never met any LD students before, and probably I can’t even tell if a student has learning disability and he/she might opt not to tell me about his/her problem. Thus, I cannot imagine myself working with them. I don’t mean to discriminate, but the idea just scares me off. I understand that just as ESL writers, LDs need tutor to have an emphatic understanding for them. Writing consultant needs to understand that they need to provide specific assistant to dyslexic, spatially or visually impaired students.

I like Julie Neff’s idea in “Learning Disabilities and the Writing Center” that, to accommodate students with learning disabilities, the writing center may need to change the normal rules and policies and a different kind of training for staff is also necessary. Because every student has right to use all the services and it is also the responsibility of the center to help them succeed (248). Unfortunately, many of the tutoring techniques that we commonly use are not applicable with students with learning disabilities (244). For instance, freewriting, considered as “a way to create knowledge” by others, makes LD students even more frustrated. So tutor is suggested to take the lead in directing the conversation and jotting down what the tutee has to say. I like the accompanying scene between writing consultant and David who has learning disabilities because it gives me an idea on how to approach LD myself. But what I do not seem to understand is what type of learning disability David is having, because, from the dialogue, he sounds just normal to me. And the way tutor is using to work with him is just the type I usually does with my clients. So I don’t see the difference. Or am I taking the wrong road with other students all along?

If the writing center is to help any student, then non-traditional student is sure to be included also. They may be experiencing “a feeling of displacement” or having difficulties adapting the transition of going back to school at such age. In fact, I have a non-traditional student as a client few weeks ago. She was not “thirty-something” but “forty-something” student. I enjoyed the session with her because she was probably one of the most collaborative students I have met. We were just working on the editing stage, but there were lots of funny debates about grammar and punctuation throughout the session. She was aware all the editing and revising techniques like reading out loud, etc. She understood lots of grammar rules and usually demanded explanations when I suggested that she needed a comma or semi colon, for example. I was glad and lucky to have worked with her. After all, I was not aware of any “unique need” this non-traditional want because she was a wonderful student. Age difference did not seem to bother any of us.