By Michele Steinbacher
msteinbacher@pantagraph.com

BLOOMINGTON - Kim Ringhausen remembers junior high school as a time when other children sometimes teased her about her visual disability."I grew up in a really small town and there was a lot of ignorance about it," she said.

Junior high school, in particular, was not an easy time.

The Illinois State University senior hopes visits like the one she and fellow student Jake Brownell made Friday to talk with Twin City seventh-graders can make people with disabilities more understandable to kids. They discussed topics ranging from etiquette around people to whether they hate having a visual impairment.

"I hope we can create an awareness and a tolerance that I didn't have when I was their age," she said while waiting for classes to change at Bloomington Junior High School.

Complications from a premature birth resulted in blindness to Ringhausen's right eye and diminished vision in her left. Brownell, who inherited genetic traits that make his vision very poor and deteriorate with age, said he also agreed to speak as a way to raise awareness.

"I have a sister in the seventh grade. I think this is a good time to teach kids about these things," he said. "It's right before high school, and they're old enough to understand."

The ISU students demonstrated pieces of assistive technology that aid them as students, including a Braille device for taking notes.And they showed BJHS students the etiquette of passing a person who uses an extended walking cane.

"It's like traffic. You have to stay on the right side," said Ringhausen.

Brownell recounted how in campus classroom hallways, he often faces an obstacle course of students sitting with legs outstretched.

BJHS student Olivia Keeran wondered how Brownell and Ringhausen choose items in a grocery store. And Keeran's classmate Erik Krautwurst stood at the front of class, eyes closed, during a demonstration of how the visually impaired identify different types of money."It's a nickel. The edge is smooth. It's rough on the edge of a dime or a quarter. But a penny's smooth, too," said Brownell.

Ringhausen is studying to be a special-education teacher; Brownell's focus is computer science and mathematics.

Teacher Jamie Wolfe invited the ISU students to address her classes, who are learning about disabilities as part of a month-long curriculum section.

"It's really one of their favorite sections all year," said Wolfe.The lesson gives students an opportunity to ask candid questions of the speakers, something the adolescents might feel is inappropriate to direct at a stranger in another setting, said Wolfe.

Ringhausen and Brownell answered questions on everything from how blind people choose matching clothes to whether they dream visually.

BJHS student Timmy Manns asked if Ringhausen saw blackness out of her blind eye. She directed the class members to put their hands behind their head. "You sense it's there, but you don't see anything. It's like that."

Answering junior high student Jamie Moses' question on whether they hate being blind, the students pondered the idea."Well, sometimes 'yes.' But on a daily basis, 'no,'" said Brownell.

"You can't choose the race you are - or whether you're (born) a boy or girl. It's the same thing. It's all you know," added Ringhausen.