"I Am Coping..."
Deaf College Student Faces Blindness

Last fall, Paul Conant, a new student at Gallaudet University, sent out a message over campus e-mail.

"I have just found out I have Usher Syndrome," his message read. Usher Syndrome is a genetic condition that causes babies to be born deaf and become blind.

"I am having problems adjusting," continued Paul's message. "Would anyone out there have some more information?"

Paul expected "five maybe six" answers to his email.

He got 80.

"I wish there were a cure."

Everyone tried to be helpful.

"I got tips, advice, and prayers," Paul said.

With so many deaf people on campus, Paul suspected that other students might have Usher Syndrome, too. Still he was surprised when someone told him 40 people had it.

"There's no cure," he said. "I wish there were a cure."

Paul is hard of hearing. He went to high school at the Illinois School for the Deaf, where he managed the volleyball team, starred in the school play, and won the Central States Schools for the Deaf coveted cheerleading award.

He also began noticing problems with his eyes.

"When I was younger, I could run at night," he said. "I could play football."

"In high school, I was afraid to run at night-and I couldn't even see the football."

He had his eyes tested. During the test, Paul pushed a button when he saw lights that flashed around him. He didn't see many of them.

"I flunked the test," he remembered.

"You have Usher Syndrome?"

When his friends waved to get his attention, Paul would not look up.

"You have Usher Syndrome?" his friends would ask.

He always denied it.

"I just have blind spots," he told them.

When he graduated from ISD, he went to nearby Northern Illinois University (NIU). He joined the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC). The training went well until the ROTC cadets drilled at night. Paul could see nothing-not even the people right in front of him. He couldn't march in line. Instead he wandered around the field.

Another ROTC cadet marched up beside him and guided him back to the line.

"What's your name?" asked Paul, who wanted to thank him.

"Shhhh," said the cadet.

The next night the same thing happened. Again Paul asked the name of the cadet that came to his side. Again he was met with the response: "Shhhh."

"I think it was a different person each time," he said, "but I never knew who it was."

The ROTC officers were impressed with Paul whether or not he could march at night. At the end of the year, he earned the "Sons of the Veterans of the Civil War ROTC Award."

"Not Losing Sleep"

At NIU, Paul longed for more contact with deaf people. "I felt I was missing something," he said. He transferred to Gallaudet last fall.

At Gallaudet, the questions about his eyes continued. Finally Paul found himself looking for information on Usher Syndrome on the Internet.

"Only about one out of 2,000 or 3,000 babies has it," he said. "It is very rare."

He seems to have been one of those babies.

"I have every condition of a person with Usher's," he said.

Like every person with Usher Syndrome, Paul cannot predict the future of his vision. A few people with Usher Syndrome do not lose their eyesight completely, and Paul may be one of the lucky ones.

"I think about it all the time," he said. "But I am not ready to worry about a cane. I don't lose sleep at night over it."

Instead he enjoys his biology courses, plans for a career as either a FBI agent or an actor, and practices for a role in the Gallaudet play. His smile is bright and without sadness.

"I am coping," he said.