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From Lab Rat to Lab Partner: Rethinking Alzheimer’s Research
It is possible to live well after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Why researchers need to partner with people instead of treating them like laboratory specimins.
At first glance, you may think that the tall, lanky man with white hair sauntering across campus is there to teach a class or go to a faculty meeting. But when he walks into the classroom, he takes his seat in the front of the class facing the professor. In more ways than one, he’s no ordinary student.
Ron needs to do some things differently than his classmates in order to be successful. At 81 years old, he has macular degeneration. Canada recognizes this condition as a visual disability and so the Accessibility Department at Kings College has helped Ron access some tools as a special-needs student.
For example, he gets an extra half-hour on exams. His materials are printed in a much larger font so that he can read them more easily. And the school provided him with voice-to-text software so he can more easily type papers.
When he first went back to university, administration there tried to convince Ron to audit the classes rather than enroll as a student. If he audited the classes, Ron would be…
