By: Dr. Cheng Kai Wah, FEM
SERDANG, Jan 13 – A Person with Disability (OKU) graduate, Nurul Najwa Khairunnisah Hassim, 28, who has a visual impairment, from the Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication (FBMK), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), has successfully attained a Bachelor of Arts (Malay Literature) degree at the 44th UPM Convocation Ceremony here.
“I am grateful because I completed my studies in three and a half years just like a normal student without deferring any semester.
"I want to prove to the others that even though I have a visual impairment, I can live like a normal person," she mentioned.
Nurul Najwa, who hails from Terengganu, knew that she needed to work harder in her revisions and needed extra time to complete academic assignments.
"I am not like a normal student who can directly read, write, and understand the contents in the reference books, lecture notes, and exercise worksheets assigned by the lecturers," she said.
Besides that, she took the initiative and additional time to scan all the exercise worksheets in soft copy format first before reading them using a screen reader.
She was resilient and brave to face the challenges in daily life and was not afraid to ask for help from the people around her.
“When I wanted to order food at the cafe, I would ask my friend or whoever was closest to me to go to the cafe together because my eyes could not see the menu,” she said.
Nurul Najwa was also active in the OKU programmes organised by UPM and had received the Ibn Maktum Award in terms of co-curriculum implementation activities during the 2019/2020 session.
She was very grateful to the faculty lecturers and her classmates for being considerate and helpful throughout her study.
"The lecturers in my faculty really understood my situation, and they would not ignore me in the lecture halls and even helped me to prepare lecture notes in the format of soft copy for me to revise," she said.
She added that her lecturers also gave her additional time to complete academic assignments and answer exam questions.
Najwa hoped all UPM students could make the best use of their time to study diligently in UPM, accept themselves fully, and not be afraid of facing challenges in life.
She wanted to share the success and the degree awarded today with her parents as they were the source of strength for her success at this level. - UPM
