Reading backwards and having no feeling in his legs is an everyday challenge for Tracy Gilkerson, a 38-year-old student at Cosumnes River College. He cannot be categorized and he does not want anyone’s help to achieve his goal to be a journalist.

At age 8 Gilkerson was petting a horse when the horse got out of control and trampled him. His whole skeletal frame was affected by this incident.

“The hardest part about my injury is that I now have numbness in my legs,” Gilkerson said. “When I sit down I’m not sure that I will be able to get back up again.”

On days when he wakes up and cannot feel his legs, he misses out on going to school.

“I do not use government assistance. I am determined to work just like everyone else,” Gilkerson said. “It makes me want to push harder to prove I am just as good.”

His speech, hearing and sight have been impaired. The closest diagnosis he has had was Congenital Bilateral Perisylvian Syndrome.

“This disorder can be diagnosed as early as birth and in some cases it may occur randomly for unknown reasons. CBPS is an extremely rare neurilogical disorder,” according to the National Organization for Rare Disorders.

Gilkerson is one of many students on campus with an undiagnosed learning disability.

According to Yolanda Garcia Gomez, Coordinator and counselor at CRC for Disability Support Programs and Sevices, Learning Disablities are a broad area. If a currently enrolled student thinks that they have a LD they can get tested on campus for free. DSPS is a voluntary office to help facilitate the services provided to help students with their education.

Lisa Stade is a 21-year-old student with Asperger’s Syndrome and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

“Asperger’s is a neuropsychiatric disorder, the exact cause is unknown and people with OCD have recurrent habitual obsessive compulsive thoughts or actions,” according to NORD.

“Sometimes with OCD you can get side tracked from the class or it can help you to get focused,” Stade said. “It’s like being divided in two worlds, like having a personality disorder with an IQ.”
Stade takes advantage of DSPS.

“I have to take tests by myself so that I can relax and be less distracted,” Stade said. With Asperger’s, you can be “very good and intelligent in the class or you can be all over the place in the class.”
Gomez said people could get tested if they’re “struggling over a period of time and finding that there is a pattern.”

“With budget cuts you wonder if people have gone undiagnosed. There is a waiting list. LD testing could take several weeks or months to be tested,” Gomez said.

30-year-old radio production major Tracy Jordan remains undiagnosed.
“We’ve always known that I’ve had something but nothing’s ever fit,” Jordan said. “We are still figuring it out.”

But students who know what type of LD they have said they still prefer to keep it to themselves.

“A reason I don’t disclose my disability to people is because they have the tendency to label me as stupid or retarded,” Gilkerson said. “I told my mom, if I go down, then I go down fighting.”

If you think you may have a LD, contact the DSPS at CRC’s website or call 916-691-7275.