Receiving a diagnosis for a learning disability can be discouraging and life changing. One Southern student is proving that anything is possible.
During middle school, Cheetah Thomas was diagnosed with a learning disability called Meares-Irlen Syndrome. According to the Irlen Syndrome Foundation, this severe form of dyslexia is a perceptual processing disorder that impairs the brain’s decoding of fine vision tasks.
The disorder varies in severity among individuals; Thomas experiences more significant symptoms that affect her daily life. Even reading restaurant menus and street signs can prove to be a challenge.
However, Thomas faces her biggest challenges in the classroom. When Thomas sees a full page of text, it is the same sensation for her as looking at a blank sheet of paper.
After first receiving her diagnosis, it seemed there was little chance to have a successful career. Nonetheless, Thomas immersed herself in her passion for fine art.
Thomas was introduced to the arts by her chef father. As a child, she helped him make baked goods and decorate cakes. This hobby, paired with her ever-present love of drawing and painting, began to blossom inside of her as a passion for creating. Art became more than a hobby—it became her being.
Thomas finally felt like she could express herself and relate her emotions to others.
Since Thomas struggles to express her emotions through words on a page, she instead uses clay on a wheel in ceramics class. While she has enjoyed studying fine arts this last year in all of her classes, ceramics has been her favorite by far.
“If your hands aren’t dirty, you’re not doing art right,” Thomas said. “If you’re hands are clean, you’re not putting passion into it.”
While her learning disability may have been a factor in her choice to be an art major, Thomas’s driving force is her passion for visual expression.
Thomas’s dream is to one day be a costume designer for live theater productions. Her knack for three-dimensional, tactile art pushes her to keep striving for her dreams despite the limitations placed upon her by Meares-Irlen Syndrome.
Students struggling with a learning disability and are in need of academic assistance can contact Disability Support Services at 423-236-2544 or visit their office on the first floor of Lynn Wood Hall.