Yael Rom R.I.P.

The Hebrew Wikipedia has an article about her in http://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%99%D7%A2%D7%9C_%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%9D.
Here I’ll write about my personal experience with her.

The year was 1976. When I was 19 years old (and exempt from military service), I decided to study Electrical Engineering in the Technion. I came to the Technion with my father to inquire and register. We were directed to the Unit for Advancement of the Students, which is responsible for helping students with disabilities, from disadvantaged populations, and those who had overdose of reserve duty.

There we met Yael Rom. We found her to be warm and resourceful woman.

Arrangements were made to find volunteer notetakers for me in the lectures. Discussions how to inform lecturers that there is a deaf student sitting in tests, so that they should write all instructions on the blackboard in addition to saying them. Feeling welcome to come and talk with her anytime I felt like it during the years I was in the Technion.

I finished my B.Sc. summa cum laude.

Thank you, Yael Rom, for your help.

Author: Omer Zak

I am deaf since birth. I played with big computers which eat punched cards and spew out printouts since age 12. Ever since they became available, I work and play with desktop size computers which eat keyboard keypresses and spew out display pixels. Among other things, I developed software which helped the deaf in Israel use the telephone network, by means of home computers equipped with modems. Several years later, I developed Hebrew localizations for some cellular phones, which helped the deaf in Israel utilize the cellular phone networks. I am interested in entrepreneurship, Science Fiction and making the world more accessible to people with disabilities.