Editor’s note: We would like to thank Eileen Rudnick, Carroll Community College, Westminster (Maryland), for providing this piece. To contact the author, please email Eileen Rudnick. If you would like to share your writing center’s experience during COVID-19, please submit via WLN.

Students with disabilities, both declared and undeclared, have been on my mind since our campus closed. Online tutoring may be the best possible alternative to close social contact, but the separation felt by students who are already challenged may be greater. Those who are tech-savvy may be stimulated by technology and therefore, may welcome the opportunity to use new software programs and applications. But for some, the loss of familiar habits and surroundings could be a nightmare.

The varieties and the effects of disabilities are as diverse as humankind. But the psychological traumas caused by the disruptions of the routines of students with challenges are serious. If one’s disability includes reduced cognition, a slower processing speed, or difficulty focusing, then the switch from face-to-face learning to an unfamiliar computer program is likely to be terrifying. [pullquote]The loneliness of disability is usually eased by social contact and is certainly intensified by isolation.[/pullquote]

Personal experiences are great teachers. Therefore, my comments are an insider’s point of view. I am a writing tutor after years of both observing and experiencing the stresses of accomplishing college-level work with a disability. The stress is great under ordinary circumstances and practically unendurable in the midst of a pandemic. Since my campus closed, I have experienced the pressure and fear caused by the need to quickly learn new procedures and computer applications. But the worst experience has been the isolation caused by the loss of social contact with my fellow challenged students.

During days filled with long walks and deep thoughts, I have encountered one of nature’s most enduring living things that symbolizes the virtue of resoluteness. Heavy rains from spring storms have flooded grassy areas displacing earthworms from their familiar surroundings. I have watched these indispensable creatures struggle to cross an asphalt wasteland without legs, without wings, with only the limited moisture on their tender bodies along with indestructible self-motivation.

The locomotion of earthworms seems slow and arduous when compared with other animals, including humans. Yet their determination, mostly unmatched, is surpassed by humans with disabilities. Students with challenges must also navigate rough terrain when their familiar methods are irrevocably changed. They must complete the same assignments as their classmates even though it takes these special students two or three times longer in ordinary times. All the changes as a result of a pandemic actually increases the time needed to complete assignments for students with special needs.

When I come upon a struggling earthworm trying with drying skin to complete the last few inches of its journey, I pick it up and carefully place it in the cool, moist grass. The aid I give is minimal when I consider the heroism of the animal’s efforts to cross twenty feet of dry pavement, in peril from the hot sun and from predators.

Should we who tutor in writing centers not reach out to the hardest-working students—who struggle in normal circumstances—who are affected by stigmas—with additional compassion and encouragement? Students who depend the most on the comfort of routine need the most understanding when their routine collapses. Students who are the most likely to struggle with cognition, with slower processing speeds, and with focus, are the least likely to be tech-savvy or to have computers. It would be to our advantage to contact special needs students, to provide computers, and to offer training on remote learning. By keeping in close contact with special needs students, we can achieve greater understanding of the human psyche and share in their spiritually uplifting successes. The privilege of witnessing the outcomes of the extraordinary perseverances of students with special challenges answers a question frequently asked of tutors—“What do I need to succeed?”