Emerging from a van outside the Elliott School is a spectacled man. Once out of the van, a white cane, the one that guides him throughout campus, extends from his hand.
His name is Hashim Syed, and he’s a junior studying communications at Wichita State. Syed is a first-generation student of Pakistani immigrants. While being a first-gen student comes with its own set of challenges, Syed has a different one.
“I started losing my vision when I was around 10 years old,” Syed said. “I have enough (vision) to look at my phone screen but not enough to walk on my own.”
Of his two eyes, one is only sensitive to light while the other has limited vision which he describes as “fog.”
For a 10-year-old boy with a retinal detachment, Syed said it was a “dark process” once it began.
“You don’t know how to express your fears or your doubts,” Syed said.
Syed said that middle school was the hardest time for him as he adjusted to his new life, but that high school at Wichita Northeast Magnet was where he found his acceptance and a friend group.
“When I started losing my vision, it wasn’t something that we were expecting,” Syed said. “My family didn’t know how to deal with the process. I kept on telling myself that I wouldn’t be in college, (and) I wouldn’t get through high school. I’m here now because I had a support system and because I was motivated enough to go through the things that I needed to go through.”
While the Office of Disability Services helps Syed with transportation, braille material and access to electronic documents, Syed often traverses the outside with a friend by his side.
“I’m very blessed to be able to have a good support system and people that understand that my disability isn’t what defines me as a person,” Syed said.
When not concerning himself with his studies, he remains tied to his faith. He prays five times a day and regularly attends a mosque on Fridays.
“All Muslims are included,” Syed said. “It doesn’t matter where you’re from, your nationality, ethnicity, anything like that. You’re standing shoulder to shoulder with people who look different from you.”
As a Muslim, Syed observes Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, when the Quran was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. From the evening of Feb. 28 to the end of March, Muslims fast from dawn until sunset.
“I was 9 years old (when I started fasting),” Syed said. “I wanted to do it because my parents were doing it and my older sister was doing it. I wanted to also be involved and take on this ‘challenge.’ Kind of a childish reason for why I wanted to do it. But, eventually, I understood why people fast and why they get involved with faith and religion.”
While Syed likely won’t be listening to music during Ramadan, he does rely on audio for consuming media.
“I’m a person that’s into current events,” Syed said. “Things like Instagram and X, the information that I’m able to gather from there is how I consume it. There’s an application on the iPhone that I use that’s called VoiceOver, and it’s able to read out the information on the screen for me.”
Syed defines himself through creative outlets such as writing poetry or playing the guitar. He hopes to be a public speaker someday and also wants to pay it forward by helping those with disabilities in international communities just as his friends and family helped him.
“I want to motivate and teach others that the disability they have isn’t going to be the end of them,” Syed said. “That they can move past it and find a support system and find a clear path to the career they want or the education they want to get.”
