Hearing loss, breast cancer and caring for a family have proved no barrier to a first class honours degree for Queensland University of Technology student Rowena Rayner.
Rowena and her daughter, Rachael, also a QUT student, both have significant hearing loss, which they believe to be hereditary.
But it has not prevented Rowena gaining a Bachelor of Business (Accounting) with First Class Honours.
She will graduate on Wednesday, December 16 as part of QUT's first December graduation ceremonies.
Rachael has just completed a successful first year of a Bachelor of Applied Science.
Rowena, of Murrumba Downs, north of Brisbane, said she had always wanted to study accountancy but waited until her two children were in primary school before enrolling part time in 2001.
She said she and Rachael both wore behind-the-ear hearing aids and often suffered sound distortion in rooms with hard surfaces.
But hearing loss was not a problem in lectures or tutorials at QUT.
"I found uni to be really good because they had the facilities to cope for someone with a hearing loss,'' Rowena said.
"QUT's Disability Services were extremely supportive.''
Rowena said main lecture theatres had a built in "loop system'' for hearing augmentation that picked up and transmitted the sound signal.
In other places, such as tutorial rooms, she and her daughter were provided with portable frequency monitors.
"The speaker wears a transmitter and microphone and we have a receiver,'' Rowena explained.
She said such devices helped create a "level playing field'' for students with hearing loss.
After finishing her undergraduate degree, Rowena deferred Honours when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007.
Then, with chemotherapy and radiation behind her, she re-enrolled last year and completed Honours in two years part time.
Now she is planning a PhD and would eventually like to work for a university.
"I really enjoy the equity and anti-discrimination policies,'' Rowena said.
"It provides an all-inclusive environment for anyone and everyone.
"I don't think wider society is quite as accepting as the university environment of someone with hearing loss.''
QUT will hold its first university-wide December graduation ceremonies this week, replacing February graduations.
QUT Student Support Services ceremonies officer Ibi Repcsik said the December graduations would give students an opportunity to attend before they took up jobs in the country, interstate or overseas.
Media contact: Elizabeth Allen, QUT media officer, 07 3138 4494 or e1.allen@qut.edu.au
** A high resolution photo of Rowena Rayner is available for media use.
