DALTON, Ga. — Kayla Weathers has received many certificates and even a high school diploma, but her diploma from Dalton State College is the first she’s received in Braille.

“It was really neat that Dalton State did that so I could read it for myself,” said Weathers, who graduated in December with a bachelor’s degree in English. “I didn’t need someone to read it or visually describe it because I could do it.”

Weathers, a native of Trenton, was born at 26 weeks, weighing one pound and 11 ounces.

“I was hooked up to a respirator in (intensive care) for three months. The equipment I was on saved my life, but it caused my retina to detach, that’s why I’m blind,” Weathers said.

Weathers, 26, said all she knows is darkness. “I don’t see colors or tell if it’s light or dark,” she said.

That’s why she said it meant so much to receive her diploma in Braille.

The diploma was provided by the AMAC Accessibility Solutions and Research Center, an organization that “provides practical solutions for real challenges faced daily by individuals with disabilities,” according to its website. Weathers said it’s the same company that provided her textbooks and tests in Braille while at DSC.

“The (diploma) was was just another thing they did which I thought was really nice,” she said.

Jenny Crisp, Weathers’ academic adviser, said the idea came up during a conversation with her.

“Kayla said she’d never been able to see her diplomas,” Crisp said.

Crisp brought the idea of a diploma in Braille to Andrea Roberson, associate director of Disability Support and Student Access Services at the college.

“Kayla and I worked with AMAC Accessibility Solutions and Research Center’s Braille department to make sure she got what she wanted,” Roberson said.

Weathers was only expecting her name to be in Braille on the diploma, but it has everything a typical diploma has.

Crisp said she was “thrilled to see” the entire diploma in Braille.

As for her academics and time at the college, “Kayla has a great sense of humor and is incredibly smart,” Crisp said. “She’s tremendously creative.”

Weathers’ senior thesis was about the portrayal of blind people in literature.

“She wrote about how it’s better when writers don’t try to make blind characters with super powers but just as regular people,” Crisp said.

Weathers said one of the biggest challenges about being blind is the misconceptions.

“I feel like when people see a blind person they think we can’t do things. They don’t think about the different ways we can achieve the same things they can,” she said.

Weathers said a majority of the professors were “open-minded, accepting and willing to help me in any way they could, it was a great experience.”

She enrolled at Dalton State in 2010 after graduating from the Georgia Academy for the Blind in Macon.

“I went to college for a semester before realizing I needed more daily living skills training,” Weathers said.

She left college and went to Blindness: Learning in New Dimensions, a blindness skill training program in Minnesota. She was there for nine months and took classes in Braille and cane travel.

“I learned Braille when I was 3, but there I learned to read faster,” she said. “I also learned to use my cane more efficiently.”

She also took travel, home management, technology and industrial arts classes and learned how to cook. She completed the program in nine months.

“All of our instructors were blind as well. I just felt like it made a huge difference to me when you have a blind person teaching you how to travel,” she said.

Weathers returned to Dalton State in 2012, finishing her degree last December. She plans to enroll at Louisiana Tech University in the summer or fall.

“I want to enroll in a graduate program for teachers of blind students and teach them skills like Braille, technology and everyday living skills,” she said.

Roberson said Weathers is a “motivating person.”

“She’s an excellent student and friendly person. She knows what she wants and always worked to make it happen,” Roberson said.

Weathers said everyone has challenges and things they have to overcome.

“To me blindness is not that big of a deal because it’s all I’ve ever known. I just use different techniques to accomplish the same thing,” she said.

Roberson said she’s always admired Weathers’ outlook.

“She’s a real advocate for herself and an excellent example for other students about having no excuses,” Roberson said.