Deborah Goessling will explain the wheelchair to her students when classes begin Tuesday at Providence College. She will tell them she might need help this year in some small matters — passing out materials, that kind of thing.

And she will teach her classes in a more personal way than she ever imagined.

“I want to use my disability to help my students,” she says. “I don’t want the disability to be the only thing about me. I don’t want pity from the students. I don’t want them to be uncomfortable.

“But I am in a wheelchair.”

She is 56, and in a 33-year career she has been a special-needs teacher and taught students how to become special-needs teachers. She has worked in that part of education where the demands can change almost by the minute. She has had to learn how to move students with physical disabilities, sometimes how to feed them. She has had to deal with seizures. She has become familiar with all kinds of devices that help a disabled kid in the struggle to learn.

“We help them get included,” she says.

Now, Goessling is disabled. Many of the things once applied to others now apply to her.

“I advocate for kids all the time. But the irony is that it’s easier to advocate for someone else than for yourself.”

We talked in her office at Providence College Wednesday morning. It was the first morning she had driven from her home in Wayland, Mass., to the campus using her car equipped with hand controls.

“I was a little anxious, but I do want to be independent,” she says.

It was a long process and a sizeable investment. She had to do 10 hours of driving on the road before she could be approved for the hand controls. Now, her wheelchair is locked into place behind the steering wheel. She is looking forward to another year of teaching.

She was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease, at Massachusetts General Hospital in January of last year. She and her husband, Daniel, a computer scientist, sought a second opinion, then a third. Then they started dealing with how best to live with a disease that cuts life expectancy down to just a few years as it attacks cells in the brain and spinal cord and gradually robs the body of muscle control.

“I suspected it,” says Goessling. “I am familiar with different disabilities.”

Still, the disease moved in on her in a way that made her unsure exactly what was happening to her.

It was almost three years ago that she noticed one of her feet slapping the floor as she walked. One day, while running down a hall, she fell and broke her arm in four places. The diagnosis was a “drop foot” and she had to wear a special brace to help lift the foot. She occasionally removed the brace in class to show students how it worked.

In January of 2007, she came to work using a cane. In September of that year, she started using a walker. Now, she is in a $30,000 wheelchair.

The first thing she and Daniel decided once the diagnosis of ALS was confirmed was to be optimistic. She would be back at Providence College for another year — at least. She would be back teaching students how to be special-needs teachers in a way that few teachers can.

“I really value teaching here [at Providence College],” she says. “There are small classes. You know the students, support them. It’s wonderful. And PC’s been great.”

When she arrived on campus Wednesday for faculty meetings, there was the parking space with room for the ramp to drop down and allow her to head into Harkins Hall in her wheelchair.

She says it appears she has a slower progressing version of the disease. She goes back to Massachusetts General every three months to find out just what it has done to her.

Her legs get weaker and weaker. There is soreness in her arms.

She thinks about the good things lost, but not for long. She thinks about kayaking, swimming, dancing.

When she and Daniel get together with friends it’s usually at their house because there might be access problems at other houses.

A therapist came to her home in Wayland to show her how to get into the shower.

But right now she is thinking about the first day of classes. She loves teaching, and Providence College is a very good fit.

Her story will be on television this weekend. It will be part of the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Association Labor Day Telethon that will be shown on WCVB Channel 5 Sunday and Monday. For more information, go to www.mda.org.

It will be a story of a woman who has seen her personal and professional life come together in a way that makes her presence in the classroom a lesson in itself.

Her students will learn things from Deborah Goessling in that classroom that they would learn nowhere else.

bkerr@projo.com