In college when you have a disability you have to learn the rules and you know, regulations and your rights as a student, you know, with a disability. What you are allowed to get? What you deserve to get and learn how to explain that to other people. I had to learn what, you know, rights I deserved as far as like testing and where to get tested and how long a test, how much time I got for a test. So that was hard for me because I never had to speak up for myself before. You know, if I had a problem usually my mom would handle it. So when I had a problem in college I had to learn how to handle it. I had to go to the professor and talk to them again and again until they, you know, did what they were supposed to do or I had to make sure they would, you know, deliver it to the support office or I had to pick up my letters and give them out to every professor to make sure they knew, you know, these were my rights and what I was supposed to get.
Well the first place I went was the DSS office which was located in our student main area. It had a list of paperwork that I needed to get filled out by my doctors. So I took that paperwork, sent it to my doctors and each doctor, for me each doctor sent a letter back to the office and from there the coordinator determined what kind of accommodations I would need based on those letters and also talked to me a little bit just to make sure that I had everything I needed and with that we got an accommodation letter and then from there I give the letter to my professors at my discretion. You have to start early. I made sure that I went there during the summer before I even started classes so that way I could pick up all the paperwork that needed to be filled out and sometimes your doctor’s take a long time to write the letters because they’re very busy. So for me I made sure I got it July before I started classes in August and had it done by the end of July to give also the office enough time to go through my paperwork because they have a lot of students as well who need accommodations of all kind.
My accommodations are that I get time and a half on a test. That means if a professor says the test is supposed to be an hour then I get an hour and a half to take the test. I can also take the test by myself in a quiet room and that helps me because I tend to get distracted, I guess, by other’s being around me and too much noise. And I also get priority registration at my school which means they let me register I think as soon as the seniors or the graduate students even, I don’t remember which one but extremely early. Which is great because I always get the classes that I want and that can help you when you have a disability. Because you know you may be leaning towards certain classes because you wanna take something that goes more towards your strengths than your weaknesses with your disabilities.
I needed to have note takers and I needed to have note takers all the way through undergraduate, all through my PHD program because even if I can write I usually can’t write for three hours at a time or an hour at a time and so that’s been a very big help. And usually what it is is somebody, another student in the class, they are basically taking their own notes anyway and they photocopy their notes for me. And depending on the institution sometimes they get paid to do that and sometimes I would just ask a friend in class to do it and it’s not a paid position.
One of my biggest accommodations is absences from class. In my accommodation letter that I get at the beginning of the year or every semester, I try to, it states to ask my professors to be a little bit lenient, you know, with my absences. I try to inform my professor’s, you know, and tell them that I will keep in contact when I’m absent. I’ve become really good at independent studies so that’s kind of been helpful to.
When I first came to college I actually refused to use my accommodations. I had my paperwork turned into the disability office and everything else. I never went and got my letters informing my teachers that I had accommodations on a disability. I never used extended time, spell check, anything and at first I was ok because I was in these huge 100 person classes and doing all gym ed. courses, scantron tests and it wasn’t really that big of a deal. Once I started, you know, getting C’s in classes continuously it became a, this is not the type of student I am. Am an A B student and so I actually had a professor who I told cause he asked me why in every single written paper I turned in there were continuous, the same grammar and spelling mistakes over and over throughout the paper. And so he encouraged me to go to the disability office and once there I realized what my accommodations were and I just tried it out for two classes the first semester. I didn’t really wanna tell all my professors that I had disability. And I tried it out for an accounting class and for another class that was heavily written oriented. And for the accounting class just having the time and a half meant that I could finish the test and go back and check my work. And that was a huge help for me because it meant that I could find the mistakes that I never had time to locate before.
I definitely recommend getting and using your accommodations. When I went to college my first semester, I was stubborn and felt like I could do everything on my own. My grades definitely told me otherwise and it was nothing to be ashamed of. It was just a reality check. So using them, you know, was very helpful and I was able to, you know, work to my full potential because I did have my accommodations.
Definitely I recommend getting accommodations. Get your accommodations and use them because even, you know, maybe at the beginning of the semester I don’t even need to leave class because I have pain but what happens if I become sick at the end of the semester? I want to be able to have that accommodation there so I can use it.
After everything I’ve gone through I would definitely recommend using your accommodations whenever possible. It just gives you that extra comfort zone that says that you can excel and you can succeed. You may never use your accommodations, I go sometimes for time and a half tests and I don’t use all time and half. I use less time than I would use in class. But it means that if I need that time, it’s there. And having it there and having those options definitely helps you succeed in school.