Posted by papillon2 on August 28, 2012, at 9:46:42
In reply to family affairs, posted by rjlockhart37 on August 27, 2012, at 19:28:54
Does your college have a disability service? They can be really helpful with accommodations. It pays to come to them with a list of what you need, though, as they don't always know how to help. You'll need a letter from your doctor outlining why each accommodation is important, too. There should be a list available from your college about all the typical accommodations available to students with a disability.
I had to quit uni because I was too unwell, but when I was trying to make it work I had the following accommodations:
- being able to record lectures on a tape they provided. This was to assist with concentration problems during lectures.
- being able to take exams in a quieter, smaller room (less distractions) and being given an extra 5 or 10 minutes reading time for exams.An accommodation offered to me which I didn't take was access to 'quiet rooms' they had for disability service students if you needed a time out.
Additional accommodations which I would have begged for had I known they existed would have been:
- receiving lecture and tutorial notes / worksheets (the disability service paid students hand picked for this purpose) = an academic lifeline when I couldn't attend lectures or tutorials due to illness.
- extensions for hand-in assessments which I could not complete in time due to illness.
- increased flexibility in the number of tutorials required to attend in order to pass (i.e. not being penalized if I couldn't attend some tutes due to being sick).The above would have made so much of a difference. Being able to record a lecture or having extra time in exams is pretty much useless if you can't actually get to many classes in the first place.
So yeah, do your research on what's available to you before you go in so you can be your best advocate. I got the distinct feeling that they didn't think my mental illness was as disabling was it was (is). If I had been better prepared, by knowing what was available and coming in with a list of what I needed and why, maybe I'd have got the extra help I needed.
Good luck in your studies!
Ring the bells that still can ring
forget your perfect offering
there is a crack in everything
that's how the light gets in
~ Leonard Cohen
poster:papillon2
thread:1024312
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20120527/msgs/1024344.html