Monday, December 3, 2007

Finals

Dear Carly,

School is eating me. I've got so much to do, and of course have to be careful not to completely wear myself out. It's a difficult balance that people don't always understand. I mean, I'm sorry if I don't want to go to something after dinner, but it means having to walk further to get to my room.

And what I am really looking forward to at the end of the semester is no longer having to climb up three flights of stairs every Tuesday and Thursday morning to get to class in a building sans elevator. I know, I know, that's a battle I should have fought. Trust me, I know. But sometimes it is more trouble than it is worth. I've made it, and if I had not I would have spoken to my professor. I save my battle-fighting for getting study abroad money and enrolling in ridiculous amounts of classes.

Forgive me for wanting to make an impression with my academics and not just be the girl with a disability who causes trouble. For some reason I just cannot see how that is more likely to get people to make changes. I feel like I should make a wonderful impression the first way first and then be like, by the way it would make things better for me if, and then people would be more likely to accommodate.

What are your thoughts on this?

I should go study!

Chelsey

4 comments:

  1. Chelsea, do you have a disability coordinator in your school? By law, universities have to move classes when people cannot access them when they are inaccessible to someone in the class (no elevator). Of course, it's time- consuming and sometimes impossible to get people to make these changes.

    I was looking for disability blogs (thinking of starting one) and was glad to find yours. Good luck with your finals.

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  2. There is. I did speak to him, and all that could be done was for me to switch class sections. There are many sections of the class as it's required, but I was taking that particular professor for a reason and did not want to switch, but also did not particularly have the energy to fight it. I only have to go up there one more time (final!) and that'll be it so.... I probably should have fought more, but it did not seem like a huge enough problem for me, since luckily nothing major happened to me during the semester to prevent the stair climbing.

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  3. Oh, I didn't know they could just tell you to take another section--that's unfair, but I guess that's what we're up against all the time. Glad the class worked out for you.

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  4. Has your school had an ADA audit undertaken? if not perhaps a reminder of their duties may help?

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