I was in a meeting today where a member of a commission on disability asked why students are allowed to get accommodations late in the term. Let me make it abundantly clear - students get accommodations late bc of an arbitrary review process 1/11

It is NOT easy. You need to have a dx. You need your Dr to write a letter explaining your abilities and needs. You need them to realize how these needs might be reflected in higher ed. Then disability services decides what is fair to grant you aka "reasonable accommodations" 2/11

Students who lack access to decent medicine, students who lack screening, students who lack medical coverage, students who lack transportation, money for copays, or who are involved in caregiving find it incredibly hard to get dx. 3/11

Dx for learning disabilities can take hours upon hours of examination. I have a physical disability. Just to confirm my dx I had to see two specialists, get genetic screening, send bloodwork away, and go through hours of physical eval. 4/11

Then my specialist had to condense all that info, send it to my GP. My GP had to understand it and write a letter for accommodations. Luckily she was kind and asked ME what I wanted/needed. Which meant I had to know what was possible. At 19 as a newly dx disabled individual. 5/11

I had to go to multiple appts with disability services. I had to document my disabilities. I had to request needs based on my classes. So I had to know how the classes were set up, what accommodations were built into the class already, and what else I could need. 6/11

How can you expect a student to predict all this? To access all this? Before the term starts? Disability doesn't follow an academic calendar. You can become disabled at any time. 7/11

If you're going to sit on a disability advocacy commission as an able bodied person, please know that you're expected to be an ally. To do this work ahead of time. To use basic googling. If you're determining policy, you should know what already exists. 8/11

I'm so incredibly tired of explaining to able bodied people that my needs are fair. That they're being discriminatory. That they're knowingly upholding ableist policies due to ignorance and refusal to act. Faculty are paid to serve on these commissions, so earn your pay. 9/11

Why is it my job to sit there in silence while this happens? I'm not paid for my "expertise" as both a student and faculty member. But if I refuse to volunteer the commission is made up of voices like this individual. If I refuse I know other disabled students will suffer. 10/11

I expect better from the academy. I expect educators to know the basics of their jobs. I expect faculty to step up. Or pay me. Able bodied allies need to do the work to be in these spaces. 11/11 #AcademicChatter #AcademicTwitter #Disability #DisabilityTwitter #Accessibility