Sound of Surviving Blog

For Professors:

1. Just because we don’t look like we’re sick or disabled doesn’t mean we aren’t:

Disabilities don’t always have physical symptoms; someone can be blind or visually impaired but not use a cane. Also, most likely we’ve had a disability or have been sick for a while, and are really good at hiding our symptoms, like fatigue, or pushing ourselves to not need extensions. Most people with depression don’t look depressed, so please don’t say that we’re not disabled because we don’t look it.

2. Please don’t talk down to us:

Having a disability doesn’t infer that we don’t understand what you’re saying. We might have slow processing speed compared to other students but we do know what you’re saying.

3. Just because our disability or condition is rare, doesn’t mean we don’t have anything wrong with us:

A condition might be more rare than others, but just because you’ve never heard of it, doesn’t mean we don’t have it, or that we’re faking it. (Hey! We don’t want these side effects from it, (who would?)

4. Encourage your students to use their accommodations.

We often don’t use our accommodations because we don’t feel like we need them, or are afraid of inconveniencing you, but each semester, encourage all of your students with accommodations to take advantage of them in order to be successful and help them academically.

For Other Students:

1. We’re not that different:

If you took the time to get to know us, you’d find out that we’re pretty similar to you. We like the same things, want to accomplish the same goals, and have the same hopes and dreams.

2. Just because we can’t always accept invitations to hang out doesn’t mean that we don’t want to.

Because of our fatigue and other side effects, we often have to save energy for classes and assignments, or we have a bunch of appointments. So, if we don’t accept an invitation to go out, doesn’t mean that we don’t want to, but rather that we simply can’t, no matter how much we’d like to.

3. We’re not thoughtless or stupid:

We’re normally just as smart, if not smarter than the normal student in college. All those hospital visits or trips to the doctors where we spend hours waiting, we’re normally studying, reading, or working on homework. Just because we have a disability doesn’t always mean that we all fit the criteria of the stereotypical disabled or ill student.

“Disability is not a brave struggle or courage in the face of adversity.

Disability is an art.

It’s an ingenious way to live.”

                       -Neil Marcus