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My name is Natalia Rivera.
I'm a doctoral student.
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And, well, doctoral graduate actually.
And in the Department of Hispanic
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Languages and Literature at the
University of Pittsburgh.
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I'm also a Spanish Instructor and I
specialize in Latin American and
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[inaudible] literature and
critical disability studies.
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So my interests, my academic interests
are intimately tied to my personal
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experience as a student and
now instructor with
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a learning disability and co-occurring
anxiety.
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So, the first memory that I remember,
just on a personal level,
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recognizing that there was some access
issues or some degree of
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especially in the high school level,
some degree of
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a lack of knowledge, really, of
different types of learning styles
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and different types of processing speeds
because of my diagnosis of attention
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deficit disorder. One of the key
components of how that,
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you know, how ADD affects me is that
I have a slower processing speed.
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So, while my reading comprehension is
strong,
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my processing speed affects my
writing speed so I'm not always
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able to produce a paragraph in a
timely manner. So, we often
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had problems in English class. This
was in tenth grade and
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the expectation was that we would be
able to write a paragraph in half-hour.
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And often times I would need double
amount of time. I would need an hour.
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And sometimes I wouldn't even be able
to finish one simple paragraph
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in an hour.
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And I remember my English instructor,
at the time,
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after class when I sort of approached her
and said,
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"Uhm, hey. Not withstanding the
additional time. I wasn't
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really able to finish my paragraph."
And I remember she looked at me
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incredulous and said to me, "I mean,
if you can't even write a paragraph,
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a simple paragraph in one hour,
I don't know what to tell you."
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So, I remember that moment. I
also remember later on
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when I was preparing for AP Exams.
This also happened in high school.
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This was my junior year. I was taking
an AP World History class
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And I remember that I approached my
instructor, already knowing on my own
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because I had already had plenty of
experience advocating for myself since
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I was a child. I already knew that
all standardized testing
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had a process for requesting
accommodations.
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So, I remember approaching my AP
World History Exam and-
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I meant, my AP World History teacher
and explaining to him
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that I was registered with disability
resources, that I had a documented
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disability and that these were
the particular accommodations I needed
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time and a half. It was a very common
accommodation.
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And I remember him telling me, "I don't
have a problem providing you
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classroom accommodations. I'm just not
sure that
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that extended time is provided on the
AP Exam." And I was just
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flabbergasted that an instructor would
actively misinform me that way
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because even I knew at the tender age
of, I don't know, sixteen,
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that ATS always provided a process
for requesting
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accommodation. So, I was stunned
that an adult felt that he could
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just misinform me that way. And I
know
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that misinforming me not necessarily
with a negative intent, but he
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genuinely had no notion of the
process. And
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yeah. So, it's un-willful misinformation,
but
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the effect is similar. Because imagine
had he said something like that
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to a student who had no idea how
to request accommodations.
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You know, how to attain an
evaluation needed to substantiate
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the need for accommodations. So
it's just a lot of misinformation
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enabled with ignorance and not so much
malice.
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But, just the complete lack of information
out there just really compromises
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student's ability to advocate for
themselves.
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In my personal work with the
disability rights
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community because I worked two
and a half years at a disability
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rights organization called Autistic
Self Advocacy Network
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and meeting a lot of people my age
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a lot of students don't find out that
they have a diagnosis until much later
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in life. Once they start picking
up on their own symptoms, they seek
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out individually supports. So I
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certainly, on a personal level, I
benefited from my
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mother's knowledge and from her
experiences as a parent advocate.
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I think my awareness of a level
of discrimination
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even if it was kind of on the
level of microaggression,
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I think I had more awareness of
discrimination at the high school level
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but, my initial exposure to advocacy
really happened when I was young
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and I remember going...
There were some days off from school
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and I remember going to the office with
my mom. And I remember meeting
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other moms and seeing her work part
time at
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this parent advocacy group for parents
with disabilities
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so I thank my mother for, you know,
introducing me
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to the concept of self advocacy and
for empowering me
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to use it in every aspect of my life and
at a professional level
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and an academic level, as well.
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So, I don't really remember the day of
the Americans with Disabilities Act
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'cause I was just a couple of months
old.
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But, the impact on me, basically
I sincerely
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doubt had I been born, I don't know,
forty years ago
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as opposed to thirty years ago, there's
a possibility that I would not have
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attended college. And even if I had
attended college,
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I just sort of feel that I would have
never considered doing a
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PhD, if it hadn't been for the Americans
with Disabilities Act.
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Because graduate school, the level of
support at the undergraduate level,
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at least at a liberal arts college,
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that tends to be more supportive is
radically different from graduate school
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where the level of support is practically
non-existent, I feel
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and I think a lot of graduate students
feel the same way.
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So without the ADA, I'm not even sure
I would have been fortunate enough
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to attend college so I think that it
offered me
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the protections that I needed to go
beyond what my
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wildest dreams, right? So I feel like...
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I've had a very privileged life and I'm
grateful for my academic
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opportunities that I know there are so
many deserving students
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who didn't have the opportunities that I
had and I'm not only grateful to my family
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for their unyielding dedication
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to advocacy and also very
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grateful for the ADA as well. I mean,
disabilities definitely run in my family
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neuro-developmental disabilities, learning
disabilities. I do have a cousin who
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was on the autism spectrum and
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I don't think, by no means, benefited
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by the protections offered by the
Americans with Disabilities Act in the
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same degree that I did. I think
unfortunately because I think there
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still cultural stigma
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particularly if an autism spectrum
disorder
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co-occurs with a intellectual disability,
but he
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finished his associate's degree with
minimal supports.
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I think because the ADA empowered me,
I feel like
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I'm prepared as an instructor to offer
support
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to students with other disabilities. I
have
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students with documented disabilities
and I feel that because
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of my personal experience as a
student
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with disability, I feel much more
prepared to work with
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a wider range of students who need
different needs and I'm prepared
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to be accommodating and I'm prepared
to
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at least endeavored to make students
feel like they're valuable members of
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my classroom. I'm not a perfect
instructor. I still have a lot to learn
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but, I think that level of
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humanity, I think, that speaks to a
lot of students and I think that I'm
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better able to connect to connect with
my students. So,
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the ADA allowed me to be useful as
an instructor, basically. But, I
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remember one interview I did with
a student on the
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autism spectrum, who was attending
a
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college specifically for students with
learning disabilities.
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And she made a very astute observation
about
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learning disabilities under colleges and
sort of their
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focus on vocational training as opposed to
academic training and
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this was a smart girl who wanted to
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pursue a degree in the humanities and she
was doing an Interdisciplinary Liberal
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Arts degree, but she couldn't take
philosophy, for instance. Or
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she couldn't do a major in history.
And I think the way
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the classes, the course work, the
curriculum...
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just how all the academic options were
structured in this particular college
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it sort of reinforced this idea that
traditional academic
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disciplines are somehow out of reach
for a student who
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reads as having an intellectual disability
or who reads as having
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potential learning difficulties and she
lamented and I
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wholeheartedly agreed with her appraisal.
She lamented the fact that she couldn't
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pursue a traditional discipline she would
have wanted. She wanted to be a historian.
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So I think that in a way, people wouldn't
really read the legislation
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very carefully.
I guess in their attempt
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to sort of include people, they're
inadvertently limiting the options
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for a lot of students because there
are students who may need to
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do- There are students who may
want to pursue
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physics, right? But they need a longer
timeline to complete
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their coursework, but it's just in a
traditional four-year
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college. Those mechanisms just
aren't in place to provide
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that support system for a student who
needs additional support, but
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who wants to pursue a traditional
academic discipline. So, I think in that
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regard, even though the spirit of the
ADA, you definitely get the sense
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with the wording of the legislation
that it's intended to
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sort of correct that kind of
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societal exclusion and academic exclusion
of students who want to pursue traditional
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disciplines, but I think in that regard,
the level of
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enforcement I think is still very
differential. I think another thing
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that I do want to add, just for my
personal
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observations as an instructor,
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the regular enforcement of the
2009 Amendment -
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which was critical in the sense that it
broadened the category of disability
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to include vary proteins.
And by "protein", I mean,
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very inconsistent disabilities.
For instance,
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something like cancer or a auto-
immune disorder
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finally was incorporated into this broader
category of disabilities, so it wasn't
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just- So, that 2009 Amendment was
critical because
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it rendered clear that disability
did not have to be
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"stable". It did not have to be
a "consistent"
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you know, "putatively consistent"
physical disability to qualify
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as a disability under the legislation.
So, this included
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disabilities, whether somatic or
cognitive disabilities
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that were either inconsistent in
nature or went through periods of
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remission. So, something like bipolar
disorder, right?
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So, the 2008 Amendment, what was great
about it was that it made clear that
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not withstanding the point through which
you're sort of going
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sort of like thinking something like
bipolar disorder where you're going
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through sort of a manic depressive episode
that at a institutional
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level there was still a responsibility to
provide out of supports to that person
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who was experiencing cyclical changes.
And what I've noticed
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at the university level, especially with
science programs,
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that they include a tidbit that actually
seems very almost
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unlawful to me.
You look at the
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graduate handbooks and the
undergraduate handbooks as well
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they have this very strange policy
that you're supposed to
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let your professors know about your
disability. That you
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must tell your professors within the
first two weeks of the semester
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that you have documented disability.
The problem is that a lot of
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disabilities don't work that way.
There are moments where you're
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"functional". You know, relatively
functional and there are moments where
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you are not functional in socially
understood terms, right?
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And especially for students, this is not
unusual for students who
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receive a diagnosis later in life when
they're just commencing college
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which is a transitional period, so it
makes sense that certain symptoms
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that were not disabling in other
contexts, suddenly become disabling
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when you enter college. And that policy
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basically
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basically misinforms students into
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thinking that they are not able
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to request supports when they've
reached a point where their
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condition has become so disabling that
they can't necessarily meet
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requirements at the expected time frame.
So, it's almost as if there's like a
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mechanism in place to give the
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false impression that you're not able
to receive supports
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later in the semester.
So, I think in that sense it's more like
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even if there are protections in place,
institutional ignorance
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and the regular enforcement continue to be
a problem. So, if I could pick one
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thing that needs to change in terms of
access...
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I'm gonna start a little bit abstract and
then I'm gonna try to clarify what I mean
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I think we sort of overcome this concept
of
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autonomy. What do I mean by that?
And I think a lot of
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disability rights activists, when we think
about advocacy, they do think about
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in terms of no collective grassroots
movement, so there is an
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emphasis on relationality, there's an
emphasis on mutual support.
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And I think traditionally in
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Occidental culture, in Western culture,
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the responsibility for seeking social
accommodations for disabilities,
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largely incumbent upon the individual
and not society.
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I think the ADA certainly
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gives the impression that social
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accommodation is in fact, what the terms
or the phrase suggests,
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"a social responsibility", but in practice
it's not treated like a
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collective responsibility and I see this a
lot in the university in administration
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level.
So when a student begins
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college, not only are you responsible
for time management,
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for learning how to live independently
for the first time, if that's the case,
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learning to live with roommates, which
may not actually be accessible for you
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if you're a student with a disability. You
are also responsible for coordinating your
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own accommodations and depending on the
kinds of
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accommodations that you need, I think at
the undergraduate level - in my case -
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it wasn't so overwhelming, I could still
manage it, but at the graduate level
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to try to request new accommodations,
based on the new needs that you
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develop because of the shifting levels
of work and
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sort of in the overall. It's just your
coursework is just more demanding
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at the graduate level.
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There needs to be a way for social
accommodation,
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academic accommodations to be-
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it needs to be re-thought of as a
collective responsibility, but at the
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administrative level there is a
responsibility at the administrative level
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for the student to succeed and that it
is not merely
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an autonomous burden, it is
a collective responsibility.
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It is a collective duty.
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I do think that we as community
members can take on the
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responsibility to sort of identify those
disabilities rights organizations that
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are actively working towards providing
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supports and services
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and not focusing on the cure aspect
because the cure aspect is not
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allowing us to address the immediate
societal needs.
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So, I think organizations
like the
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Autistic Self Advocacy Network, the one
that I worked for,
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they have these wonderful advocacy center
programs. They really work on
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providing cognitively accessible resources
for political
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advocacy, for instance.
And they empower
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students to think of ways
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for advocating for supports on
college campuses.
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So, looking at organizations that
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empower people to advocate for themselves
with the skills that they
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have to feel that their lives are worth
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living as they are.