How College Students with Disabilities Can Advocate for Themselves
Modified from Linda G. Tessler’s article*
Speak up!
- Fight your own battles! When kids used to taunt others in the schoolyard, some friends would gather around to stick up for the target. Now, on the college campus, it’s your chance to stick up for yourself – to fight for the accommodations that you require to succeed as a college student with a disability. If you grew up with a disability, through grade school and high school, your parents and your special education teachers fought for you. With your interests at heart, they spoke up on your behalf, helping you get the services you needed to thrive.
- Now it is time for you to learn how to advocate for yourself, to support yourself, to reach your full potential in college, where there is less interaction with professors and the expectation that you will manage your own study time. You must speak up!
- Here are some suggestions for easing the transition from depending on others to being your own advocate.
Know Your Rights
- It’s natural to feel uncomfortable discussing your disability-related needs and to worry about how professors will react. Perhaps they don’t believe that certain disabilities exist, or maybe they have a child with disabilities and completely understand your situation. In either case, you are not alone. Remember that you are not asking for a favor; you are asking for a right that is guaranteed by the federal government. As a person with a disability, you are entitled to receive certain accommodations. In fact, the Americans with Disabilities Act says, no discrimination should take place against anybody who is disabled. This includes persons with invisible disabilities, too. Colleges are required to allow you an equal opportunity for success. Your job is to work hard to take advantage of that opportunity.
Know Yourself
- To advocate for yourself and to deal with the inevitable roadblocks you’ll face, you should understand what kind of disability you have. Know how you process information and what strategies work for you.
- Be able to explain what special kind of perceptual difference or functional limitation you have which inhibits your learning. Talk about your strengths and weaknesses.
- The list of accommodations that other students with disabilities have received is not a shopping list from which you can choose. You are entitled only to the help that allows you to compensate for your disability.
Develop Your Support System from the Beginning
- As soon as possible, or before school begins, make yourself official; register with the Student Support Services at Taft College in the Student Support Services building. Find out where the tutoring services are, introduce yourself, and create your supports. Make friends in class. Other students are excellent supports.
- Remember the fundamentals. From the first day in class, be dependable. Attend all classes; arrive on time, and complete work by its due date. When possible do extra credit work. There’s no substitute for hard work. This conscientiousness helps you advocate for yourself, because professors want to help responsible students.
- Decide in which subjects you are most likely to need help. Use your previous school experience as a guide. It’s unlikely that those trouble spots will evaporate when you get to college. It’s also unlikely that you’ll require accommodations in every class.
- By meeting with professors before something goes wrong, they will not think you are using your disability as an excuse, and you will be in the position to get the help needed from the start.
Be Professional
- When you are ready to meet with your instructors, schedule an appointment. What you have to discuss is important. Don’t catch the instructor in a rush before or after class.
- Bring some documentation (your Accommodations Card) to the appointment. Some people need things in black and white. Be friendly. Greet your instructor and maintain eye contact.
- Explain what accommodations you require. Explain, for example, if you have high distractibility, you will need a quiet room for tests; if you have trouble writing, you may need to tape record classes to enable you to take better notes. When this connection is made between your disability and what you need, few professors will turn you down. (If they do, contact Student Support Services at 763-7775 for assistance.)
- It must be clear that you are not asking standards to be lowered. You are using tools to help you perform. To pass, you must perform the task that your classmates perform. You may, however, need to get there in a different way. Students with learning disabilities or visual impairments, for example, have to read the textbook just as non-disabled students do. They may just do it differently by using books on tape or computer scanners.
- Don’t be aggressive. It isn’t in your best interest to turn a professor against you. But don’t be passive either. Stand up for your rights. The best approach is to be assertive. If things don’t go well, ask Supportive Services for help. No matter what happens in the meeting, thank your professor for his/her time. Stay professional.
- Many students have no problem getting their professors to cooperate. Their success has a lot to do with how it’s done. By developing these social skills, you’re developing your emotional intelligence, which is in the end one of the most important accommodating techniques for dealing with a disability.
*Linda G. Tessler, PhD. is a licensed psychologist in private practice in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Dr. Tessler’s major interest is in serving persons with learning disabilities. This document was adapted from LDA Newsbriefs, Sept/Oct 1997.
For more information or help with accommodations at Taft College, make an appointment to see a Student Support Services Counselor (763-7775) or Learning Disabilities Specialist (763-7866).