I'm being discriminated based on disability by my university

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All the profs knew about my AS because I disclosed it in my rationale letter when I applied to their program, and they never told me anything about what you said. The internship course is a requirement in my ABA program.

I'd take a poker pause on the decision whether or not to accept the alternate degree. Kind of feel your way (like a poker player) and feel whether it feels like a positive decision.

If you get a lawyer and file a lawsuit, which is certainly something to consider, the fact that you accept this may weaken your case.

I think it is easily within the range of normality to feel suicidal after being blown out of the water, and facing this seeming monolithic wall of people primarily interested in their own ego (your advisor being a happy exception) and "being right" and not being wrong that they just stack lies, that they just take an official lie, that the important thing, oh no, the institution can't be wrong.

Please use us as one resource. There is the obvious resource of therapists and counselors. But there are unofficial resources like a regular doctor (I personally have not had good luck with counselors). And there are unofficial people like massage therapists and hair stylists, and I'm serious, sometimes they are excellent listeners with good life experience and general wisdom. And please count us among the good guys even though we are far from perfect.

At a local university, I saw two Saturday morning seminar presentations on ABA with video from actual sessions. I was not impressed. It seemed like students in their early twenties trying to do it in a tight, nervous, 'perfect' way, almost making a dogma and a religion out of it. One of the rewards was a student saying, 'Give me five. Great Job!' Well, as a person on the spectrum, I don't know if I'd want an adult getting right in my face all expressive and beaming, when they are clearly playing a role. And the hand slapping of 'giving five,' well maybe, if it's in a gentle predictable way.

Point being, they need good people doing it right! Using ABA as a good tool, but not making a perfectionist religion out of the whole thing.

And who better than someone on the spectrum themselves!

You can understand right off the bat that an adult getting all in the face of an autistic child may not exactly be the greatest thing in the world. Now, the other students can learn about sensory issues, overloading, predictable environments, etc. They can get it. For a while it will be like a second language, but they meet enough autistic persons, they can more start understanding it from the gut. But . . .

You are ahead of the game.

It's like a physician who himself or herself has diabetes treating patients who also have diabetes. Yes, the physician understands each case is different and each patient needs to be treated as an individual, but it certainly is a source of strength and understanding to draw upon.
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The other thing I might add, you don't need to be Rosa Parks, certainly not be yourself. That's a heavy obligation for anyone. And you might have read that she was Secretary of her local NAACP and had attended the Highland Folk School. That is, she was both a regular person and a somewhat seasoned activist (and mistakes are allowed!). And Martin Luther King, Jr., had both his wife Coretta Scott King and his best friend and fellow activist Ralph Abernathy.

Exactly.

Request reasonable accommodations up front in writing, and know your limits beforehand. I'm a strong believer both in requesting up front reasonable ADA accommodations, as well as knowing if you can complete something. Did you not know there was a social internship before the program began? If not, why?

If there was inadequate supervision from your faculty professor, you should have contacted either your department or that professor to resolve things. Your degree, your responsibility. Blaming a faulty professor doesn't get you far-- you should've done something about inadequate supervision during your internship. Disability accommodations should be reasonable, and not a crutch for your personal failures. If your professors fail to teach, supervise, etc., it's your job as the student to contact your department or school.

They offered you another degree. I say... take it.

UM, no, it's not. I find it hard to sympathize when you're comparing you failing a college degree program with racism, slavery, and segregation.

I agree with you, but I think that there is the point that it can be difficult for people with ASDs to recognize what impairments they really have, due to the nature of it.

That's exactly the problem I had with the practicum and internship part of my program. Academically, I did fine on the basic coursework, with a GPA of 3.3, and I've already finished all my basic coursework (I did not fail any of the basic coursework!! !). But what A LOT of people don't understand is that unlike many physical and other psychological disorders, it's extremely difficult like myself, and other individuals with AS, to be aware of the much more subtle signs and characteristics of AS, and it's extremely difficult to realize that they do have possible problems with particular internships unless they enrol in it and are told DIRECTLY that they do have problems and what the problems are (also, at least for me, I wasn't even aware some of the stuff I did or what I said were less than appropriate in the first place!!). That's why it's more difficult to obtain accommodations before enrolling in internships without first knowing WHAT KIND of accommodations SPECIFIC to the internship that you'll need to get. The kind of accommodation for basic coursework and practical courses (internships, practicums etc) are very different.

I never tried to get pity from anyone. But this is exactly how I feel right now.

You didn't get my point. It's about the refusal by the university to allow me to retake my internship (which was terminated only halfway through my internship) with proper accommodations (which already broke ADA federal law), while others in the past who failed internships and were allowed to redo it again, that have made me extremely upset.

I'm not sure that's hard-wired into ADA. Whereas that may be the more strategic way to go about it, I think it's the case that if a person makes a request at any time, the institution is duty-bound to try and look for a way and try and find reasonable accommodations if they can.

And I still get back to the fact that you as a person on the spectrum wanting to help kids (and others?) on the spectrum is an absolute gift. And it is a failure of the institution that they can't view this as a gift.

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I think this is a case of an institution not being able to acknowledge the possibility that they may have made a mistake, and the institutional response of circling the wagons. Or, as an example, when the police fixate on the first suspect, the person who is "obviously" guilty (who in fact turns out to be innocent), the prosecutors and court system have a very hard time acknowledging down the road that they may have made a mistake. I have seen cases of this happening in the United States, Italy, and Australia. (and most probably other countries as well)

Nope, from the ADA enforcement guidance notes:

"Since reasonable accommodation is always prospective, an employer is not required to excuse past misconduct even if it is the result of the individual's disability."

103. See Siefken v. Arlington Heights, 65 F.3d 664, 666, 4 AD Cas. (BNA) 1441, 1442 (7th Cir. 1995). Therefore, it may be in the employee's interest to request a reasonable accommodation before performance suffers or conduct problems occur. For more information on conduct standards, including when they are job-related and consistent with business necessity, see ADA and Psychiatric Disabilities, supra note 27, at 29-32, 8 FEP Manual (BNA) 405:7476-78.

An employer does not have to offer a "firm choice" or a "last chance agreement" to an employee who performs poorly or who has engaged in misconduct because of alcoholism. "Firm choice" or "last chance agreements" involve excusing past performance or conduct problems resulting from alcoholism in exchange for an employee's receiving substance abuse treatment and refraining from further use of alcohol. Violation of such an agreement generally warrants termination. Since the ADA does not require employers to excuse poor performance or violation of conduct standards that are job-related and consistent with business necessity, an employer has no obligation to provide "firm choice" or a "last chance agreement" as a reasonable accommodation. See Johnson v. Babbitt, EEOC Docket No. 03940100 (March 28, 1996). However, an employer may choose to offer an employee a "firm choice" or a "last chance agreement."

Jason.

Just to elaborate on my last point, no you don't have to put any accomodations into writing.

However as from the above passages and case law associated with the ADA, if you don't request a specific accomodation, you can't later use this as a defense for any disciplinary or conduct problems.

For an aspie in this situation you really should think about involving an experienced aspergers support worker in any of these negotations and do them up front. You DO have to carefully consider the consequences in the workplace, but I can't see any real benefit in hiding at University.

Jason

If others were allowed to retake their internship after failing then you should be able to as well. It does sound discriminatory to me. Now you know where you went wrong you should get another chance, how can you prove you can do it if they won't give you the opportunity to try again? They won't give you that because it seems they have already decided you can't do it. That is not fair. I have no ideas to help but I understand how you feel so upset about this. Good luck trying to sort it out, i'll be cheering for you here in cyberspace!

You don't get my point.

Failing a college internship is NOTHING like segregation, slavery, and racism.

Why were previous students allowed to re-do their internships? Why did you choose a program that required a social internship, knowing full well that it would be hard for you? Why did you not talk to your department DURING the internship, during which time you said there was inadequate faculty supervision? It's your job as a student to talk to your department and advisers as programs or faulty supervision occur.

You failed to complete the requirements for the first degree, and were offered an alternative degree. Take it. Learn from this. The school made mistakes here, and so did you.

I think Civil Rights is a good analogy (okay, not slavery, but segregation, including being excluded from jobs when a person doesn't need to be).

And I think Gay Rights is another good analogy, the right to be different, to be authentically oneself, even in a way which matters, even in a way which people don't initially understand.

I tell myself, engagement, not conformity.

To a point. The thing with civil rights, gay rights etc is that those groups are no less functional in any way than the general public. They have no social deficit. Many jobs that don't really require "people persons" demand that sort of thing anyway, and I do think that's discriminatory, but I also think some jobs actually do require exceptionally good interpersonal skills. I probably wouldn't hire someone with AS to be a grief counsellor, for example, unless they had a very good track record.