Disability Coordinator issues

Post Reply New Topic

What should I do if I provided the disability coordinator at my college with documentation from a professional stating my asperger's diagnosis (among some other things) and she doesn't believe me? She refused to acknowledge my diagnosis and was putting up obstacles to make it difficult for me to receive accommodations. I spoke with the dean who said she would speak with the disability coordinator. The coordinator had the nerve to tell the advocate at my school that I was lying about my documentation and the advocate confronted me about it. I feel embarrassed and shocked that fifteen pages of documentation from my doctor means nothing to the coordinator. Any suggestions?

You need to ask why they think you're lying and debunk each and every one of their accusations with a calm and collected train of thought. If you start getting defensive, the coordinator sounds like she can bully you - for whatever reason that is. She probably became a disability coordiantor because she wants to NOT help people with disabilities. You never know. Just play it cool.

I'm with WhiteWidow. Play it cool. Don't let them rattle you.

Don't let them team up against you. Either keep it one on one. Or make sure you and your advocates always at least equal them and their advocates.

At least you found out what she was like early. That might be the silver lining.

And this at the same time you want to be jumping ahead on your reading, etc, etc.

Wow.

Well, okay, the baseline is that many people believe persons on the Autism Spectrum can't talk and engage in repetitive motions. Well, some of us use keepboards. Many of us talk just fine thank you very much. Perhaps some of us use sign language and I hope that becomes more of a live option for children on the spectrum. (Oh, yes, about repetitive motion . . . I'm pretty good at disguising stimming and/or I stim at the end of the day at home.)

And many people don't believe that Asperger's is "real." And this includes a fair number of people including professionals who have received "training."

All the same, even with this baseline,

This lady sounds really immature.

The dean talks to her and her response is to go talk behind your back and run you down to your advocate. Wow. She's just not very good.

One silver lining, you might be able to use this occasion to request that someone else be your informal disability coordinator and help you get accommodations. And you feeling embarrassed and shocked, that is a very human reaction to someone accusing you of lying, and making this accusation to someone important to you, even when patently untrue.

Maybe write a half page letter to the Dean. Maybe even say, 'She went behind my back. She told my advocate I was lying. I want someone new' [which you have every right to request, whether or not a clunky bureaucracy can meet this request, well that's another matter] Maybe wait on this letter overnight and see how it feels.

There is a saying in business MIWJ, which stands for Minimize Interaction With Jerks. This lady will be of indifferent occasional help at best, and she will be undependable. Maybe the Dean will talk to her a second time and she will try and "make nice." She may then be sincere in a way, but still, she's just not that mature an individual. She probably resents all the things she's judged at at the school and for some reason, some of this is focusing on you.

Now, with your advocate, you want him or her squarely on your side. Maybe have something you can physically show him or her, often people take this more seriously than something merely verbal, and it could be something just printed off the Internet. I would almost recommend like a movie scene, like negotiation between countries, 'Now I want you to feel confident . . ' Your advocate might say that he or she does. 'Are you sure?' 'Please let me know if you have doubts later on. Because I need you squarely behind you.'

---------------------------------

And please don't let all this bad stuff interfere with the good stuff of college.

Just wondering what college are you trying to get into? Also what state?

Or in just general, America, UK, large state school, small private school? That kind of thing. Still seems unacceptable on the part of this so-called coordinator, whatever the venue.

Hi,

I'm sorry you're having this problem. And I wish I had better news/advice. Colleges accommodate students as much as they wish--on paper, the ADA is a fine law, but in reality, students don't really have much power if their college says 'no.' And colleges and individual teachers often say no.

Usually they say no because accommodations are a hassle for them, but sometimes they say no because they don't believe AS/ADHD/LD/you-name-it is real.

Let me qualify all this by saying I'm speaking from my own experience, and while my experience isn't global, it does encompass six colleges/ universities (two from which I've received degrees, two where I've taken classes, and two where I've taught adjunct). I have ADD/LD, not AS, but receive the same sort of accommodations that AS folk tend to receive.I had one school tell me, flat out, that I didn't belong there, and, realistically, there was nothing I could do about it--the happy ending is that I got my masters and won a fellowship along the way. The college where I received my BA decided to flout confidentiality, and so information about my disability went as far as the admissions dept.--I received unkind words from them telling me they believed I'd violated the college honor code by not revealing my disability when I applied. I wasn't diagnosed when I applied, and besides, requiring someone to disclose is illegal--but neither fact bothered them.

No one was bothered because, as a student, my only recourse was to file a discrimination claim. On paper, this should work, but schools are unlikely to find that their own people are guilty of discrimination, so all it tends to do is give the student a bad name that will haunt them when they go to ask for letters of recommendation.

Now I'm going back to school now to get some prerecs for a second masters, and I'm finding the same problems I had a decade ago. I wish I had better advice, but all I can say is please, watch your back. If you need a conversation with an administrator to be confidential, get that promise of confidentiality in writing via email -before- you have it. Finally, if things get bad, have your doctor write your school. By overriding his advice, your disability coordinator is practicing medicine without a license--your doc has the medical degree; she does not--and maybe you should consider having him cc a lawyer in his letter.

Wish I had better news,
Piedmont

I've never gone down that road, but lawyers and the press are the only things that colleges fear.