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Old Nov 14, 2021, 09:35 AM
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ThunderGoddess ThunderGoddess is offline
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Member Since: Nov 2014
Location: The beach.
Posts: 591
Quote:
Originally Posted by SprinkL3 View Post
I would contact the ADA and see if they can intervene on your behalf, and for all disabled persons at that school. That school deserves a lawsuit for that!!!

There are many "elitist" schools that are not inclusive, and they go out of their way to be the opposite - exclusive (and rather discriminatory). They negate the different types of talents people have, and the needs of disabled persons who can learn well part-time, but not full-time. They also negate the need to treat mental disabilities the same as physical disabilities, in terms of offering accommodations. It's as if they want to do everything in their power to prevent those with mental illnesses from achieving higher education and thus higher-waged jobs part-time. And even if the so-called market would not bear part-time workers for, say, so-called white-collared jobs, it doesn't mean that disabled persons should not be trained well enough in the event that they could work full-time later on OR in the event they do find an employer seeking part-time professionals. But then you'd have able-bodied people arguing that we're taking their jobs or their opportunities to work double than we can without having to (micro)manage two or more people. I can hear the disdain now, as I've heard it throughout almost every recession and other economic downturn. It's sickening, and it is discriminatory!

On the other hand, if it's a form that you fill out to indicate that you need accommodations because you are disabled, that's a different story. If it's one of those forms, someone should have explained it better and in a more inclusive, protective, and kinder way than how it was just thrown at you. I think it is important to disclose that you have a disability in order to get accommodations, but you don't need to be specific about that disability. Also, filling out a form of such nature should come with ethical practices that do not hinder your chances of advancement, internship opportunities, assistantships for part-time students, etc. Now if there are particular scholarships and assistantships that are for disabled persons, or if there are particular funding for that, it's not discriminatory; it's actually inclusive. But for such, you would need to disclose.

It gets tricky when there are other issues involved, such as more funding for non-disabled persons, and more funding for physically disabled persons than mentally disabled persons, etc.
Yep, the way people with mental disabilities are treated compared to physical is mind boggling. I feel like mental health awareness month is such a joke right now because the stigma is still going very strong!

I did file a complaint with the department of education and they responded one time that they'll look at the emails I sent them. But I've never heard back.

The form was not for disability. I had moved back to my hometown in 2020 and did not work from that point forward but I did work full-time in 2019. So when I applied for financial aid in Aug 2021, they went by 2019 income and said I made too much money for the aid.

I informed them I haven't worked since Dec of 2019. So they said I had to fill out this special circumstances form explaining my loss of income. This form is for anyone who had a loss of income during the reporting periods so that you can get financial aid prior to the next fiscal year basically.

The form only had 3 options to pick from to explain why your income was reduced. I forget all of them but the one I choose was "loss of employment" because the other 2 didn't fit at all. So under loss of employment you have to supply certain documents such as proof of being laid off, proof of reduced hours, or proof of unemployment benefits.

I didn't have any of this because I quit my last job because of mental health issues. When I started to explain this, that is when they demanded I go back to the employer I quit and get a letter from them, they asked me to file for unemployment benefits even though I wouldn't qualify since I quit, they asked me for the letter stating I'm unable to work because of a disability. And they were really mean about each one they acted as if I was trying to pull one over on them and get a hand out. The woman even asked me 3 times if I thought I could handle going to school, the 3rd time she asked I told her not to ask me that again. And this was all the financial aid department.

I asked to speak with the accessibility department about the documents they were requesting and the way the financial aid office was questing my ability to go to school I felt it was discriminatory. The accessibility office never responded!!

So this is just typical of mental health though we're treated as if we're less than human a lot of times.
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Just keep swimming
I have BPD or Autism or both, we may never know, the focus is always the symptoms, not the diagnosis
Hugs from:
SprinkL3
Thanks for this!
SprinkL3