Help from disability office
Hello
I have just recently got the diagnosis, but it's a bit difficult to know what I need help with, so I am wondering what kind of help an aspie usually receives from the disability office, and what kind of help you receive(d)? I am reading Developing College Skills in Students with Autism and Asperger's Syndrome by Sarita Freedman, and it's good, especially the part about organizing, but I still find it difficult to see what the disability office can do, and understand what it is I need help with. Thank you in advance. ![]()
A disability office acts as an intermediary between a student and their professor and can advocate for a student with disabilities. If there is some sort of accommodation that you need that is related to a disability then they will get your professors to implement that accommodation, e.g. if you need more time to take an exam, need a room without fluorescent lights, extra tutoring, etc. Sometimes the disability office is really good at advocating for students and sometimes they are not so good. If you need to use the disability office it's probably good to do a little bit to educate the staff about Aspergers/Autism, like having them read a fact sheet or explaining the disorder to them, and have a list of some things that would help you. There aren't always people in the disability office who are experts in developmental disabilities and they don't always know how to help people with this type of disability; it sometimes ends up being the student who has to tell the disability office how he/she needs help. Therapists are sometimes better at training us to have better coping skills, although the disability office can be helpful if you get a difficult professor or difficult class that is beyond your ability to handle.
Good luck in college!
Good luck in your college pursuits my freind. For 2 semesters, I was getting near 3.0 GPA's looking forward to increasing my GPA way higher (for my 4 year university transfer credits) and one lady at the Disability Office suggested me one Math teacher who literally destroyed my semester. The teacher I got for Math was like a worst nightmare. I told him I was a DSPS student and he treated me like a slacker in the class and acted like as if I don't exist in the class. He even pushed me not to drop the class and killed my GPA by great amount and I am so mad at him. He acted like as if he was the most helpful teacher and really cared about everyone. All he did was let struggling students struggle more and give 99% of his attention to A students (there was probably only 1 or 2 in the class). I worked my ass of giving 95% of my time for that class (5% for the other 3 classes) and I flunked this class. The rest of the other classes, I barely passed. But anyways, use the Disability Office to your advantage but don't be too trustworthy either. Play it safe, that is all I am saying and you will be one the right track. I learned a lot of lessons from this academic horror experience and this gave me even more determination to succeed in my classes.
