Reasonable Accommodations and Supportive Professors

Shortly after being diagnosed with CIRS in 2016, I went to Canada for an archaeological field school excavating a 700-year-old Xwisten s7ístken (Bridge River band pit house). I had missed out on opportunities like this before due to my illness and I couldn't stand the thought of missing out again. Despite my worsening symptoms and better judgment, I decided to go anyway.

I had no business being there. I was so fucking sick. We worked long days in the hot sun and then had additional duties to perform at base camp in the evening, which added up to well over 14-hour days. I showed up each day and tried my best, but my condition grew progressively worse, and after about a week, I had completely run out of energy.

Fortunately, my professor and advisor Dr. Anna Prentiss was there to support me. Anna knew about my illness and worked closely with me to find an adjusted schedule that would work better for me, still allowing me to contribute while also staying within my abilities. She let me work half days, skip certain activities when I was flaring, arranged easier meals for me to make when it was my turn to cook dinner for everyone, and made sure I had the food I needed due to my dietary restrictions on the other days. Anna also asked other crew members to assist me in accomplishing certain tasks, like washing dishes and processing soil samples, and they were more than happy to do so.

Anna gave me the accommodations I needed to make participation possible for me, and allowed me to go at my own pace and contribute as much as I could. I still felt like an important and valued member of the team and I never felt like a burden. I know a lot of professors would not want to deal with a chronically ill and disabled student, especially on a field dig, and would probably refuse to work with me or make me feel bad about it, but Anna did not. Without her, my participation would not have been possible. She truly went above and beyond for me and I am forever grateful for the opportunity she gave me. We need more professors like Anna. Because while Anna continued to support me, other professors did not.

The following semester, as my illness and symptoms grew worse, I was no longer able to drive to campus or sit in a classroom for long periods. I discussed my options with disability services, and they told me I could request virtual learning options as a “reasonable accommodation” from my professors. Anna was more than happy to work with me, offering to let me Skype into class and do lab work from home. Unfortunately, every other professor told me that remote learning “wasn’t possible” and that my class participation would not count, so they refused to work with me. As a result, I was forced to drop out of graduate school.

Of course, remote learning wasn’t impossible, it was simply inconvenient. Just a few years later, every professor and every classroom would switch to remote learning during the height of the pandemic, and what a punch to the gut that was for me. As the world made it very clear to disabled people in 2020: the accommodations we requested were always possible, but nobody cared until it affected non-disabled people.

To all the teachers out there, please support disabled students, offer reasonable accommodations, be flexible in how learning takes place, and choose to see our value despite what our ableist society and capitalist productivity standards tell you.

In a world full of ableism, choose to be an Anna.

You know who also deserves a shoutout? Caregivers! Check out my post about caregivers at the link below:
www.disabledinthewild.com/blog/shoutout-to-caregivers