Back to Normal: No Accessibility, No Help
This pandemic is far from over, but schools are rushing to get everything back to “normal.”
With normality comes the stripping of every accessibility option made during the pandemic. Am I a fan? No. My disabilities are killing me.
Accommodations such as online ways to stream in-person class, non-required attendance and common sympathy seem to have disappeared. Back to normal. Great, especially for people like me.
From a disabled person to you, here are a few ways that going back to “normal” has killed my physical and mental health.
In-person classes = walking everywhere.
I have a connective tissue disorder. Flare-ups happen, and if I do too much, I won’t be able to walk. Going from Zoom lectures to four classes in different buildings all across campus has ruined my joints.
It got so bad I had to drive three and a half hours home to see my orthopedic surgeon. The daily strain of stairs and hills meant I had to be put on steroids for the next week. Does that seem “normal” to you? Because guess what: this was my normal before COVID-19 entered the scene.
I’ve had people from Auburn’s accommodation office tell me to use the school’s golf cart system to get to class. While in theory that sounds smart, everyone I know that has used it has been late to class. Sometimes, the golf cart was 40+ minutes late.
If classes got out early, you couldn’t just have the golf cart pick you up. They came at the end of the scheduled class time. As much as I wish it could work, I know there will be many complications, and the anxiety I’d get from it feels unnecessary.
It’s exhausting.
Required attendance is in full swing.
Personally, I’ve always thought requiring someone to go to class in college as a part of the grade is stupid. Life comes up, and not everything is a cookie-cutter excuse you can get an excuse note for. As long as they’re getting good grades and understanding the material, they shouldn’t have to be forced to go to class every single day.
Luckily, I can miss classes with my disability accommodations. The only thing is I have to explain what’s happening to my professor. I feel like I shouldn’t have to tell someone I can’t leave my bed because I’ll pass out just to get an excused absence.
To this day, I still feel extremely guilty every time I miss class. Sometimes it makes me question if I’m “faking everything” and being overdramatic. Past experiences gave me this mindset. My anxiety skyrockets, and I’ll shame myself for the rest of the day.
Is that really necessary?
There’s no way to stream my classes if I do miss.
I may have the accommodation to miss classes, but I’m still at a disadvantage. I miss the lecture, discussion and notes. At least when everyone was prone to a deadly disease they noticed the importance of recording and livestreaming every lecture.
Now that able-bodied people aren’t at a disadvantage, society sees no reason to keep these “luxuries” available. Accessibility isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity. To see the progress of universal accessibility completely trashed is disheartening. I don’t want to live like this.
I feel like an outsider looking in.
Students are going to full-capacity football games with no masks and carefree. Me? I have to stay home. I never been able to do gamedays to begin with because of my disabilities. I’ve always missed that part of the college experience. But here’s the problem: I can barely leave my house now because COVID could still make me deathly ill.
Yeah, I’ve been fully vaccinated for a while, but I’m still high risk. The new variant has breakthrough cases, and knowing my luck, I could be one of them. I wish I didn’t have to worry about the pandemic, but I don’t have the privilege of a functioning immune system.
Seeing people living their best lives all over social media while you can’t leave your house isn’t a fun feeling. It makes me feel hopeless and trapped.
Accommodation offices don’t fully listen to COVID-related concerns.
Sadly, fears of COVID don’t count as an excuse for online class options. It’s up to the professors to give you the option of online accommodations, and YOU have to initiate that conversation with them—not the accommodations office.
I’m sorry, but that doesn’t seem right or fair. Why do I have to explain my fears as a high risk, disabled student to my professor to get an accommodation? It’s personal, and I shouldn’t have to fight just to keep myself safe.
It’s just ironic that the university can force immunocompromised students to risk their lives in class every day but not force a professor to make the class remote for one student. I mean, if there’s anything I’ve learned this year, it’s not impossible for classes to make that switch.
It’s also just sad that many people with disabilities are expressing these concerns with no sign of help in sight. I feel silenced once again.
It’s tiring living this way. Ableism is still so prevalent in society and the workforce today. Next time you hear someone is struggling, listen and don’t be quick to judge. We need each other more than ever.
Sincerely, Abbey
Photography: Abbey C.