College Tips for Students in the Disability Community as Told by a College Alumni and Advisory Board Member Who Stutters
CONTENT WARNING: I would like to mention that I am not a college advisor, high school guidance counselor, psychologist, therapist, or Special Education lawyer and I am sharing this content for educational purposes only. If you have questions or concerns about college life as a person in the disability community, I recommend seeking help from an advisor at the colleges and/or universities that you are interested in attending or your guidance counselor if you are a high school student. If you suspect that your or your adult child's legal rights are being violated as a college student in the disability community, it is okay to get help, and I highly recommend seeking help from a Special Education lawyer and/or education system regulator who is qualified to do so.
I have been a guest speaker at my alma mater Bucks County Community College main campus' AACHIEVE program orientation for the past four years including this year. Bucks County Community College's AACHIEVE is a transition program for college students in the autism (spectrum) community who are transitioning from high school to college. In honor of back to school season, I decided the speech that I give to AACHIEVE's students and families every year as a blog post (with some minor edits for clarity and elaboration).
My name is Emily. I am 26 years old and a Class of 2024 alumni from Bryn Athyn College with my dual Bachelor's Degree in Early Childhood Education (PreK-4) and Special Education (PreK-12). I am also a Class of 2021 alumni from Bucks County Community College with my Associate's Degree in ECE. I am state certified in Special Education PreK-12 and have my Child Development Associate (CDA) certification. Very soon I will be going into my seventh year of teaching and starting a new job as a paraeducator in 4th-6th grade Life Skills Support at Murray Avenue School within Lower Moreland Township School District where I went to school when I was in 4th-12th grade. I also have a stutter.
Before I came to Bucks County Community College, I had a hard time at another school due to discrimination. The other university that I was at told me that they were disability friendly, and they were not as accommodating or even accepting as they promised that they would be. That was why I transferred to Bucks.
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I would like to say that Bucks County Community College is well known for having plenty of professors who are flexible and open-minded when it comes accommodating students of all abilities, especially who are in the disability community most of the time. Bucks County Community College's professors are notable for their usual cooperation when it comes to following all of the accommodations of their students in the disability community. They are also notable for answering the questions and concerns of students in the disability community to the best of their ability and meeting one-on-one if requested and necessary. Here are some tips for accommodations and navigating other college life situations below:
1. The process of requesting and being approved for accommodations in college
When requesting accommodations at any college or university, students in the disability community need to go through their school's Office of Disability Services, which some other schools may call the Office of Disability Resources or Accessibility Office. To be approved to receive accommodations at your college or university, you will be asked for a copy of your most previous Individualized Education Plan (IEP) or 504 Plan and diagnoses in writing. Also, make sure that your most recent evaluation is up to date. After you are approved for receiving accommodations, you will be emailed a letter with your accommodations in writing that you (the student) will need to give to each of your professors who you wish to share your accommodations with.2. Extra time on tests and taking tests in a reduced distraction environment as accommodations
(FYI Bucks County Community College's testing center was open to online students with and without extra time as an academic accommodation who were required to take tests in person for certain classes as well.) If you need a separate room as your reduced distraction environment, many testing centers can accommodate you in this way as well with a proctor supervising you behind a glass window. A separate room as a reduced distraction environment may help you if you prefer to read your tests aloud and/or to avoid visual and/or auditory nonverbal distractions (FYI find out first if you are allowed to read your tests aloud during in person/virtual supervised tests even if you are placed in a separate room as your reduced distraction environment. Some testing centers/testing companies prohibit test takers with and without testing accommodations from reading their tests aloud due to the sneaky technology that people use to cheat on tests these days unfortunately. Sometimes they prohibit this even after doing a body check for cheating devices. Unfortunately, no one ever knows for sure which strangers are telling the truth or not).
3. The benefits of taking chunked tests
Chunking tests may also be helpful for students whose disabilities cause them to struggle with paying attention, slow processing speed, working memory, and anxiety, especially if they have ADHD or learning disabilities, autism, and/or anxiety disorders. Students with ADHD, learning disabilities, autism, and/or anxiety disorders may take a really long time to understand and remember large amounts of information. So, chunking tests may relieve your stress of understanding and remembering large chunks of information.
4. Share your specific diagnoses with your professors.
I highly encourage you to share your specific diagnoses with professors. I will be honest that the Accessibility Office at any college or university does not tell the professors what the diagnoses of any students with accommodations are. The Accessibility Office just communicates what approved accommodations that individual students need through the accommodations letter. Telling your professors what your diagnoses are may be helpful so that they can have an understanding of your struggles, know how to provide differentiated instructions (DI) to you, and even work out possible additional solutions together to accommodate you in class.
5. Let your families be involved in your college life.
I highly encourage college students to let their family members who they have healthy relationships with get involved in their college lives while also working on building their independence. The Family and Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law that allows parents/guardians to be involved in their adult child's college life with their permission. I would like to speak freely that not all but many college professionals tend to give students of all differences and their families a hard time about letting families get involved in their adult children's college life. Unfortunately, sometimes this still happens if the student provides their legal permission. College professionals will say, "It is the student's choice to let their parents/guardians be involved in their college life because they are an adult." Yet, sometimes when the college student makes the adult choice to let their parents/guardians be involved in their college life as allowed by FERPA, not all but many college professionals will challenge this choice that the student makes by saying, "They need to advocate for themselves" after saying "It is the student's choice"; however, by the student choosing to let their parents/guardians be involved in their college life as the adult, they ARE advocating for themselves and challenging their choice is violating their legal right.
Students of all differences may face productive conversations as well as difficulties with communication with authority figures in college. To elaborate, people whose disabilities affect their social-emotional skills (especially ASD) tend to struggle with their communication skills more than other people. Their difficulties with communication skills can appear as knowing what to say while being afraid to say it or struggling to put what they want to say into words. Their slow processing speed may also cause them to struggle with appropriately thinking and reacting quickly (also known as "thinking on their feet") to people's responses in sticky situations that were unexpected for them. Not all but some authority figures can be ignorant of the needs of students of all differences instead of providing the student with necessary assistance and support. At the same token, not all but some authority figures may also be arrogant because they have the misconception that people of all differences disagreeing with them is defiance. They may believe that the student is challenging their authority because they do not like to have their authority challenged. As a result, there can be an imbalance of power that makes it difficult to deal with an uncooperative authority figure. So, sometimes students of all differences need another adult that they are used to to consult with and/or assist them for additional support when it comes to self-advocacy. For that matter, college students of all differences should sign their legal permission to let family members who they have healthy relationships with be involved in their college lives in the event that concerns like these arise.
[Image Description: "KEY word = additional support" is in center-aligned dark blue text with a female student emoji, plus sign emoji, family emoji of two men and a girl, another plus sign emoji, man with a dark skin tone teacher emoji, equals sign emoji, and revolving hearts emoji (left to right) above. There is a key emoji on both sides of "KEY word." The image also has a light blue background with my First Former Buddy Club President logo in the bottom left corner of the image. "FIRST FORMER BUDDY CLUB PRESIDENT" in center-aligned black Marker Felt font overlapping an enlarged light blue heart with several small red hearts and a light blue background in the background of the enlarged heart.]
While independence is absolutely a very important and needed life skill, college is very hard for anyone, especially in the first years. Overall, parents/guardians are experienced adults and some of them have been to college before too and since you are used to them and each other and know them more, they may know how to help too along with the people at school. In fact, plenty of research studies have shown that the prefrontal cortex of the brain (responsible for working memory, problem-solving, decision making, planning, reasoning, personality expression, impulse control, emotion regulation, moral behavior, and anticipating and adjusting to events in the environment) does not fully develop until 25 years old. So, parents/guardians can give guidance for learning and applying that independence as well since college students of all differences are still maturing and learning to deal with problem-solving as young adults. It is also still okay to ask for help to continuously enhance independence skills when adults are older than 25 years old (My academically talented 27 year old brother and I who are very independent still ask our parents for their opinions about lots of things). In order to be independent, anyone needs to be taught how to be independent. To quote my favorite American poet, Alex Elle, "You can be independent and still need help."
[Image Description: "You can be independent and still need help." is in left-aligned violet text with "-Alex Elle" in enlarged left-aligned dark purple text. The image also has a light purple background with my First Former Buddy Club President logo in the bottom left corner of the image. "FIRST FORMER BUDDY CLUB PRESIDENT" in center-aligned black Marker Felt font overlapping an enlarged light blue heart with several small red hearts and a light blue background in the background of the enlarged heart.]
My parents and I were very distraught about what the school where I previously attended before Bucks put me through and I was also a very busy student who worked part-time at the moment. This was followed by my mother reaching out to Bucks County Community College to speak to someone from the program that my major is for. My mother was connected to a professor who is actually a well-known professional in the Special Education field. This professor was very supportive and validating of my mother's additional support with my legal consent. My parents and I have always been very supportive of both my and my brother's school lives. From what I remember, most of my professors at Bucks and my parents were very supportive when I chose to handle school situations independently and when I chose to have my parents involved in my school life for additional support.
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6. Listen to mindfulness meditation music while studying and doing homework.
A studying strategy that I suggest is listening to mindfulness meditation music, which is calming music. When I was in college, I listened to mindfulness meditation music while doing my homework and studying along with continuing to use it to fall asleep at night. YouTube has plenty of free mindfulness meditation music and there even versions specifically created for ASD and ADHD. Trauma-informed mindfulness meditation music is available too. Listening to mindfulness meditation music while studying and doing homework is unhelpful for some people because it can be distraction. If you are one of these people who gets easily distracted by music playing that is completely ok. Find and use what works for you. Self-care is also so important to protect anyone's mental health. So, please take care of yourselves every day as college students.
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7. Transfer tips
I also have some suggestions for if you want to transfer to another college or university after you graduate from or finish your two years at a community college or decide that the college that you initially attended was not for you (And that is completely valid opinion. Stuff happens. I had a rocky start during my first year of college and transferring was for the best for personal reasons):
1. Find out/confirm that the school or schools that you are interested in attending have your major and that their program is a good fit for you. Go to an open house or two and speak to an advisor.
2. Make sure that your credits transfer and match up with alike courses where you are transferring to so that you do not need to retake courses that you already passed.
3. Once you register, make sure that the classes that you were told would transfer transferred. I found some mistakes that were made in the beginning of my first year at Bryn Athyn College. Make sure to have a copy of your most recent transcript to compare what the school that you are transferring to has in their system. Even though the school that you are transferring to receives a copy of your transcript, it is a good rule of thumb to have your own copy to make sure about any possible mistakes.
Keep in mind that every disability journey and college experience is different for everyone. I live by the affirmation, "Everybody is going through a rough battle that no one knows anything about. So always be kind." I live by this affirmation because not all disabilities and struggles are easily visible just by looking at or observing someone and not everyone is fully open about what they could be going through. If you are experiencing a hard time with getting your accommodations approved in college in the beginning or at all or difficulty with getting professors to follow them, know that you are not alone. Situations like these can make education harder than necessary and harmful to mental health. What I suggest that you do in this situation is to really stay on all of your professors and the people from the Accessibility Office who are in charge of approving your accommodations. Make sure that they are doing what they are supposed to do to meet your needs and legal rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). I also want to remind you of my favorite affirmations that got me through rough college days and can benefit any college students because college is hard for students of all abilities:
- It is okay to be different.
- It is okay to ask for help.
- "It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop." -Confucius (Chinese philosopher)
- Keep trying.
- Be kind to yourself.
- Remind yourself why you started what you are doing.
- You can do hard things.
- Set realistic goals for yourself.
- Take everything day by day.
- It is okay not to be okay.
- There will be bad days just like you have anywhere else.
- You need to fight through some bad days to get to the best days of your life.
- "Believe you can and you're halfway there." -Theodore Roosevelt (26th President of the United States of America)
To learn more about how to self-advocate if you are a college student in the disability community and how to advocate for your adult child college student in the disability community to provide additional support, I highly recommend the following books below:
- Navigating College: A Handbook on Self Advocacy written for Autistic students, by Autistic adults brought to you by Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN), and Foreword by ASAN President Ari Ne'eman
- The Parents' Guide to College for Students on the Autism Spectrum written by Jane Thierfeld Brown Ed.D., Lorraine E. Wolf Ph.D., Lisa King M.Ed., and G. Ruth Kukiela Bork M.Ed. (Even though I am not a parent, I read this book anyway to try to gain and maintain a further understanding of my students' families' perspectives as an aspiring Special Education teacher.)
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