Are you ready for a very special episode? Because I’m about to Very Special Episode all up in here.
That said, I’m going to start this off with a little bit of personal but important to this post: I have Aspergers. I was diagnosed about 4 years ago I think? Over a period of about 6 months and intense inconvenience. I mention this as way of distinguishing myself from the many, many terrible people on the internet who think that (falsely) claiming to have Aspergers or other disorders somehow justifies acting like assholes (it doesn’t).
Okay then. Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s get on with this. I plan on mostly talking about my experiences with how this effects my time at BCIT, but who knows, I’m known to ramble and I might expand from that.
The easiest place to start here is probably the wallet. Or more specifically, Grants and Bursaries. In BC there are 2 disability Grant/Bursaries someone can apply for. One of them provincial and the other National. If you are applicable for these, apply for them. It is a month of hellish paperwork to be recognized as applicable. Including meeting a lot of fairly tight deadlines and trying to get references from the doctor who diagnosed you which in itself could take months. But it’s also something you only need to do once, and it can make a huge impact on your debt by the time your done. The way bursaries work you can only apply once per accounting year (BCIT’s starts in summer) but for a full time program like the one I’m in, you get nearly enough to pay for that 1 semester you got it for.
Another Important thing is the Disability Resource Centre. It closes a little bit on the early side (4:30) but is extremely helpful. Personally I am entitled to more testing time (more to deal with anxiety than taking longer to finish) and a nice, quite testing environment, both of which really help with my testing performance. Being able to use this place is also really easy. You need to book an appointment with one of the coordinators, fill out a few forms, and tell them all your classes & instructor contact info. Though it’s not applicable to myself, you also need to do this if you need some sort of in-class accommodation (ex. A transcriber).
Now, this thing needs to be about 20% longer so lets talk discrimination. I have, at BCIT, had basically no problems with this and only 1 near-miss. Of course, I blend in pretty well so I’m maybe not the best example. It should, however, speak volumes that I’m confident enough to post this here without really worrying about provoking anything. That 1 near-miss was a teacher (who will remain nameless) who almost used my having extra test time as justification for a crappy test mark when I asked him about changing it. And it ended as quickly as it started with my stating, quite clearly, that if he went there, he it would be discrimination and a whole different can of worms. And though that may sound bad, keep in mind that it was 1 instructor who needed a reminder compared to over 2 dozen who are just fine and a few who have actually gone out of their ways to be more accommodating. There’s always room for improvement, but that’s a pretty good track record.
And when all is said and done, I’d rather have the good stuff with the bad stuff then neither.