Terrible experience asking for accommodations
First time ever asking for accommodations for school, and the person I met with at the student disability office admitted to not doing a single ounce of research into narcolepsy or potential accommodations prior to our meeting.
Two direct quotes:
“My advice is to just leave your house earlier” — said right after I mentioned that sleep inertia sometimes impacts my ability to wake up in the mornings, which affects my ability to get a seat in the back of the lecture hall (first spots to fill) to avoid distracting others when I inevitably need to stand up to stay awake. I wasn’t sure if reserved seating was a possibility, so I was fine with being told I couldn’t get that accommodation, but just felt wild to have my experience discredited by somebody who was supposed to be an advocate for me…
“Probably just nap in your car. It’s not like we have a bed to offer you” — said right after I asked if I would be able to access a space to take naps between in-person classes. I literally was just hoping to have permission to use like one of the meeting rooms students aren’t generally allowed to nap in when it was empty during the scorching summer and freezing winters in Michigan.
I guess I’m just wondering if these requests seem unreasonable to y’all? Like I left this meeting feeling entitled for thinking I deserved help with either of these things. It felt like they thought I’m just a lazy student
Idk… If anybody has had a similar experience I would love some commiseration. Or if you think my requests were unreasonable, I would also love to be humbled because I don’t want to come across entitled either
Oh well, end rant.