I never realized how inaccessible UMass was until it directly affected my everyday life. I had surgery on January 7th, right before the spring semester began. I was not allowed to put weight on my foot for six weeks post-surgery and was strictly on crutches. When I came back to campus, I began to realize how hard it was for me to get into most buildings. I immediately signed up for disability services and have chosen to do school online to make my life easier. However, there still have been some added stresses involved in going to school here with a disability.
To start, although disability services are extremely helpful, there are still various steps involved. I must make sure I sign up for my exam in my class five days prior to the exam day, in order to get a spot in the room at Whitmore. I also have to take the exam at a different time from the rest of the class due to having to get rides to and from campus. This whole process gives me a lot of anxiety.
When it comes to the professors, many do their best to work with me, but there are times they forget to post certain things or send me links. I specifically have had one class in which the teacher offered to send me the Zoom link every week before class. However, I have never received a Zoom link and am not getting responses to my emails. This is very frustrating to me because I am never able to attend this class. I don’t want to fall behind, so I continue to take the quizzes and do the assignments for the class, but it has to be strictly off the PowerPoints.
I have another class that is in a completely inaccessible building. The class is located on the third floor with only stairs to get there. This is the one class I do need to attend, as there are quizzes taken during class time. I contacted my TA, and she was very helpful in offering to talk to disability services to see if we could relocate the class. That’s great and all, but unfortunately, if that happens and I am then able to go to class, everyone is going to know that I was the reason we had to relocate. I just feel as though I will have all eyes on me, and that’s going to make me extremely anxious. If the buildings were all accessible, this wouldn’t have to happen.
Going to school here with a disability was never something I thought about until I was affected. It has been a very stressful and frustrating process for me. I am luckily only temporarily disabled, and my heart goes out to anyone who has or is disabled, trying to get their degree through this inaccessible world.
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