Nic

Fishman

STATISTICS · MACHINE LEARNING · SOCIOLOGY

Being disabled as a student in college

Being disabled in the academy absolutely sucks. I have three very brief pieces of advice.

  1. Get accomodations from your university disability office. Usually this requires some proof from a doctor or a psychologist, but after you get that it is often quite straightforward. If you can get formal accomodations someone in the disability office will have your back, and that can be invaluable.
  2. Tell your professors about your disability before the term or very early on. It is best if you have accomodations, but this may make sense to do even if you don't. And pay attention to how they respond. I've dropped classes because professors didn't seem accomodating in their response to my first email.
  3. Try to find other disabled students who you can talk to and commiserate with. This is genuinely invaluable.

Please feel free to reach out to me if you are disabled and need advice/someone to talk to.