Probably the most frustrating thing about trying to go to BYU as a disabled student is how hard it is to feel normal. Laws and ramps and elevators are great and all, but if the professors aren’t willing to help, it can be so difficult. I’m here at BYU because I want to learn, because I want to be a good student. But I can’t do my best because things happen. Sometimes, I wished professors would acknowledge that we as students have lives outside their classroom. For disabled students, we have more of a “life” to live than most because we have doctor appointments, longer and more difficult transits, and just plain old-fashioned emergencies. I hate the stress sometimes that I have trying to figure out when and where to fit in an appointment that could literally be a life-or-death appointment, all while the professor demands that in “their” class, it’s unacceptable to miss.
I admit this is a bit of extreme point, and most professors aren’t like this in specific cases, but still, every time a disabled student has to do something to accommodate for his or her disability and/or health, they get penalized and disadvantaged,whether that’s intentional or even on a subconscious level. An individual student will always take more of the penalty than a school system is willing to acknowledge. The first step to fixing a problem is acknowledging there is one. Disabled students live with it, but I hope one day college campuses will fully see it.