The Perennial Sam

Tonight I am briefly going to touch on the services available to disabled students at post-secondary institutions. 

When I began university, I came prepared with letters from both my psychiatrist and family doctor.  One was an official diagnosis of my condition, and both requested accomodations I may need in order to succeed at university.  I was not aware at this time that there was an Office for Persons with Disabilities (OPD) at my school, nor that I fell into the group that could access the resources there - no one had ever mentioned the word disability to me.  As I was not sure where to go with my letters, I took them to the registrar of my small university college.  The college does not have a policy for sharing information with the large main campus, so I was never directed to the OPD.  Eventually I wound up there, a few years later, and my life has been better ever since.

As a student with a mental health issue, the resources that have been most helpful to me through the OPD are my access to a psychologist, exam accomodations and the assistance of the learning strategist.  Other accomodations are available to students with other types of disabilities.  If I were not registered as a student with a disability, I would have to go through a separate office (Counselling Services) to access the help of a psychologist.  This could easily mean a wait of several months/most of the school year.  However, once I became registered at the OPD, I was able to visit a pyschologist at both Health Services and his OPD location.  I realize that there may still be a wait for individuals to see a psychologist or psychiatrist even if they are registered through the OPD at their school; it just so happened there was no waiting list when I arrived at the office.  I was also assigned a student advisor, to help me maneuver through the forms and formalities of being a student with specific needs on campus.

My memory loss and lack of concentration has had a very negative affect on my ability to complete school work thus far.  I can not handle taking 5 courses per term as most students do; it depends on how I’m doing whether I am up to a partial courseload or functioning in that sense at all.  Being registered as a disabled student has allowed me to take 2 courses a term and still be considered “full time.”  If this were not the case, I would not have been eligible for student loans through OSAP (provincial student loan organization). 

Although I was able to arrange extensions for papers and alternative exam arrangements on my own, prior to finding the OPD, it is a lot easier to do so now.  Even with a doctor’s note, I often felt that I was under scrutiny as to whether I had a serious health problem or not when speaking to my professors.  I understand there are reasons for this - everyone wants an extension, don’t they?  Except those of us who really need one…we’d have rather avoided the reason for needing one if we could have.  At any rate, I’ve noticed a marked difference in the reception my inquiries receive, now that I am able to say I’m registered with the OPD and under the guidance of someone there.

Whether you are in university or college now, or thinking about going, you should check out what resources are available to you if you have any sort of disability.  There is no reason to disadvantage yourself by not utilizing the tools that have been put in place for you. 

You can visit the website for the Office for Persons with Disabilities at my school here:  http://www.studentservices.uwaterloo.ca/disabilities/   

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