OVERLOOKED: 30 Years After ADA Legislation, College Students with Disabilities Continue Fight for Inclusion
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The comments about how my needs were too much for the system to handle still echo in my ear. I can hear the conversations that handcuffed my family. As we stepped into 804 University Ave — home of Syracuse University’s Center for Disability Resources — for the first time, we were escorted to the large conference room. My parents picked three consecutive chairs, pulled the middle one out. My mom sat on my left, dad on my right. We hoped to get a head start on what we expected to be the biggest transition of my life — and the most difficult one. It wasn’t only from high school to college, but from childhood to adulthood as well. It was a transition that we always wondered about, that revolved around independence — my independence and what, exactly, independence meant for me. The three of us had hoped the support in college would be more mainstream than in the public school system and that my needs would be more common. Turns out it’s the opposite. It was my needs, our problem. I was entering a system that continues to define people by what they can’t do instead of what they can do.
OVERLOOKED: 30 Years After ADA Legislation, College Students with Disabilities Continue Fight for Inclusion
OVERLOOKED: 30 Years After ADA Legislation…
OVERLOOKED: 30 Years After ADA Legislation, College Students with Disabilities Continue Fight for Inclusion
The comments about how my needs were too much for the system to handle still echo in my ear. I can hear the conversations that handcuffed my family. As we stepped into 804 University Ave — home of Syracuse University’s Center for Disability Resources — for the first time, we were escorted to the large conference room. My parents picked three consecutive chairs, pulled the middle one out. My mom sat on my left, dad on my right. We hoped to get a head start on what we expected to be the biggest transition of my life — and the most difficult one. It wasn’t only from high school to college, but from childhood to adulthood as well. It was a transition that we always wondered about, that revolved around independence — my independence and what, exactly, independence meant for me. The three of us had hoped the support in college would be more mainstream than in the public school system and that my needs would be more common. Turns out it’s the opposite. It was my needs, our problem. I was entering a system that continues to define people by what they can’t do instead of what they can do.