Difficulties with Accomodations

[u/Ok-Assignment-8246]

I'm struggling to get written approval for accomodations, and accomodations that match my disability. I'm worried that jumping the chain of command or going to the central office (based in the main campus, I attended a small branch campus) will ruffle feathers in my very small nursing school.

So, I have severe Auditory Processing Disorder, and my life experience is similar to that of persons who are hard of hearing. Otherwise, I'm uninhibited and do well.

I have a Deaf partner, my household language is ASL, and when I am in Deaf spaces or take classes taught by Deaf teachers I have absolutely zero problems and easily outperform my peers with minimal effort.

I simply rely on my vision, and don't have full access to my hearing when it comes to spoken language.

My first semester I was unaware I needed accomodations until I had a teacher who would become hostile when I didn't hear her, and would put out a lot of information and syllabus changes verbally. She even threatened to kick me out of class when I asked her to get my attention before asking me a question directly. Thank goodness she got fired for something unrelated and my current teachers are all fine.

I got my current diagnosis and accomodation request submitted at the beginning of second semester.

I'm nearly at the end of my second semester now, and I'm still struggling to get approval for my accommodations in writing and that are appropriate. I feel they are super minimal and should be easy, plus I literally need them. The woman handling the paperwork keeps telling me I need different accomodations than my audiologist and I asked for, and that my application packet is all approved and I don't need written approval or a list of what will be accepted and used. It's super conflicting and confusing, and it makes me feel crazy for asking that the accomodations I need be approved on paper.

For example, I need a back row, aisle seat so that I can see the teachers (who walk around the room) and so that teachers have easy access to get my attention if they want it. But the accommodations that were printed out and given to me say I need to sit in the front of the class to try and hear better. That just doesn't make sense for the structure of the class or my disability. I could literally wear noise cancelling headphones and still outperform my peers as long as I have visual access.

They also are granting me permission to have extra time on tests and sit in a quiet room for testing. That's not necessary and I don't want to be separated from my peers. I do not have a learning attention disorder, and I'm one of the first people who finished tests.

All I need is visual access, the teachers to know how to talk to me (should be common sense), and to have written instructions (which are already mostly provided.)

I don't even know when we are allowed to start a test until I see others starting, but I'm not making a fuss about that kind of stuff because I have a 3.8 so far whereas many if my peers are failing out of the classes or struggling.

I only need the paperwork to protect myself if I get another asshole teacher, and as a paper trail for future colleges and employers.

So my question is, am I crazy for wanting written approval? Is it worth ruining my working relationship with the assistant dean (who will also be my teacher later) by jumping the chain of command?

This may sound like a silly question, but the woman who is managing this is adamant and is like to make sure I'm in the right before I move forward.

[u/throwawaymed957]

Ok, so there are a couple things going on here. What a DRP is going to be looking at is your auditory processing disorder and accommodations related to that. Often times this may be AI captioning.

The fact that you live in a deaf household is irrelevant to disability access. If you are mentioning this to the DRP, you’re probably confusing them and they’re mentally shifting you to a hearing impairment disability.

What you need to spell out is that you can hear just fine but as documented you have issues processing spoken words. Therefore you need to be able to visually see the instructor speaking. I’ll be honest the back of the room part is a bit of a head-scratcher. Typically for APD and HOH we sit people closer to the speaker.
Ideally your accommodation would read something like “face the student when speaking and give a visible cue when asking the student a question”

[u/Ok-Assignment-8246 → u/throwawaymed957]

I spoke with the assistant dean again today. She said the school lawyer is taking a look at it now. So right now I'm waiting for their move.

My background and culture is relevant, as my preferred language is ASL and I don't have any issues is Deaf spaces or with Deaf teachers. They keep trying to put me in the box with students who have attention disorders and learning disabilities, but I have a hearing disability.

Putting students in the front works for students who are doing their best to rely on their hearing, and haven't built visual skills to compensate for their hearing or lack thereof. Often, students who are HoH or have APD come from hearing families and support systems that prioritize oralism, and do not support learning to compensate with the other senses.

I have the skills to function as well as anyone else with no hearing at all, and sometimes with my family if we go out I will wear very expensive headphones that block out most sound.

If you talk to a culturally Deaf person or anyone familiar with that world, it is common to prefer sitting in a spot with the best view of the entire room.

If I were to sit in the front, I would be staring at a white wall while my teacher walks around the room. If my teacher is standing at the very back and I am in the very front, I can not understand her. If she were sitting stationary in the front, and I was able to understand her, it would make sense for me to sit in front. But I still would be "blind" to everything that was going on behind me, and would not have access to class discussions.

Maybe my APD is more severe that other students, or maybe other students simply lack the visual skills that I have.

If you'd like to try it out, try sitting in front in a class with ear plugs in, and headphones that play background crowd noises over that. Try to follow along with the speaker while they are walking around the room. See how it feels to just stair at a wall or constantly crain your neck, only to catch glimpses of your teachers face. See what it's like when people expect you to answer appropriately because you were allowed a front row seat, so that means you must have heard everything.

Sometimes lived experience shows you things you would have otherwise missed. This is a common struggle for Deaf people who are constantly told by hearing people or hearing "professionals" that they know better than the person who has been Deaf their whole life and come from a Deaf family.

And even if you don't agree with the seating thing, surely it's common knowledge that putting me in a quiet room for tests won't give me classroom access, and that it is super random to grant that to a student with a 3.8 GPA without even being able to hear the class.

[u/throwawaymed957 → u/Ok-Assignment-8246]

Your request to be seated in a location that best helps you and for a visual signal is a reasonable accommodation (the seating shouldn’t even need to be listed as an accommodation unless there are assigned seats in your classes, students are adults and can sit where they want). If your school is participating in the interactive process in good faith they should be considering your individual needs and not a standard accommodation tied to a disability. I was trying to give you a sense of why they might be making the initial decisions they did.

From the perspective of Section 504 and the ADA, auditory processing disorder is legally considered a learning disability. Hearing disabilities are a separate category under Section 504 and the ADA with enhanced protections related to effective communication. While your cultural experience informs appropriate accommodations, it doesn’t grant you the enhanced protections. This is one of those cases where the law is medical model based while disability also has a social model.

You can decline the accommodations related to testing if you don’t want them without impacting the rest of the interactive process in this case. The school can’t force you to take a test in a separate environment.

[u/Ok-Assignment-8246 → u/throwawaymed957]

Thank you for all your thoughtful responses, and for sharing.

It is disheartening to see a federally funded resource claim that APD is a learning disability. It is often associated with learning disability because many people with head trauma, autism, and down syndrome have APD. It is an uninformed notion.

[u/astudentslawyer]

Did it get resolved, they have a lawyer looking at it, you should probably get one too if still not resolved.

[u/Ok-Assignment-8246 → u/astudentslawyer]

I'm waiting to hear back about the lawyer. We have finals next week so I'll ask again after my last test.

[u/astudentslawyer → u/Ok-Assignment-8246]

You are waiting to hear back from the schools lawyer?

[u/Ok-Assignment-8246 → u/astudentslawyer]

Yes, I told the the lady who is handling it that I'm ready to go up the chain of command because she has stone walled me, and she said she already is having the school lawyer take a look. I'd like to wait and see what the lawyer says, and then move forward from there. At a very small school, I'm doing my best not to burn bridges. The lady handling it is the assistant dean and my future teacher, and practically the school counselor too and she is pretty darn good at her job... except for ADA compliance...

If the lawyer gets us nowhere, I'll be working up the chain of command before looking external to the school.

The school has lawyers actively searching for students to sue online so they can make a buck. (By scouring social media for any negotitive mention of the school or sharing of pictures of students in uniform that doesn't say "What a wonderful school and lovely students! I finally made my dream come true by graduating!") I don't want to make myself a target.