Do You Get Disability Accommodations In College?

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How many of you get accommodations in college related to your ASD? What are they exactly?

In most classes i get good grades, but have struggled in a few(only failed one- arguement based research. passed second time around). My GPA certainly doesn't reflect my intelligence. Even in classes that i end up getting As in there are some minor issues, like with losing interest in certain parts. I have considered telling the school about my ASD(and inattentive ADHD), but i'm not really sure what sort of accommodations would be able to help. I'm generally a good test taker, so the usual things like extended test time wouldn't help me. Most of the teachers i've had have been helpful in clarifying their expectations when i ask, even without anything official about having a disability. I still wonder if there are any services out there that could help me be a better student that i haven't thought of.

I actually participate in class a lot, maybe even excessively at times, so that's not really an issue normally either.. but when it comes to working with a group on something, even something that i understand well, i get a little lost and i'm not sure how to participate. That's a strange thing with me: no matter how many people in the class, in an organized situation where it's mainly people directing comments at the teacher i can ask questions and share my thoughts just fine(a teacher a few weeks ago said that i was very "outgoing," which surprised me). When it gets disorganized where people are in groups talking, then i have no idea what to say. If there's a goal, like doing a project in class, then that's a little better than if it were just people socializing, but it's still difficult to keep up with what we're doing, when to add input, and all of that.

Organization, getting work done, and following instructions that aren't very clear and step-by-step are probably a few of the biggest problems. Most of the classes i've been in don't require much organization, but now and then there is a class where the teacher always wants to check your notebook to see if you have everything... that rarely turns out very good. I always got bad grades last year on the notebook checks in environmental biology, but managed to still get an A in the class because of good tests grades and extra credit. Right now i'm taking Zoology and i love that class, but during the labs i'm often a little confused about what we are supposed to be doing, and have a hard time keeping up with what my group is doing. I'll probably still get a good grade in the class because of my herpetology obsession, but if it were any other subject then it could be a real problem.

Probably the biggest issue is lack of interest. If i could just take classes that relate somehow to my interest(which is herpetology.. so it would be mostly classes related to biology) then i'd be a wonderful student. This is probably true even for NTs to a degree, because of course everyone is going to be better at things they are interested in. It almost sounds stupid to even call it an issue.. but its at a completely different level when you have the kind of narrow focus that is part of ASD, and i don't think that most people understand that. Even when i take my ADHD meds, its hard to focus on some topics because i really don't truly *want* to listen. I'd rather think about something that interests me. I want to get a good grade in trigonometry, but its not something i'm interested in, and it's not something that i see myself needing to use in order to do something that i'm interested in. I don't like being forced to be well-rounded, because i have a hard time making myself care about other topics. This is part of my ASD that gives me the most trouble in school, and i don't see how there could be any way to get around it.

So, yeah.. Discuss.

i kinda see what you mean.... i myself also almost dont want to bring attention to the fact that i have problems - organization being one of the biggies - because in my mind it almost seems like simply making excuses, even though i often wonder how the hell everyone else can fit so much of their own stuff into their own time and have time to spare

as i have said before, i am not *officially* diagnosed - ive been to see more learning psychologists, learning psychiatrists, shrinks, GPs, outpatient psychologists/psychiatrists than i can remember and am still waiting for results - so any accomodations would probably not be as big as what they would otherwise be, if that makes sense?

but generally, i get extra time in exams (of which there are few), CLEAR instructions (from the lecturers who are aware and/or actually give a monkeys chuff) and access to a computer (NOTE: not the same as a latop paid for by the college, as everyone with say, dyslexia gets)

however, for 4 years i have been in an ongoing battle with SAAS (the UK body for student fees/loans/grants/etc) - during which they constantly deny me the resources i need and am entitled to - they are the worst people i've ever had to deal with.

end rant.

seriously tho, having clear instructions and my own time to do stuff makes the difference

I wasn't diagnosed with OCD until senior year of high school, and I wasn't diagnosed with AS until freshman year of college. So, although I always was at the top of my class in high school, I never was offered accommodations for my then-undiagnosed NVLD/math/visual-spatial difficulties. Sadly, nobody ever suggested that there was anything wrong with me, since I always met benchmark for math on placement tests. But kids don't normally get a consistent score of 60th-70th percentile in math and 98th-99th percentile in English/language arts... So, I struggled through math all throughout school without any help besides staying after for tutoring with my teachers. The only math I'm good at is algebra. I still managed to get "A"s and "B"s in geometry and trig due to my great visual memory. But I had (and still don't have) no conception of what I was doing.

Anyway, that being said, when I got to college and finally had a diagnosis, I signed up at the disability office at my school. Due to the fact that I have gone my whole life without accommodations, I really didn't have a need for many. The only two accommodations that I ever ended up needing/using were getting a single room and getting extended time on tests for my calculus class and my statistics class. Both were absolutely essential to my well-being. I almost had to take time off freshman fall because the stress of college change and having a roommate was so bad. (This was before my Asperger's diagnosis.) When I got my own room in November of freshman fall, everything turned around. And extra time on my stats tests allowed me to actually show what I knew, and it is the reason I aced the class and was able to be a TA for the class my senior year. Oh, and sophomore year, I was the last registration letter, and I was having an absolute breakdown worrying about not getting into a class that I desperately wanted to take. My anxiety got so bad that they did finally allow me to register a couple of weeks early for just that one class.

When I joined my Animal Management course at college, I was having difficulties related to my aspergers.
so I signed up with the additional support office for help.

up until this point, i had reletively little help at school, so i didnt need much to cope, or so i believed.
I got into my second year and fell behind with work, so support intervened. They have a 1-1 session with me on a monday for assignment support, I have extra time on any exams and I was issued a college laptop for assignments and organisation.

they were thinking of reducing the complexity of my assignments so i could cope better, but i didn't like the fact that i'd be doing less work than the rest of my group for the same results and not pushing my abilities.

I get a couple:

1. I get an alternate private room for exams
2. I don't have to participate in any group work
3. I get a private session with a tutor for each subject once a week
4. I get as many extensions on assignments until exam day no penilties

Never had any for undergrad because I only got dx'd during my PhD. Now all of my exams are oral and to a comittee. My accomodations are (1) I can leave an exam if I meltdown or go non-verbal, (2) I have extra terms to complete my research, (3) I can choose my examiners and meet them informally prior to any exam.
Courses I am not interested in were always a problem, but I just made back my GPA in everything I was more interested or better in. There's really only so much you can avoid coursewise because degree requirements aren't generally changed as an accomodation.

Yup. Thats how it was explained to me, you can minimize your exposure to course you don't want to take provided they aren't course requirements, but this also varies a lot from area to area.. some states/provinces/countries have very strict requirements as far what courses you have to take.. and others have very lax ones..

I WISH I had # 3 and #4!! !! ! My psychiatrist requested #3 for me and I was told that if I want that I have to go to a special needs program. #4 would really help the most. Instead, I just have to beg my teachers for extensions and go meet with them and have panic attacks and get sick from all the stress...

My accommodations:

1 .extended time on exams (used to be 2, now it is 1.5 because I transferred schools and they are stricter)
2. testing in a distraction free environment
3. laptop use for essay style exams
4. permission to take class notes on a laptop (a lot of my professors don't allow it without a letter from the disability office)
5. supplemental notes (someone from the class copies their notes for the disability office which I pick up so I make sure I didn't miss anything and actually know what information said was important as opposed to my transcript style notes)

I was diagnosed shortly before starting university (I'd done som college prior to my diagnosis and go tno accommodations there). When I informed my university that I'd been diagnosed with autism, the disability services coordinator at first seemed fine with it, and infomred me of a buddy project where a psychology student would meet with you once a week to discuss your sutying issues. I got s uch a buddy, but she got far too much on herplate. I got no other accommodations apart from the usual stuff like getting extra time on exams which is for my blindness.

Now that I distance learn at Open University, I had no AS-specific accommodations.

I get preferential seating and extra time on tests in a private room, although I never use the private room and I'm always one of the first ones done on a test. The seating is the only thing useful to me, since they won't give me anything else.

I get a quiet room for exams as well as extra time to take exams. I also have note takers.

This post is of great interest to me. My son, could have been separated at birth from the OP, they sound identical. The big difference is my son crashed and burned at college due to undiagnosed learning disability + aspergers + ADD = severe depression.

He is doing much better now but still refuses to even think of attending college. I understand. Why would he want to go back to that place where he was shamed, failed, and felt socially alienated? He is very, very smart. He was in the Gifted and Talented program in middle school/high school. His public HS basically threw him under the bus, their attitude was you are smart, you don't need help, do your assignments....yeah right.

He also has the 'narrow range of interest' going on. It takes a certain level of maturity and desire to get your bachelor's degree and take those classes or requirements that you have zero interest in and get your degree. He is not there yet.

I have told him about the accommodations he can get at the college level. So far he still says no. I am waiting and hard as it is to accept, he may never choose to go that route. Which is a tragedy from my point of view.

I am glad to read that colleges are offering accommodations and people are using them with success.

Your son sounds a LOT like me. He also sounds a lot like most ADD/Aspie college kids I know. I left partway through the semester last year in the fall because I couldn't take it anymore. I was overworked, overstressed, overtired, and didn't feel supported by the college disability office at all. I dropped out partway through the semester after burning out, took the rest of the semester off, took the next semester off, and then applied to transfer while I was taking time off. I just started at a new school this past fall and it is going much better.

Accommodations depend largely on the college. Also, a lot of it depends on *trumpet noise!* self-advocacy! This is very difficult, especially for those of us who aren't comfortable in social situations. I have had a lot of trouble at my current school with accommodations (they are super strict with documentation guidelines etc) but due to my super annoying and incessant self-advocacy, I have received most of the accommodations that I need.

I found that the longer I spent out of college, the more anxiety I felt about the prospect of returning. I felt like if I had taken off another year I wouldn't have wanted to go back, as it was I didn't want to go back. I'm really glad I did though.

I don't know where you live or what your financial situation is like. However, I looked at some programs for non-traditional students. Some of those can be really great because they appreciate life experience, allow for a part-time schedule, and are generally speaking more flexible in terms of annoying required courses. If he takes a long time off before going back, he might want to consider a program like that to do part-time while he continues working or whatever he does. Also, are any of his special interests academically related? If there are community colleges or other affordable schools nearby, it might be good to take a class or two so that if he decides to go back, he will have more credits completed already.

Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions about my experiences. Does your son have a wrongplanet account? If he has any questions for me I'd be happy to help.

Aspie Feminist, thanks for your post.

My son's current special interest is Japanese language, he has spent the last year plus teaching himself to write kanji and read, his greatest desire is to meet a native speaker and practice speaking. He currently spends a lot of time reading Japanese tweets and chat boards. His academic strengths when in school were in Math and Science. Writing a paper, or keeping notes, complete torture for him. If they didn't mark him down on incomplete homework assignments, he probably would have kept at the least, a B average. Kid rocked the math SAT and adequate on the Verbal section.

Sounds great right? We live in the SF Bay area, plenty of colleges that offer a major in Asian studies. We also have a large Japanese community and the Society of Japanese something or other in SF.

I have researched all these programs, I have offered to hire a native born tutor to come to our house if he would like that. I have suggested he enroll in one of the local colleges JUST for Japanese language, no full time, apply to the college, just electives.

He has said no to all suggestions. Every single last one of them. He was trying those online language exchange websites but he told me they were 'awkward'. I found some online ready made scripts people can use for these websites, each person follows them, so you don't run out of stuff to say. No go.

We have a what looks like a transitional program to college in Berkeley specifically for ASD young adults. He says no.

I have told him what I think happened to him in Middle School, High School and College, very, very smart but undiagnosed/ignored learning differences that ended up with him saying to hell with formal learning.

He admits he does not want 'accommodations' because he does not want to be thought of as different. And yes, I get it, he has not accepted this yet. At all. Even though he feels the impact it has had on his young life.

Any other alternative programs you know of, please let me know.

His therapist thinks he is just being "stubborn" and it has nothing to do with PDD NOS or ASD. I think she is wrong, I think it has everything to do with rigid, black and white thinking and he is currently stuck.

I do not mean to change the direction of this thread but if any of the previous posters can share how they came to accept how they are and how they decided this is what I need to do to get my education. I am all ears, I should I say eyes.

What was your turning point, that made you say, this is what I need and want to succeed in College and I can and will advocate for myself.

Because that is the other big problem, I do not yet see him as being willing to advocate for himself and being the squeaky wheel that gets the grease and once you are a young adult and there is no more IEP and your parents are no longer in the picture, then yes, you must advocate for yourself. Every day.

I advocated for myself loud and clear my freshman year in College btw, my roommates drove me crazy. I went for more than a few visits to the Dean of Students and by winter term, I had my single dorm room. Such a relief!

And no I am fairly certain he does not have an account on WP. That well is probably poisoned for him because he knows his Mom thinks it is a great website...

I do (did?), but I elect not to use them except in extenuating circumstances. I feel confident that I can do well in the class without using such accommodations, so I choose not to do so. So far, no problems. Well, other than priority registration, but that's an extenuating circumstance in the sense California's schools are really [insert adjectival version of naughty word here] broke and I'd like to graduate on time thank you very much. But other than that, yeah, I have accommodations but simply do not elect to use them.

Edit: Whoops, forgot to mention the most important thing. I'm diagnosed with AS, and my accommodations were, to the best of my ability: 1.) Notetaker, 2.) Computer access on exams (i.e. I can type instead of handwrite), 3.) priority registration, and a fourth one I don't really remember.

1. Preferential seating

2. Extra time on tests in a private room {although I don't use the private room...}

And a third one I can't recall at the moment...