I'm being discriminated based on disability by my university

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I believe that you were treated unfairly. That's bad enough. The fact that the people doing this to you are handing out ABA degrees is just sick.

They knew from the beginning that you're autistic and that there would be challenges to be addressed. I do believe they violated your civil rights and unfortunately that's something people with disabilities are being forced to fight against every damn day.

If there was an issue it should have been addressed before terminating your internship. Also it is unacceptable for them to offer you an alternative degree. You didn't come to another country to pay what is no doubt outrageous international student tuition for this s**t. If they're the ones who took it upon themselves to terminate your internship they should have made arrangements for you to have an alternate means of completing the program you came to the country for.

It worries me that your status as an international student may be a factor as well. They probably figure they can get away with it because either you'll be unaware of how to get help or because you'll eventually be forced to return home if you cannot continue your studies.

I recommend going to the media. If you can't get newspapers to take you seriously try writing to advocacy groups. There must be bloggers about this kind of thing. Even facebook can be a tool. try writing on the walls disability advocates both in hopes of getting some advice and of getting a magnifying glass put over UM.

And/or hiring a good lawyer.

Now, in honesty, that could go one of two ways. They might circle their wagons even more. Or, they might decide they need to take a second look at it and see whether they are in fact treating you fairly (to see if it's defendable in court if it comes to that). This merely the lawyer sending the initial letter.

To some extent, you have to decide if it's worth fighting the good fight even if you lose.

For me, these kind of things either cause something like PTSD or flatly PTSD.

About 8 years ago, I worked as a job coach with a talented young man diagnosed on the autism spectrum. At one of his jobs, I held a ladder from one side as he went up two steps on the other side. Having a ladder to hold and lean on if necessary is significantly safer than a dopey footstool, and yet I was criticized for this and formally written up.

About six months later, I was called in the office. This supervisory lady and my immediate boss were present. The lady started off saying she had some concerns about safety and then followed this weird circling conversation in which she basically tried to bully me to confess to (?) standing too close to the truck and/or using a movable staircase which she herself had previously recommended as an alternative to a ladder and now conveniently forgot. It was conjured anger, it was to some extent (I later decided) a pretend on this lady's part, which I did not understand.

It was two against one. She literally sat in a chair blocking the door. (My later best guess . . There was in fact a lawsuit with the home care provider filing to directly get state money instead of it directly going to the agency, and the agency lady wanted to make sure all her ducks were in order. I had previously raised issues that this client was not receiving good care at home, and I was viewed as too independent and too much of a potential wild card. Still don't understand)

These swirling accusations by two people. I can almost see how innocent people are pressured by the police to make "confessions." I felt I had personally let myself down by going along with this. That I should have simply stood up. "I would like to leave the room. Can you please step away from the door." Or, reach for the door knob and say, "Can you please step away from the door." And, if they don't, to go over to the desk phone and to begin to call the police and to really call the police.

They caught me off guard, they planned for this, I didn't.

How can people in a social service agency be so petty, etc, etc. They can. How can they be concerned for their own convenience (?) and not for the welfare of the client.

How can other people in the officialdom of the agency rubberstamp this? They can. No good people stood up.

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A somewhat similar case in which I was unfairly attacked by two supervisory people at H&R Block.

And I later decided, these corporate 'disciplinary' things in which it's viewed as necessary to have a witness present. That's fine. They can have a witness present. But it needs to be agreed ahead of time that the witness does not say one word. No 2 against 1.

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And all of this is highly, highly emotional. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave a speech in which he said, the real question is not that bad people do what they do, but that good people stand there passively on the sidelines doing nothing (paraphrase)

The fact that I was criticized for two separate things, no matter how weak each was individually, was used against me. It's like people were lazy intellectually, went along, and just stuck with the sloppy (and unfair) conclusion that I was a 'problem' employee.

And then, I really think there's a social dynamic where it's more difficult and a bit of a long shot to defend yourself.