Second semester has started, and I'm happy to say I've found my groove gradewise! I'm finally pulling off high 70s, which is good because I was nervous that I really wasn't cut out for university. However, last week brought an experience I wasn't expecting to face at UWO, a place which boasts excellence in education standards. I was more than ready to believe that, until Monday when I started my new Writing half-course. At first my only problem was the size of the classroom because my wheelchair made me feel like Andre the Giant trapped in a Genie lamp, but I found a way to fit. I even liked the teacher, with a prim and proper British accent and quite a hefty teaching resume, apparently having taught in several parts of the world. Then it came to in class assessment time where we had to write to see where our skills were. So I asked the professor if I could either take it home and hand it in next class, or go with my notetaker Jess to a quiet room and type it. The teacher's response was that if she helped me type it up, it wouldn't be my own work. I was very confused by this because every other professor I have understands that a notetaker is like an extension of my pen and my ideas. When I need help writing, she puts down nothing but what I tell her to and to even think of cheating would be consequential to the both of us. So I tried explaining just that to the professor, and she wouldn't hear any of it. In essence she told me that having a notetaker was a form of cheating and not permitted in her classroom.
What a lot of people don't understand is that people with disabilities fight to receive an education from the very beginning. Back in the 90s my parents had to fight with countless principals to ensure that I was even placed in a "regular" class. As time went on I had to face it on my own. I could tell when teachers wanted nothing to do with me, because I'd be secluded from the rest. If I had questions they would be casualty brushed aside. Not all my experiences with teachers have been negative, but the reason I bring this up is because last Monday it felt like after years of fighting and trying to prove myself, I felt like I had went backwards. I'll admit that there are some who use our disability as a cheat or a free pass, but that's their choice, and their choice alone. I am a student at the University of Western Ontario, I have worked from the ground up to get where I am today, and I don't intend to fall back down. We are in the year 2012, and we should be well past the point of assumption and fear of the unknown. If you are teaching it in the year 2012 without an open heart, and an open mind then perhaps you should go back to school. No matter what your teaching credentials are, if you cannot see past a disability, you should not be teaching... especially in a place like Western..
We are all able, open your mind
Karli
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