Intellectually Disabled Student Wins College Dorm Lawsuit

I just found out that a student with intellectual disabilities won a lawsuit to live on campus. Micah Fialka-Feldman, who is in a special program for students with intellectual disabilities at his college, was not permitted to live on campus, allegedly because he is not a full-time student, but it is quite possible that some [...]

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College Experiences for Students with Mental Illness

Abby Jean writes on FWD/Forward about her experiences in college as a person with mental illness. In particular, she describes how class privilege made it possible for her to stay in college despite attempts from ableist university employees to get her out. Class discrimination is quite prevalent in the U.S. system as a whole. For [...]

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The World of Employability vs. the World of Institutionalization

I talked with my sister on the phone for two hours a few days ago, and was frustrated when we hung up. The factual reason was that she kept making suggestions that were totally off-base about what might and might not work in improving my situation on the ward. She knows very little about autism, [...]

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“Where Will You Be In Three Years?” Revisited

One day in September of 2006, I was seeing a psychologist at my former training home’s agency. I have never really understood what his job was supposed to be, but he ended up recommending I be referred to mental health. Anyway, in the midst of a very long, exhaustive conversation, he for some reason asked [...]

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Studying Developmental Psychology

Probably most of you didn’t even know I have tried my hand at pretending that I’m again doing something that makes it seem like I’m in college again. Oh well, my boyfriend keeps telling me that I am in fact a student, but I don’t consider myself one if I take a year to complete [...]

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College Updates and Phonetics Frustration

Slept really badly last night. This is not necessarily medication-related, though it might be. Risperdal was meant to help me sleep, but it never really did and I didn’t notice an increase in insomnia the last time I lowered my dosage. Furthermore, I slept really poorly the night before Monday, too, so it may be [...]

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College and Autism Update and Musings about Having a Dual Disability

Went to university today for another meeting for autistic students and their buddies. This time, it was meant to get started the process of the buddy system. I had to fill out a checklist of things I might have problems with, so Andrea (who is my buddy) can see what I need help with. I [...]

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Some Updates on University and Living in Nijmegen

This past week was quite difficult despite the fact that everyone’s been trying their best to help me get through it. On Monday, I had my first day of freshman introduction, which at first went quite well but then it turned out I’d bought the wrong book for one course, so I freaked out at [...]

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College and Autism Informational Meeting

Yesterday, I went to university for an informational meeting about going to college with an autism spectrum disorder. At first, a person from an autism agency talked about what problems students with autism might face, from a kind of medicalized, theoretical point of view. Even so, it was an interesting talk. After this, a woman [...]

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So, What Should My Outcome Be Considered?

On September 22, I painted three different images of what my situation might be like after leaving training home. One is described like this: Yet there is also this part of mine, that totally incapable girl. She thinks she requires a lot of assistance cause of behavioural/social/communicative difficulties – not just disruptive behaviour. She sees [...]

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