The Pros and Cons of Each University I attended as a Student with Learning Disabilities

Saddleback College:

Pros:

• good stepping-stone before 4-year university

• caring professors

• multiple learning aids to choose from

• easy to navigate campus

• learned leadership skills from tutoring, advising peers, and connecting peers to disability services

Cons:

• getting accommodations established was very complicated and overwhelming (at the time)

• heard to connect with people. Being that this is a junior college, it is already difficult to make friends; add having a disability on top of that, it might be more difficult.

• mainstream advisors were uneducated on how to help struggling students.

Needs:

• better system for signing up for accommodations

• papers written in easy-to-understand wording because not everyone has help to understand forms

• education for mainstream advisors with students who have invisible disabilities

Texas Woman’s University

Pros:

• small campus

• attentive instructors

Cons:

• does not offer specific accommodations

Needs:

• disability outreach

• list of different disabilities with accommodations that will be offered

Texas Christian University

Pros:

• learned how to self-advocate

• learned who was deemed as important in the academic food

• learned that I was taken more seriously when no one knew I had a learning disability

Cons:

• lack of empathy and understanding in disability center

• invalidating the struggle I experienced when I was failing the curriculum due to lack of proper accommodations

• only emotional support was from people who were not allowed to help due to their employment level

Needs:

• disability training for all faculty who meet with students. This includes deans, professors, etc.

  • situational scenarios

  • workshops

  • Q&A with disabled students

  • speakers

  • available resources in libraries