[255/365] life admin

[cosmolinguist]

A dull and worthy day. Went to work, left in time to get my hair cut, changed the bedding, did laundry, sent emails about three different disability-related things for uni. One of them is trying to make my timetable less inaccessible, one is telling my study support person that I don't know when I can meet her until my timetable is sorted out, so those aren't a huge deal (in previous semesters I've had a timetable more than ten days before the start of the semester but this is pretty normal apparently, annoying as it is for me when I have not just crip stuff but work to plan around it).

But the third thing... remember the sighted guide support I didn't get at the start of last semester? I still remember sitting in the student union with my cold bare feet, trying to warm them up and dry them off before I had to go out into the icy puddles again; it was so miserable. And the next day I had to find my Societal Multilingualism class in the snow.

Anyway! I wrote a long, professional email detailing the nature of my problems (both the lack of support and not knowing how the process worked for ensuring the support happened in the future)...and got a short reply from my disability advisor saying "I can see the support was put in place in September but there was a caseload swap at the start of November and I became the caseworker for students in your School. Unfortunately I wasn’t aware that the support was needed. I’ve made a note now and will make sure you are contacted prior to the start of the next academic year."

Which is pretty shit anyway (she "wasn't aware the support was needed"?! I don't know how the fuck she's supposed to be made aware of that but it's not my problem!), but guess what. I was not contacted prior to the start of the next academic year. I emailed her today, as a reply to this email from months ago so she'd see the context and see where she promised me it wouldn't happen this time, and got back "Sincere apologies but I seem to have overlooked the reminder I set for this."

I am Not Amused. Because the support has to be arranged (by me) with a third-party company who's had this outsourced to them, it takes fucking ages. I really wanted to chase this up before I went to my parents' but that didn't happen and now that I'm back it almost feels too late.

I'm a week and a half from the start of the semester and it already feels like I'm behind on things. Such is the life of a disabled student.

Then I had a meeting, and then I had a nice long catch-up phone call with a friend, but still at random points while doing those things and folding the laundry I'd catch myself thinking "Overlooked the reminder! She overlooked the reminder she set for herself!" Well. At least the apologies were sincere!

Comments

[lilysea]

I'd catch myself thinking "Overlooked the reminder! She overlooked the reminder she set for herself!" Well. At least the apologies were sincere!

I am so angry on your behalf! :(

Sometimes it's better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness, indeed!

I wonder how many other students she overlooked, and how many of them will have no assistance the first 1, 2, 3 weeks of term as a result! :(

[cosmolinguist]

I was wondering about how many other students she's "overlooked" too. When I was 18 or 20 years old like most of these students are, I wouldn't have had the organizational skills or the cynicism necessary to preemptively pursue this as I did this time...and as is, it turns out, apparently required to get the support that they have agreed to provide for us!

[lilysea]

When I was 18 or 20 years old like most of these students are, I wouldn't have had the organizational skills or the cynicism necessary to preemptively pursue this as I did this time...and as is, it turns out, apparently required to get the support that they have agreed to provide for us!

and some students [regardless of age] who need help might not have been able to follow up due to
ADHD or
Anxiety or
Autism!

[cosmolinguist]

Oh absolutely. Pretty much every interaction I have with disabled student services is done in a way that is particularly difficult for disabled people to manage and cope with.

[lilysea]

Pretty much every interaction I have with disabled student services is done in a way that is particularly difficult for disabled people to manage and cope with.

Which means either:

a) Disabled services don't realise this; or

b) Disabled services don't care, because it is what is most convenient for Disabled services office/staff;

c) they are deliberately making it hard to access services, so they can say “Our university provides great support to Disabled students” without actually having to PAY to provide said support.

"Look, we OFFER the services, it's not our fault that no one takes us up on it"

It reminds me of:

“But the plans were on display…”
“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.”

[cosmolinguist]

I'm sure it's some combination of a and b at the very least, and from a friend who works in this area I know they have a lot asked of them and a lot of bullshit they have to put up with.

I get that sometimes things like this will slip through the cracks. People are only human. I just wish that when it happened it was handled better: telling me she wasn't aware the support was needed is worse than not offering an excuse at all! And insisting she will definitely rmemeber next time just makes it worse when she definitely didn't. Parts of her emails I haven't included here were even less professional (like including irrelevant details about other staff verging on their personal lives), really disappointing. Mistakes are inevitable, but that kind of nonsense is so avoidable.

[sfred]

Argh!

[packbat]

Uggh - big sympathies. It's appalling that they let this kind of thing slip through the cracks so easily.

[silveradept]

Well, that sounds suspiciously like someone non-apologizing and hoping you'll go away and stop bothering them.

[cosmolinguist]

Ywah this is practically the only interaction I've had with with her, the only thing I asked of her all year, otherwise I am just getting by on my own. And she couldn't even do that.

[silveradept]

This sounds like the place for the application of "you had one job", but it's a lot less for comedy and more for being upset.

If it were one time in an otherwise stellar record, it would be easier to overlook, but this does not seem to be the case.

[worlds_of_smoke]

argh!!! I really hope that this is the last time she freaking overlooks the reminder.

[cosmolinguist]

Well I only have one more semester after this, so I only have to put up with this once more either way! Think I'll set myself a reminder to nag her, though.

[barakta]

Even allowing for overworked and underesourced staff with shit software I think that's a fucking disgrace!

I had a longish chat with a stude today about how at uni you have to assume no one has told X, no one has shared X like they promised, no one has remembered, and chase it yourself, and if you're struggling, SHOUt cos really they won't notice - which is shit.

I am sorry your disability adviser is such a disgrace. Yes advisers are human and sometimes forget, but if she had a reminder and overlooked it, then her system isn't working is it!?

LMK if I can help with words, stompiness or just companionable wailing... I have been doing something like this at the NHS all week so mega mega sympathies.

[barakta]

Ugh sorry this wasn't threaded well...

Good idea re your own reminder. Trust no one. Sadly.

[cosmolinguist]

No worries re threading, I recognize what's happened on your end because I've done it a bunch of times myself. :) It's fine, makes sense and everything.

I did email her at the end of the day yesterday (she asked for my timetable and I explained it wasn't sorted yet, but I also gave her a bunch of info about how this support has happened for me best and gave her some options about how to do it best for me (like, asap!) and I didn't hear back from her at all yesterday. Or from the outsourced company. I don't even think I can chase them myself because the funding has to be approved to get me allocated to someone there that I can talk to.

I'm pretty sure this isn't going to get sorted out in time, especially since I'll be away/busy the first few days of next week and not in a position to keep nagging her about this. And you're right, it sucks that I have to believe things won't happen if I don't nag and shout.