My biggest IEP goal, learning to self advocate, and how it has helped me more than I ever imagined

I’ve had chronic migraines since I was in high school as a component of a then-undiagnosed neurological condition, which was later diagnosed as Arnold-Chiari Malformation Type 1 (also known as Chiari Malformation or Chiari 1 Malformation). Even though my migraines had a significant impact on…

Shortly before the day of my high school graduation, my mom received a phone call from the state department for visual impairment services asking if I was graduating from high school and if I was interested in their services for vocational rehabilitation for college students.…

When preparing for an IEP meeting, a 504 Plan meeting, or a Disability Services meeting, parents and students will often be asked to come up with sample accommodations that can be used to provide services for students in the classroom. However, it can be very…

Last year, one of my best friends, who I will call Jane, experienced a great deal of academic ableism from a professor in their major. While I wasn’t there to witness what happened in the classroom, I watched Jane suffer from a mental and emotional…

I’ve talked a lot about accommodations for low vision students on my website, though many of my posts have focused on accommodations for print materials or the use of assistive technology. Another important consideration for helping low vision students to thrive in the classroom is…

One of the things that I love about my college is that there are hundreds of classes available for students to take that cover a wide variety of topics and areas of interest. While there are certain classes that a student may need to take…

Due to an unpredictable chronic illness, I was not able to get medical clearance to participate in study abroad or study-elsewhere opportunities during my undergraduate years. Even though I never traveled outside of the United States, I still learned a lot about other cultures through…

As my eye condition and neurological condition have changed over time, I have received extended time accommodations on all my tests and exams, including standardized tests that I took in high school. When one of my friends was researching extended time accommodations of their own,…

Even though I have trouble seeing in all my classes (and outside of my classes for that matter), my math test accommodations for low vision look a bit different than the testing accommodations for my other classes. This is because in math, every letter, number,…

I was diagnosed with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) after dealing with symptoms for many years and experiencing a serious fall on campus that required hospitalization. After I was discharged from the hospital, my neurologist told me that I had to re-evaluate how I would…

I receive disability accommodations in college for two different medical conditions- an eye condition that causes low vision and a neurological condition called Chiari Malformation. Both my eye and brain condition cause me to experience light sensitivity, sometimes referred to as photosensitivity, and my accommodations…

I’ve received hundreds of messages over the years from parents asking me questions about Individualized Education Plans (IEPs), specifically low vision IEPs and IEPs for visual impairment. Since I had an IEP in elementary school and again in high school for low vision, I’ve been…

Important addresses to keep in college, great for orientation and mobility instruction

When it came to getting items for my college dorm and day-to-day life, it was easier and less time consuming to order items online and have them mailed directly to my college mailbox. However, while I was able to get packages at my front door…