“Oh Hey! It’s Alyssa” is a biweekly webcomic by Alyssa! Check out their new website, allqueerbods!
Oh, Hey! It’s Alyssa #53: Accommodations
A. Andrews
A. is a totally complete incomplete paraplegic and thirty-something hanky-in-the-pocket cartoonist weirdo!
A. has written 69 articles for us.
JFC fuck that guy
I have faced this so. many. times. Roommates, professors, friends, family members, you name it. You never know from where it will strike next. Ableism is a real beast. Thank you for writing this.
I wish that my acoustics professor had been like that towards the kids who showed up late if and when they showed up at all. We were supposed to actually make bass traps but he had us going over what those other idiots had missed instead. In their case, though, they would have earned their failing grade whereas you were subject to discrimination.
I can also relate to having the feeling that I have to work harder than most just to be considered half as good and then subsequently entirely disregarded later. I did not think that having an actual physical problem would be made worse because of people’s preconceived notions though. What the hell more are they expecting and why? What world were they raised in where these problems don’t exist? I’m gonna take a wild guess that these are the jackasses who park in the space for people with impediments.
This is so honest, so familiar and it’s unending. There is power, though, in creating art, talking and writing about how oppressive ableism is. It’s vital for us to keep telling our truths.
I would also like to say how much it matters to me to see hairy legs depicted. It’s wonderful. I love your comics!
Oh wow,I’m smudging all my eyeliner crying because this means so much to me right now. Thank you.
Forever working twice as hard… Yes. This is disability reality. When you ask for accommodations, people judge. When you don’t ask for accommodations, people expect less of you anyway.
I once had a stranger congratulate me for being out in public alone, without a caregiver, and for being able to drive a car. That’s how little she expected from someone with a disability. Now, imagine that same mindset in job interviews…for the rest of your life.
So real.
I work at the front desk of a building, and I personally have interactions with at least 50 people a day. And at least once a week I get someone congratulating me for working. I’ve been paralyzed from the chest down since I was 12. My parents never gave me the option to not do well in school and not go to work. So to have people congratulating me for working, still feels very strange to me.
I have an assistant at work who does copying (since I can’t see and reach the copy machines) and hands people things when I can’t reach (I work behind a desk and there is a window between us and the public), and people always assume that he’s training me. I can be doing all the work, helping them, answering their questions, but they assume he’s training me because I’m in a wheelchair. It’s a little frustrating when you’re the one talking and they automatically look to him for confirmation.
Another weird thing about being in a wheelchair, random people will come and ask to pray for you. Sometimes, even right there in public. I let them do it so they will go away faster.
Rant over.
Wtf even with the praying? I mean all of it, but do you ever want to say that you’re going to join them in prayer and pray for them to leave you the f*ck alone?
uggh what a asshole , I hope he at least gave you your accommodations. I have accommodations for my ADHD and there’s definitely been professors who’ve said that they couldn’t provide mine or think I’m rigging the system
BRB imagining that guy being repeatedly wacked over the head with Frida Kahlo’s leg.
<3
comment award :)
Sounds to me like you have a much greater drive than many others, otherwise you wouldn’t have persisted as you did. That guy was an asshole.
*remembering the time my advisor was loudly talking with another one of his students about how it’s so “annoying” to provide accommodations for disabled students…in an office shared with my disabled girlfriend*
… people suck
Man people suck! I thought that if a disability was a visible professors would be accommodating but apparently people’s shittiness knows no bounds!
Upon reading your comment, I remembered that there is a loophole that some companies use so that they don’t have to follow the reasonable accommodation law which is fucked up because what’s the point of a law that doesn’t have to be followed?
Hi Alyssa,
I’m an instructor at a community college. Before we’re allowed to teach our first class, we’re required to receive specific training on the fact that is ILLEGAL for our class not to be equally accessible to all our enrolled and registered students. We are trained on how to make sure all our classroom materials and requirements are equally accessible to all.
I’m sure you know this, but you’re well within your rights to get in touch with the department chair / dean of that art teacher, make sure he is trained properly and held accountable. If the school doesn’t respond, the ACLU will.
As an educator I’m super pissed at that teacher, and super impressed that you prevailed despite his assholery. I hope you display your art degree in a solid gold frame. You sound like you would be a dream student for any lucky teacher.
This is exactly why I was not able to be a Fibers major in college–the required courses (Design I and II; Drawing I and II) were notoriously unfriendly to accommodations or late work. Considering I have an autoimmune disease and chronic pain, it just wasn’t feasible to continue. Thank you so much for sharing this comic!
I was also wondering if the comic has any alt-text or if there’s a transcript! Would love to share this with other disabled folks I know.