I made the mistake of mentioning to a Simmons ChLit professor that I was doing some of the reading for her class via audiobook, and was a bit shocked by her strong negative reaction. And I *did* have a registered disability -- and that disability was actually the reason I was listening to audiobooks. Because my depression was so bad it affected my ability to concentrate in some ways, and audiobooks helped. (But of course that was the wrong kind of disability to explain why I would need to be listening to audiobooks. I wasn't visually impaired, nor did I even have some kind of easily-understood cognitive impairment like dyslexia. I didn't have much trouble reading, actually -- I had trouble doing anything OTHER than reading or listening, and badly needed to be doing one or the other 100% of the time in order to remain sane. I couldn't be alone in my head at any time, was the problem, or I'd break down crying...)
But everything about my experience of disability at Simmons ended up being very, very negative, in the end. (Well, except for meeting Todd because of the disability workshop I did when I worked as a tutor at the incredibly awesome Academic Services Department, and the fact that I learned that my depression actually *was* a considered a disability, and that's actually where my mind opened up and I started learning to think in brand new ways about disability AT ALL. That was good. But it's also kind of painful to learn about the discrimination all around you that you used to not know was there and blame on yourself... ANYWAY.)
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I made the mistake of mentioning to a Simmons ChLit professor that I was doing some of the reading for her class via audiobook, and was a bit shocked by her strong negative reaction. And I *did* have a registered disability -- and that disability was actually the reason I was listening to audiobooks. Because my depression was so bad it affected my ability to concentrate in some ways, and audiobooks helped. (But of course that was the wrong kind of disability to explain why I would need to be listening to audiobooks. I wasn't visually impaired, nor did I even have some kind of easily-understood cognitive impairment like dyslexia. I didn't have much trouble reading, actually -- I had trouble doing anything OTHER than reading or listening, and badly needed to be doing one or the other 100% of the time in order to remain sane. I couldn't be alone in my head at any time, was the problem, or I'd break down crying...)
But everything about my experience of disability at Simmons ended up being very, very negative, in the end. (Well, except for meeting Todd because of the disability workshop I did when I worked as a tutor at the incredibly awesome Academic Services Department, and the fact that I learned that my depression actually *was* a considered a disability, and that's actually where my mind opened up and I started learning to think in brand new ways about disability AT ALL. That was good. But it's also kind of painful to learn about the discrimination all around you that you used to not know was there and blame on yourself... ANYWAY.)