To anyone who knows the pain of graduate design school: How do those with physical disabilities fare in grueling crits/studios?
OK, enough about you, let's talk about me. I'm worried about a breathing problem that occasionally makes it difficult for me to speak or stand for extended periods of time. This only happens every so often, and has not been a problem in my life so far (although its recent). When an attack gets really bad I might need to lie down, take medicine, do breathing exercises, etc. If it ever happens at work I just go to the bathroom or outside for a break.
What if this happens when I'm trying to defend my project/proposal/etc? Am I doomed? Do you or have you known any other grad students with some sort of disability?
As a faculty member, I just spent two hours taking a required course about discrimination in the university setting. Discrimination against protected groups, including those with documented physical disabilities, is verboten.
Part of your duties would include registering with your university's office of disability services, to make sure you're on record as disabled. Further, communication of your condition to instructors and others you regularly deal with is also incumbent upon you. People can't read minds; it's your responsibility to inform, up front.
Does this protection mean you'll never find yourself in an awkward situation, or that you may run into an insensitive oaf of an instructor or fellow student? Of course not. But it does mean that reasonable accommodations must be made for your situation.
don't take crits personal..... filtering is the key and talking to folks before/after is the key....sometimes crits can go way in left field that it's not worth trying to get them back on track....
might want to avoid any chocolate/red bull/caffeine/teas before the crits also. this might trigger a caffeine/sodium rush and cause a breathing issue when stress/anxiety is introduced.....
I can't see how it would be that difficult to work around that. Just let your instructor know and you should be fine.
What causes it? That would be the main question. If it is anxiety you may want to look at preventative measures, like relaxation techniques, etc., that will help you curb the stress.
Lack of sleep and stress can do horrible things to your mind and body. You'll need to take measures to counter those.
When it comes down to it, we're all human. I tend to think there would be a higher percentage of professors/critics who would understand your condition and forgive you if you had an attack during a critique.
However, you will probably need to be more careful about your outward personality. If you're seen as someone who is always complaning, making excuses, or otherwise creating drama for things unrelated to your disability (thankfully you don't seem like that type), your professors may be less understanding. Again: we're all human.
When I was an undergraduate during a 15-minute break between critiques, I was so tired that I curled up for a short nap on the floor in the crit room. My professor was genuinely concerned that I was having a diabetic/low blood sugar attack (he had seen it in a student a few years earlier). I woke up and resassured him that I was just tired.
A final thought: universities have resources to assist those with disabilities. If you need assistance, you should not hesitate to ask for it.
It's all about communication with your professor and letting them know. Things happen, and like someone said, we are all human. I was having a really hard time personally once, and had insomnia for a week and then a crit-well, I lost it during the crit-crying and hyperventilating. Ended up leaving to go to the bathroom for like an hour to calm down. In the end, I went and spoke with my professor, told him what had been going on, and he was very nice about it. No, it wasn't a great crit, and I had a lot of work to make up after to get myself back on track, but he was very understanding and nice.
Just make sure to be open with your professors about your condition. And learn to relax...it took me a while to learn that!
Good luck!! I am sure you will do great.
I think Citizen is trying to be fair in what can reasonably be described as an unfair world.
I too am a faculty member, but more importantly I have worked in disabilities advocacy, including acting as a case-worker in a disabilities resolution with more than one architecture school. What you have to understand is that architecture is what disabilities advocates call a "culture of able-ism," where most of the people involved believe themselves to have demonstrated super-human capabilities, and some of them believe that people who are inferior shouldn't have the opportunity to participate. Unfortunately, one of the delusions that such people frequently have is that they can flaunt federal law with impunity.
What you need to understand is that you WILL meet these people if you enroll in an architecture program. They are just as likely to be your peers as your professors by the way, and possibly more likely to be your administrator. But whomever they are, they will act inappropriately, try to fail you, belittle you in public and do worse in private -- if you give them a chance.
From my perspective, this is not a reason to not go to architecture school — in fact, it is a reason to go to architecture school. If the profession is going to survive, it has to stop being the bastion for bigots it has become. But this doesn’t mean that the experience will be easy for you. On the other hand, if you are afraid of a challenge, you shouldn’t try architecture. What you will need to do is take the high road: be more prepared, more mature, and ultimately, more flexible.
Certainly, document your disability according to the school's formal policy. Bring them detailed, explicit instructions from a physician, or better yet, more than one. Get a signed receipt for the delivery of each. Make sure you know the procedure -- ask the dean to walk you through every step of it, form reporting, to grievance, to arbitration. Make a written request copies of every communication regarding your disability. It is your health information, so waive HIPPA at them if anyone flinches. Make it clear that any discussion of your disability is a health matter, not an academic one. Put together a statement of informed consent that outlines your expectations and make anyone who is privy to the information sign a copy before they get any information.
Don’t loose your cool at any point in the process. If things get bad, request a reschedule of whatever meeting/test/critique in the presence of an advocate, then walk away. Put what happened in writing immediately, and send it to your advocate. If your advocate isn’t prepare to take on her/his employer, which is likely, be prepared with the contact information of the local disabilities advocacy group, or an experienced disabilities lawyer. Suggest that the school pay for a neutral third-party review if there is a conflict of interest of this sort.
DONT let the disability office identify you specifically as disabled to the faculty if there is even a small chance that you won't have a problem. Many potential issues can be avoided with the assumption of ignorance. Let your aggressor act as if they were ignorant, and then don’t trust them again. Remember, these are very smart people you are dealing with, even if they are behaving badly. They will try to negotiate the situation “personally” with you, and you aren’t in a position to negotiate anything with your professors (see academic freedom).
DONT be specific about your disability with anyone who is not a licensed medical practitioner. They can loose a license that they spent years working on if they abuse your information or ignore the advice of your physician. In fact, they can go to federal prison for that, and the legal tests for it are quite low.
Record every conversation -- I recommend one of the little Olympus digital recorders (I use the WS-500M) they can record up too 500 hours, then you can dump it to DVD. Keep it running all of the time, but especially if you have a meeting. Don’t conceal it. Don’t run to the dean with the first nasty comment – build up a couple dozen, and edit them into a nice ten-minute montage for the first time you need it.
Don’t hold a grudge. Honestly, anyone over the age of 40 is going to say or do something inappropriate at least once. Let it slide until there is an eminent risk to your health. Then just walk away. Don’t go to a school that can out-lawyer anyone (no ivies) unless you are willing to spend three years in before loosing it all. Don’t threaten a lawsuit yourself. If you are in that position, take your evidence to a lawyer, and let them threaten. Realize that even if you do sue, the only thing you will walk away from the degree program with is a degree – not the contacts you need to get a good internship, or the community that will make a great carrear possible.
In any area there are one or two architects who make disability a specialty. Ask them of an informational interview, and try to recruit them as a mentor.
Ask very nicely for an increase to your need-based aid to reflect the additional work, strain, and legal costs you will incur. Plan on an extra term because of the dispute you will loose.
Good luck. If there is anything you could use clarity on, feel free to email me.
Nov 24, 09 12:52 am ·
·
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.
Grad School Rigor vs. Disability
To anyone who knows the pain of graduate design school: How do those with physical disabilities fare in grueling crits/studios?
OK, enough about you, let's talk about me. I'm worried about a breathing problem that occasionally makes it difficult for me to speak or stand for extended periods of time. This only happens every so often, and has not been a problem in my life so far (although its recent). When an attack gets really bad I might need to lie down, take medicine, do breathing exercises, etc. If it ever happens at work I just go to the bathroom or outside for a break.
What if this happens when I'm trying to defend my project/proposal/etc? Am I doomed? Do you or have you known any other grad students with some sort of disability?
Thanks
As a faculty member, I just spent two hours taking a required course about discrimination in the university setting. Discrimination against protected groups, including those with documented physical disabilities, is verboten.
Part of your duties would include registering with your university's office of disability services, to make sure you're on record as disabled. Further, communication of your condition to instructors and others you regularly deal with is also incumbent upon you. People can't read minds; it's your responsibility to inform, up front.
Does this protection mean you'll never find yourself in an awkward situation, or that you may run into an insensitive oaf of an instructor or fellow student? Of course not. But it does mean that reasonable accommodations must be made for your situation.
don't take crits personal..... filtering is the key and talking to folks before/after is the key....sometimes crits can go way in left field that it's not worth trying to get them back on track....
might want to avoid any chocolate/red bull/caffeine/teas before the crits also. this might trigger a caffeine/sodium rush and cause a breathing issue when stress/anxiety is introduced.....
Design your presentations so that you can sit and present.
I can't see how it would be that difficult to work around that. Just let your instructor know and you should be fine.
What causes it? That would be the main question. If it is anxiety you may want to look at preventative measures, like relaxation techniques, etc., that will help you curb the stress.
Lack of sleep and stress can do horrible things to your mind and body. You'll need to take measures to counter those.
When it comes down to it, we're all human. I tend to think there would be a higher percentage of professors/critics who would understand your condition and forgive you if you had an attack during a critique.
However, you will probably need to be more careful about your outward personality. If you're seen as someone who is always complaning, making excuses, or otherwise creating drama for things unrelated to your disability (thankfully you don't seem like that type), your professors may be less understanding. Again: we're all human.
When I was an undergraduate during a 15-minute break between critiques, I was so tired that I curled up for a short nap on the floor in the crit room. My professor was genuinely concerned that I was having a diabetic/low blood sugar attack (he had seen it in a student a few years earlier). I woke up and resassured him that I was just tired.
A final thought: universities have resources to assist those with disabilities. If you need assistance, you should not hesitate to ask for it.
It's all about communication with your professor and letting them know. Things happen, and like someone said, we are all human. I was having a really hard time personally once, and had insomnia for a week and then a crit-well, I lost it during the crit-crying and hyperventilating. Ended up leaving to go to the bathroom for like an hour to calm down. In the end, I went and spoke with my professor, told him what had been going on, and he was very nice about it. No, it wasn't a great crit, and I had a lot of work to make up after to get myself back on track, but he was very understanding and nice.
Just make sure to be open with your professors about your condition. And learn to relax...it took me a while to learn that!
Good luck!! I am sure you will do great.
I think Citizen is trying to be fair in what can reasonably be described as an unfair world.
I too am a faculty member, but more importantly I have worked in disabilities advocacy, including acting as a case-worker in a disabilities resolution with more than one architecture school. What you have to understand is that architecture is what disabilities advocates call a "culture of able-ism," where most of the people involved believe themselves to have demonstrated super-human capabilities, and some of them believe that people who are inferior shouldn't have the opportunity to participate. Unfortunately, one of the delusions that such people frequently have is that they can flaunt federal law with impunity.
What you need to understand is that you WILL meet these people if you enroll in an architecture program. They are just as likely to be your peers as your professors by the way, and possibly more likely to be your administrator. But whomever they are, they will act inappropriately, try to fail you, belittle you in public and do worse in private -- if you give them a chance.
From my perspective, this is not a reason to not go to architecture school — in fact, it is a reason to go to architecture school. If the profession is going to survive, it has to stop being the bastion for bigots it has become. But this doesn’t mean that the experience will be easy for you. On the other hand, if you are afraid of a challenge, you shouldn’t try architecture. What you will need to do is take the high road: be more prepared, more mature, and ultimately, more flexible.
Certainly, document your disability according to the school's formal policy. Bring them detailed, explicit instructions from a physician, or better yet, more than one. Get a signed receipt for the delivery of each. Make sure you know the procedure -- ask the dean to walk you through every step of it, form reporting, to grievance, to arbitration. Make a written request copies of every communication regarding your disability. It is your health information, so waive HIPPA at them if anyone flinches. Make it clear that any discussion of your disability is a health matter, not an academic one. Put together a statement of informed consent that outlines your expectations and make anyone who is privy to the information sign a copy before they get any information.
Don’t loose your cool at any point in the process. If things get bad, request a reschedule of whatever meeting/test/critique in the presence of an advocate, then walk away. Put what happened in writing immediately, and send it to your advocate. If your advocate isn’t prepare to take on her/his employer, which is likely, be prepared with the contact information of the local disabilities advocacy group, or an experienced disabilities lawyer. Suggest that the school pay for a neutral third-party review if there is a conflict of interest of this sort.
DONT let the disability office identify you specifically as disabled to the faculty if there is even a small chance that you won't have a problem. Many potential issues can be avoided with the assumption of ignorance. Let your aggressor act as if they were ignorant, and then don’t trust them again. Remember, these are very smart people you are dealing with, even if they are behaving badly. They will try to negotiate the situation “personally” with you, and you aren’t in a position to negotiate anything with your professors (see academic freedom).
DONT be specific about your disability with anyone who is not a licensed medical practitioner. They can loose a license that they spent years working on if they abuse your information or ignore the advice of your physician. In fact, they can go to federal prison for that, and the legal tests for it are quite low.
Record every conversation -- I recommend one of the little Olympus digital recorders (I use the WS-500M) they can record up too 500 hours, then you can dump it to DVD. Keep it running all of the time, but especially if you have a meeting. Don’t conceal it. Don’t run to the dean with the first nasty comment – build up a couple dozen, and edit them into a nice ten-minute montage for the first time you need it.
Don’t hold a grudge. Honestly, anyone over the age of 40 is going to say or do something inappropriate at least once. Let it slide until there is an eminent risk to your health. Then just walk away. Don’t go to a school that can out-lawyer anyone (no ivies) unless you are willing to spend three years in before loosing it all. Don’t threaten a lawsuit yourself. If you are in that position, take your evidence to a lawyer, and let them threaten. Realize that even if you do sue, the only thing you will walk away from the degree program with is a degree – not the contacts you need to get a good internship, or the community that will make a great carrear possible.
In any area there are one or two architects who make disability a specialty. Ask them of an informational interview, and try to recruit them as a mentor.
Ask very nicely for an increase to your need-based aid to reflect the additional work, strain, and legal costs you will incur. Plan on an extra term because of the dispute you will loose.
Good luck. If there is anything you could use clarity on, feel free to email me.
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.