The wandering chair

Today in the life of a non-traditional, queer student in the Deep South, we have ways to make an ADA Accommodation more awkward for the student.

Chair and table setup

Because of my size and my arthritis in my spine, I have to have special chairs in my classes. Most of the time, these chairs work well with the tables already in the classrooms.

However, my fellow students think it is funny or their right to move my chair all over the classroom. Many times, they move me from the table my chair is at to a spot on the wall without access to a table. Why? Because they want to sit next to their friends and talk all during class and I would be in the way.

Last semester, Student Disability Services put large RESERVED stickers on my chairs because the students thought the chair was for their use. After that, they just started moving them around the classroom.

As you can see from the picture above, today was no exception. A student decided they wanted to sit next to their friends and move my chair away from the table to the side of the room. I was forced to used stacked chairs as a makeshift table in order to do my classwork. All the while, said student looked very happy and pleased with themselves.

I have reached out to Student Disability Services for help, but I am not holding my breath than anything will change. After all, people with disabilities are the lowest of the low in the eyes of the college and the students. We should be honored that we are even allowed to be in the same room as the normies.