School Prep

Today I had an appointment with my new advisor from Access and Diversity at UBC.  I have a learning disability so I am registered there to get exam accommodations, a notetaker, and have my textbooks put into an alternate format.  As a special needs student, (that still feels odd for me to say because I've never considered myself a special needs student before I started university), I need to start planning and organizing well before the semester begins.

To give you an idea of what I'm talking about in terms of being organized I will outline for you what it's like to have to think well ahead before the school year starts. I registered for my Fall and Winter courses in early July as everybody else does.  1) I need to find out who is teaching the section of the course that I registered in. 2) I need to contact the instructor for each course immediately to request a course syllabus and a list of all the textbooks for their class.  Hopefully, with any luck at all I will get a timely response from the instructor (it doesn't always happen).  3) I then need to contact the library and ask them if they have that text available in the alternate format I need. 4) If the library does have the text than I need to arrange to come in and do the necessary paper work in order to receive the text in the format needed.  5) If the library doesn't have the text then I need to go to the bookstore, buy the text (if they have it available, and it's frustrating when they don't have the text available), take it to the library, and fill out the paper work so that the staff can begin putting it into the format I need. The library needs at least 1 month to complete this process so the sooner you can get the textbook to them the sooner it will be done.  It can be a lot of work depending upon how much cooperation you're receiving at every stage. This is all in addition to the regular back-to-school organization that every student does.

It's worth it to have everything organized when I attend class on that first day. That way I don't have to worry about anything else but studying for my courses.