avendya (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
avendya) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
accessibility_fail2009-06-15 09:16 am
avendya) wrote in accessibility_fail2009-06-15 09:16 am
(no subject)
I am not quite sure if this counts as "accessibility fail", but it does qualify as "ADA fail". I have an invisible illness; stairs are painful but doable for me. However, I am on a large number of medications, and my pain medication is on a unpredictable schedule. (I can take one, two or three tablets; it depends on the pain level at the time, etc., etc., I am sure you get the gist.)
There is exactly one good thing I can say about my former high school's policy on prescription drugs: it was extremely badly enforced. And by "badly enforced", I mean "not enforced at all".
The actual written policy was that all medications - prescription or not - had to be stored at the nurses' office, and you had to go down there, and she was the only one who could dispense medication. This works in theory, but in practice, the nurse's office was a five minute walk (at least) from most of my classes (so getting medication meant missing at least ten minutes of class), the nurse frequently wandered away and no one knew where she went, and even if you stored medication there, she required that you call your parents every. single. time. you needed medication. In practice, this took about a half an hour - 1/3 of a class period. I'm certainly going to do that every time I need medication (roughly every four hours, every day).
However, all of that is logical in comparison to the spectacular fail that was their policy in regards to leaving the school. If you were very sick, and needed to go home, you had two options: one, your parents could pick you up, or two, you could drive yourself.
I do not drive, because it is physically painful, and I start shaking within five minutes. It is simply not safe for me to drive. Since I live close to the school, I chose to walk instead - less painful, and less dangerous. However, I was explicitly not allowed to walk home if I was too sick to stay at school - but I was allowed to drive. Can someone explain why I was allowed to do something I can't physically do when in reasonable shape, but not the easier and less painful alternative?
And there's Project Graduation. Project Graduation is billed as as drug and alcohol free alternative to post-graduation parties. Over 80% of the seniors go. I mean - it has free food, free arcade games, free laser tag, and most importantly: free stuff. (I went home with a 400 GB external hard drive. A friend of mine went home with a very nice camera. There were a laptops, gift cards, XBoxes, Playstations... I could go on.)
I was told that I couldn't go in because it was a drug-free event. Why? I had a bottle of medication in my purse. Not just a bottle of medication, a bottle of legally prescribed medication in the original bottle. In the organizer's minds, my non-narcotic pain medication - the stuff that enables me to function, to act "normal", and not to be in extreme pain - is the same as ecstasy, marijuana or other illegal drugs. Right.
(After a fair amount of arguing, ADA-mentioning, and refusing to go in without my medication, the organizer kept my medication in an office, and I had to go ask for it when I needed it. She also acted like letting me have access to my (again, legally-prescribed) medication was a terrible imposition and that she was doing me a favor.)
There is exactly one good thing I can say about my former high school's policy on prescription drugs: it was extremely badly enforced. And by "badly enforced", I mean "not enforced at all".
The actual written policy was that all medications - prescription or not - had to be stored at the nurses' office, and you had to go down there, and she was the only one who could dispense medication. This works in theory, but in practice, the nurse's office was a five minute walk (at least) from most of my classes (so getting medication meant missing at least ten minutes of class), the nurse frequently wandered away and no one knew where she went, and even if you stored medication there, she required that you call your parents every. single. time. you needed medication. In practice, this took about a half an hour - 1/3 of a class period. I'm certainly going to do that every time I need medication (roughly every four hours, every day).
However, all of that is logical in comparison to the spectacular fail that was their policy in regards to leaving the school. If you were very sick, and needed to go home, you had two options: one, your parents could pick you up, or two, you could drive yourself.
I do not drive, because it is physically painful, and I start shaking within five minutes. It is simply not safe for me to drive. Since I live close to the school, I chose to walk instead - less painful, and less dangerous. However, I was explicitly not allowed to walk home if I was too sick to stay at school - but I was allowed to drive. Can someone explain why I was allowed to do something I can't physically do when in reasonable shape, but not the easier and less painful alternative?
And there's Project Graduation. Project Graduation is billed as as drug and alcohol free alternative to post-graduation parties. Over 80% of the seniors go. I mean - it has free food, free arcade games, free laser tag, and most importantly: free stuff. (I went home with a 400 GB external hard drive. A friend of mine went home with a very nice camera. There were a laptops, gift cards, XBoxes, Playstations... I could go on.)
I was told that I couldn't go in because it was a drug-free event. Why? I had a bottle of medication in my purse. Not just a bottle of medication, a bottle of legally prescribed medication in the original bottle. In the organizer's minds, my non-narcotic pain medication - the stuff that enables me to function, to act "normal", and not to be in extreme pain - is the same as ecstasy, marijuana or other illegal drugs. Right.
(After a fair amount of arguing, ADA-mentioning, and refusing to go in without my medication, the organizer kept my medication in an office, and I had to go ask for it when I needed it. She also acted like letting me have access to my (again, legally-prescribed) medication was a terrible imposition and that she was doing me a favor.)
no subject
Small wonder -- because even if it was against the law, nothing was going to happen unless someone brought a court case against them. And given the hassle and expense involved, perhaps they figured enough people won't care that they could just get away with breaking the law.
As they say in German, "Recht haben und Recht bekommen sind zwei verschiedene Dinge" (to be right and to obtain justice are two separate things).