aamcnamara (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
aamcnamara) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
accessibility_fail2011-07-03 09:13 am
aamcnamara) wrote in accessibility_fail2011-07-03 09:13 am
Harvard food fail
Posted over in my DW about my ongoing farce of trying to be allowed to cook/eat food while spending the summer doing undergraduate science research at Harvard University.
Summary: the program assumes their students will eat at restaurants, etc. I informed them of my many food allergies and pressed for kitchen access, which they told me I would have; when I got there, I was informed that lots of people were using the kitchen they had thought they'd put me in and they would find me a different one... but though there were a bunch of things that they brainstormed, none of them panned out even to me being able to go look at the space and see if it would work.
Eventually, at a loss, they asked dining services what to do with me. Annenberg Hall said they could totally deal with my food allergies and feed me on the meal plan with the summer students... until I told them about the fact that inhaled food allergens sometimes causes me to have asthma. Then there were suddenly too many summer school students and they couldn't possibly accommodate my request.
In the meantime, I was left to live in a dorm room with only a microwave and dorm-sized fridge. (For reference: it's been a month since the program started.) Happily, my girlfriend's family lives in the area and offered (super amazingly kindly) to let me stay in their spare room, so I actually, y'know, get to eat this summer. (If sneezily--they have a cat, which is also a slight inhaled allergy/asthma trigger for me.) But I can't help wondering what would've happened if I didn't have somewhere to go.
Summary: the program assumes their students will eat at restaurants, etc. I informed them of my many food allergies and pressed for kitchen access, which they told me I would have; when I got there, I was informed that lots of people were using the kitchen they had thought they'd put me in and they would find me a different one... but though there were a bunch of things that they brainstormed, none of them panned out even to me being able to go look at the space and see if it would work.
Eventually, at a loss, they asked dining services what to do with me. Annenberg Hall said they could totally deal with my food allergies and feed me on the meal plan with the summer students... until I told them about the fact that inhaled food allergens sometimes causes me to have asthma. Then there were suddenly too many summer school students and they couldn't possibly accommodate my request.
In the meantime, I was left to live in a dorm room with only a microwave and dorm-sized fridge. (For reference: it's been a month since the program started.) Happily, my girlfriend's family lives in the area and offered (super amazingly kindly) to let me stay in their spare room, so I actually, y'know, get to eat this summer. (If sneezily--they have a cat, which is also a slight inhaled allergy/asthma trigger for me.) But I can't help wondering what would've happened if I didn't have somewhere to go.
no subject
Such blatant disregard for your health & well-being while you're trying to study (at significant expense) is JUST WRONG!
no subject
no subject
augh!
glad her family is so nice to let you stay with them. its nice to know there are still good people in the world.
good luck with school!
Mr.J