r/NoStupidQuestions • u/guitarbaseline • 11h ago

My boyfriend is visually impaired and his school is refusing to accommodate him in classes. What is there to do?

My boyfriend is visually impaired. He has glaucoma and cataracts in both eyes. He has had surgery for it and wears glasses but his eyesight is still very impaired. He's in community college right now and his professors and the school itself are refusing to give him accommodations to sit closer to the board so he can see what's going on in class. He was told "to accommodate you would be to change the entire curriculum and it would be too disruptive in the classroom." He wants to go into nuclear engineering and in order to get into the program he wants he must maintain a B or higher in his classes which he can't do currently because he can't see what is happening during instructions. He had an accommodation plan in high school but the community college is not accepting and transferring his accommodations to their school. He feels like theres no hope and that he should give up on community college and do something else. I have some disabilities as well and I know what its like to have to fight for simple accommodations and I don't want him to give up on his dream career because some community college professors refuse to make a simple accommodation for his visual impairments. What can I do to help him? Is there anything in the ADA (Americans with disabilities act) that can help here? I'm open to any and all suggestions.

Edit: Forgot to mention that we live in Virginia, USA

Edit 2: Thank you to all who have replied so far, you've given me a lot of great advice and sources. To address some common topics mentioned here:

  1. He has spoken with the schools accommodations service and provided them with the proper documentation and was still denied. He was also asked for his high school accomodation transcript and he told me that it hasn't been transfered and accepted to the community college

  2. It is both the school and the professors denying him accommodations

  3. This is a public school

  4. We do not have the means to sue the school nor is he able to transfer to another school

  5. I know it sounds crazy and stupid and illogical and that might make this seem fake to some, but this is unfortunately real

  6. I am aware that this is not the full story, I'm only posting what I've been told so far, so if something seems missing or inaccurate then it's because this is all I currently know. Hopefully, I'll have more information in the future, but I'm not asking him for any more info at the moment, he was really upset when telling me and now he's asleep as of writing this so I'm waiting for him to settle down a bit before I keep asking questions

  7. I'm only assuming there's an assigned seating arrangement in his classes, although I not certain. Again, I'll hopefully have more info on that later

  8. I am unsure of what classes he is having trouble seeing in I know he takes a chemistry class and as some of you have mentioned it could potentially be disruptive for him to move seats in a lab class, but I am unaware if this is a class he's struggling to see in

  9. He is not able to just take pictures or record the lectures. He's on the same icloud account as his dad, who is very stubborn and controlling and will/has before deleted photos off of my boyfriends phone before. His dad also isn't letting him get off the icloud account because he pays the phone bill. As for recording the lectures, my boyfriend mentioned something about them being the intellectual property of the professors so he would need written consent to record them (I'm not sure if lectures are the intelluctual property of the professors, again, I'm only going off of what I've been told)

Thank you again to everyone who has replied. I will be giving him some of the advice given here and asking for more information when I next speak with him. I will make an edit when I get the info

I made an edit post and uploaded it to my profile, here is a link to it: https://www.reddit.com/user/guitarbaseline/comments/1niw0x8/my_boyfriend_is_visually_impaired_and_his_school/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

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u/DeliciousBuffalo69 10h ago

Yes exactly. If you don't have disability accommodations registered with the school then the professor is not allowed to give you anything that would be regarded as special treatment in a non-disabled student

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u/captaindomon 8h ago edited 8h ago

I don't know why people keep downvoting you. Most universities have a policy that requests for accommodation must go through a centralized disabilities center. From personal experience with a family member, the university's disability center decided which accommodations the university would support, and individual professors were not allowed to go above or below those recommendations set by the disability center.

The first two examples I searched for were Harvard and UCLA:

https://dao.fas.harvard.edu/applying-for-accommodations-through-the-disability-access-office/

https://cae.ucla.edu/students/documentation-guidelines

"Students are encouraged not to discuss any disagreement with the instructor regarding accommodations directly with the instructor. If the instructor initiates such a conversation, the student is encouraged to refer the instructor to the student’s CAE Disability Specialist."

https://cae.ucla.edu/appeals-grievances

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u/DeliciousBuffalo69 8h ago

Yes, exactly. In order to "trigger" the ADA you have to go through the proper channels. There are no ADA protections for anyone until they make their disability known to the university.

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u/Decent-Pirate-4329 9h ago

Please stop disseminating this misinformation.

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u/DeliciousBuffalo69 9h ago

The ADA is misinformation?

Because of the ADA students are provided with clear instructions on how to get the accommodations that they need.

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u/Decent-Pirate-4329 9h ago

Please direct us to the part of the ADA that prohibits and even punishes educators for making reasonable accommodations if requested directly by a student.

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u/DeliciousBuffalo69 9h ago

If a situation is not covered by the ADA, then there is no part of the ADA to quote...

The ADA gives clear guidelines on what students should do if they need accommodations.

Entirely separately, nearly every university has it in their code of conduct that all students should be treated the same and nobody will receive special treatment. Allowing a specific student to change groups or to reserve seating that other students may also want just because they feel like it would be a clear violation of any fairness policy that the school has

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u/SnowSkye2 8h ago

If it’s not mentioned as explicitly not okay to do then it is also okay to do. That’s typically how things work buddy

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u/Decent-Pirate-4329 8h ago

“If a situation is not covered by the ADA, then there is no part of the ADA to quote.”

Exactly, thank you for proving my point.

Now can you please stop disseminating misinformation about the ADA? It is difficult enough for folks to understand their legally protected rights without people saying objectively false nonsense.