{"id":7163,"date":"2015-12-18T19:31:20","date_gmt":"2015-12-18T19:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/solvecfs.org\/?p=7163"},"modified":"2015-12-18T19:31:20","modified_gmt":"2015-12-18T19:31:20","slug":"guest-blog-making-reasonable-accommodations-for-mecfs-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/solvecfs.org\/guest-blog-making-reasonable-accommodations-for-mecfs-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Blog: Making Reasonable Accommodations for ME\/CFS Students"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Michael E. Ottlinger, PhD, DABT<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/a>As part of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Reasonable Accommodations must be made for individuals with a disability. This includes students at colleges, universities, secondary schools<\/strong>, etc., who no doubt encounter problems stemming from their ME\/CFS and related disorders. Such assistance is intended to safeguard their (YOUR) civil rights by allowing them (YOU) to pursue jobs and other life activities, including education, from which they (YOU) might otherwise be excluded. The Act seeks to provide greater opportunities by lowering barriers to participation and eliminating discrimination, whether intentional or not. This Act has been in existence since 1990 and has been a great success, achieving very broad acceptance. (See ADA.gov<\/a> for more details, including changes that took effect on Jan. 1, 2009.)<\/strong><\/p>\n

A process was created under this Act that requires what are called \u201cReasonable Accommodations\u201d (RAs). Reasonable Accommodations involve finding ways to enable someone to, say, work a job successfully, by being given assistive technology or some other modification to the environment or, perhaps, a procedure that removes a barrier. Such accommodations must be doable, that is, they cannot place an \u201cundue burden\u201d on the employer or other party. And, the person requesting the accommodation still has to be able to do the thing, whatever it is, when given this help.<\/p>\n

A point to highlight here in big bold letters is that where public institutions and education are concerned, there is a companion law that may be extremely relevant for ME\/CFS students: The Americans with Disabilities Act Title II Technical Assistance Manual Covering State and Local Government Programs and Services<\/strong>. This holds that qualified individuals with a disability must be provided: \u201c1) Reasonable modifications to a public entity’s rules, policies, or practices; 2) Removal of architectural, communication, or transportation barriers; or 3) Provision of auxiliary aids and services.\u201d<\/p>\n

These words open up a wide range of possibilities that can be pursued, but which have not been exploited fully by ME\/CFS students. Universities, as an example, have all kind of \u201crules, policies, or practices\u201d that are not handed down from heaven and will not cause the university to be swallowed up by the earth if they are modified. Also, in an era in which we have so much technology available and, in fact, already being used, it is astonishing that we haven\u2019t been taking better advantage of it to help ME\/CFS students progress and succeed.<\/p>\n

For example, to address issues like fatigue, including mental and cognitive impairment, some ideas for RAs might include:<\/p>\n