Recently, I registered with Student Life Disability Services because I have Ulcerative Colitis. I had already planned to visit this campus resource to be granted academic and housing accommodations. But, I was putting it off because of other things I had to do. This is something I should have done within my first week of school, so I could have excused absences from class. If I had done it early enough I could have also gotten a single! I learned about Ohio State’s Office of Student Life Disability Services when I was in the hospital back in February. But, I waited too long to send in my information so I did not get housing accommodations. I have gone in to register myself with Disability Services and was approved the next day, but I still need to meet with my student advisor. Their office was very accessible and easy to find on south campus.
When I was told to sign up with Ohio State’s Office of Student Life Disability Services I just decided to put it off because I did not think I would need it. But, the office provides a lot of different accommodations to make college life easier in multiple aspects. It would allow me to easily catch up on work if I was ever in the hospital again because they would work with my instructors to make sure I get any information I needed to succeed academically. And either next semester or, more likely, next year I would be almost guaranteed a single. Which would be very nice!
The only thing that I think would make the Office of Student Life Disability Services better would be if there were more ways of getting registered for accommodations once you’re approved. I understand that they want to make sure students are doing well and want to talk directly to the person needing accommodations, but it is sometimes hard to take the extra time in your schedule to dedicate to this. But, I am sure most people who work with this resource truly need more necessary accommodations than I do. I almost feel guilty registering with this service because I feel I do not need it. But, it’s nice to have peace of mind knowing I will not fall too far behind if I ever feel too ill to go to class for a couple days.
As far as other Campus Resources go, I feel like the Ohio State University offers a wide variety of services. I really need to check out the Ohio State Wellness Center because I have been feeling sick for over a month now, but I just keep on putting it off because I don’t want to schedule an appointment. One recommendation or change I would like to see is the ability to schedule appointments, meetings, etc. from an app. That would be a really cool project that the Computer Science and Engineering department could take on and it would benefit every student at the Ohio State University.