No accommodations or support for broken foot during semester. What to do now? (Rant/Advice request)
Genuinely don’t know what to do. Undergrad art major at BC. Broke my foot (metatarsal fracture) the first week of classes and went to the ER by Feb 2, wasn’t diagnosed or treated until going to a different dr on Feb 20th, over three weeks after it broke (and after the deadline to withdraw without it messing up my academic standing or financial aid, which I got back after working on my grades and appealing last semester).
Was prescribed pain killers on top of the 2000mg of ibuprofen I was taking daily. Still came to my classes walking on a broken foot w no cast or walking boot before getting diagnosed & also with the walking boot until the pain was unbearable. I have a 12hour day of classes + commute and my other class requires carrying 10lb bag with a drawing pad and art supplies so it was basically impossible lol.
If they had properly diagnosed and treated me at the ER when it was initially broken it wouldn’t have been so bad, but I wasn’t able to move my toes and it felt like I had nerve damage after a few weeks of walking on it.
I contacted the disability office- actually asked them how to get a medical withdrawal and was told they’d only ask the director about retroactive excused absences. Never got a follow up on if they did excuse my absences or any other accommodation. Just told me I can’t miss anymore classes. Literally acted like I was healed and offered no additional accommodations when I was still freshly injured and limping around with a walking boot. And obviously I wrote to my professors with medical documentation.
Spent $100s of my financial aid refund ubering to class while being unemployed because I couldn’t work during that time or handle the 1.5hr commute to campus with 3 transfers. Currently in physical therapy 2-3 times a week.
And there’s a massive non-accessible detour around that entire section of campus due to them starting construction mid-semester, so that tripled the amount of walking, pain, and time it took to get to my classes.
Anyway I got LITERALLY NOTTHHIINGFF. No excused absences from disability or remote learning or offers for an INC or any type of accommodation or support. Some professors didn’t respond to my email until weeks after, which is whatever, but still gave me attitude about the work I was or wasn’t able to submit during this semester.
One professor basically told every other student “you should keep taking art classes!” Except me lmaoo and was helpful to other students also printing their portfolio but was just rude asf to me so I had to remind her “yeah my foot was broken for 3 months??? And they gave me no accommodations. Like what are you expecting” So I’m not feeling confident about the grades I’ll receive. I think evals are closed now but definitely leaving a rating on her RMP lmao
Even my physical therapist was shocked that the school and professors just expected me to do anything let alone w no accomodations while I was at peak injury. She immediately printed and signed a paper with all my visits to show to whoever (let’s be honest there’s nobody at this school that can help) when I told her my situation last week.
Does anybody have advice for how to handle this.. should I reach out to the disability office again or a different department/office for something like this? I am going to do whatever I can and annoy whoever to appeal the grades if they come back bad because I truly feel like this was a breach of some kind of disability law/policy, given I couldn’t walk for 3 months and am being held to the exact same expectations as students that could. Lowkey had a meltdown and cried on the train and in PT today.
If I wasn’t injured I wouldn’t expect a drop of empathy for missing or doing poorly on assignments but I literally could not walk myself to the bathroom even while dosing myself with gabapentin for the entire month of March. Maybe I should’ve done more while being injured but my energy levels were halved, and I have no family or partner to help. I am just now able to walk and start working again without limping or pain, so I have the capacity now to actually advocate and try to get the support from the school and disability department I was supposed to receive early in the semester.
Any advice on what I should do would be appreciated.