In one of my classes, I was assigned a project to review job descriptions in my chosen field to analyze what kind of skills they required and what the compensation might be. When I initially saw the project on the course syllabus, I assumed the presentation would be a slide deck submission. However, it turned out when the project was actually assigned that the deliverable was a narrated video presentation.
If you’ve been around here for a while, you’ll know that one of the challenges presented by my autism is that I sometimes have difficulty forming words with my mouth. The thoughts are there, but converting them into audible speech is often something I am simply not capable of, no matter how much I want to. Even (especially) during emergencies. It’s not a matter of preference or effort for me. It’s not that I don’t want to talk. In some situations, I simply can’t.
The autism literature describes this as selective mutism. I’m not a fan of that term because it sounds like I’m the one selecting when I’m mute or not. In reality, it’s the situation I’m in that has robbed me of my words. So I and a large portion of the autistic community refer to this experience instead as situational mutism.
As anyone who’s had to do public speaking before can tell you, giving a presentation can be stressful. So when it came time to do the assignment, unsurprisingly, my voice did not cooperate.
I am in regular contact with my professors throughout the semester, as well as the accessibility office for the school. Thankfully, the professor was on board with my proposed accommodation: let me use AAC to produce the narration. With her sign-off, I spent about 7 hours producing narration for the video that I was satisfied with. I got an A on the assignment.
My neurotypical peers are unaware of the challenge I faced with this assignment. They reported they were able to complete the recording of the presentation with narration in as little as 10 minutes. It took me 40 times as long to complete the assignment. Accommodations don’t make the work easier for me than for my peers; it’s still harder. Instead, they are the difference between putting in an enormous extra effort to succeed, vs not being able to try.