When junior year began, college was in the back of my mind because all I could think about was stress of the work load. As junior year was nearing its end, I began to think about starting the college process since I knew it would be more difficult for me because I have a physical disability, which makes my college selection smaller for the fact that I have to think about accessibility.

I was aware that the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is the number one school in the country for someone with a physical disability like mine, Muscular Dystrophy. I thought the Urbana-Champaign would be a good fit for me, so I decided to go for a visit over spring break, but during my time on the campus, I wasn’t a big fan of the school. It wasn’t aesthetically pleasing. Though I didn’t like the school. I did appreciate how accommodating it was, and I was ready to find more schools like it. The visit made me realize the process would require me to be more prepared than others because I have more to keep track of accessibility.

After my visit I spoke to learning resources specialist Bridget Walsh, and she gave me the idea for an independent study on navigating the college process with a physical disability. Once my independent study was approved by Head of the Upper School Peter Neissa, I began doing online research of colleges and universities known for being wheelchair accessible. This research led me to call and ask for what resources they could provide for students like me and others who need to plan for college life with physical disabilities.

At Parker, Danny Andrews is with me every day, and my parents help me at home. I can’t count how many times I’ve been asked if Danny is going to college with me, and he is not, which is honestly going to be very difficult because I’m not going to have someone like him with me, which means I have to be more independent and ask others for help when I can.

The first part of a college search for me is to find schools that have one–on–one assistants — otherwise, it’s not worth looking into. I won’t have someone like Danny with me at any school because it is not realistic for most schools to use financial resources for one–on–one aids if only a few students need them.

For the first task of my study I called 20 schools in total, and most of the responses were “We can provide note-taking assistance, assistive technology, and extra time on a test.” Those resources aren’t really that helpful for someone who needs the help that I need with many everyday tasks and independent functioning skills.

As I was making these calls, I began to notice that the college process for someone with a physical disability is extremely unfair because a very small number of schools are accommodating. I was stunned that in the year 2015 with Stephen Hawking being one of the smartest people alive, so few schools would accommodate someone with a physical disability.

I was not expecting every school to be accommodating, but I was expecting to have a list of options. After all the research I did, I discovered that roughly five schools would be accommodating for someone who needs a one-on-one assistant for portions of the day.

The schools I discovered in the end were Urbana-Champaign; Wright State in Dayton, Ohio; Edinboro University of Pennsylvania; Wisconsin-Whitewater University; and the University of Houston. I was fortunate that some of those schools are in the Midwest because traveling by plane is hard since my chair usually gets damaged on planes. Despite the fact that some of most accommodating schools are in the Midwest, I still need more options because there is a chance that those schools might not work out. For that reason I have to look into Chicago area schools that I could comute to every day like I do at Parker even though I want to go away to college.

The last aspect of my college search is the academic major, which my peers usually start with in their college searches. Some of schools I’m looking into, just don’t have the major I’m interested in, which is journalism, and that’s a big compromise I have to deal with. It has been difficult to accept and it is something I have had to adjust to.

Though my college process has been hard, I’m sharing the results of my Independent Study with college counseling for them to show to students in the future. I am glad that my research might help someone because I want to leave a mark on Parker, a place that has been like a second home to me over the last fourteen years.