Thank you. Online classes that have live components might be something good for me to look into. My son does not want people to see that he needs any kind of accommodation. I couldn't understand why until a few days ago. I was trying to get him to hold the knife the "normal way" when he cut his food and he got really upset and asked why people just assume that anyone that has to do something differently has a mental disorder? He showed us how his hand weakness and index finger with hypermobile joint is worthless for providing enough support to cut food normally. He says he has to do it the way he does it and whose business is it anyway?
He is very aware of judgmental people. He is a very smart kid and he sees it in their eyes. We have judgmental people in our family and it is one of the things that really bothers him. My college professor sister-in-law said something about his problem with cutting with a knife several years ago. She didn't think the way he did it looked very attractive. He can write legibly because writing doesn't take as much strength as cutting but his writing is slow and he has pain in his hands if he writes very long.
If more teachers would let him use his iPhone for taking notes and answering essay questions and let him leave the class to take pain meds when he needs them or stretch to relieve the pain from the scoliosis, I would feel better about putting him in more classes. My son is doing the best he can to deal with all of this. When he was little, clothing tags and socks bothered him and now he lives with pain and it makes me so mad that some teachers just expect him to color in the lines exactly like everyone else without any accommodations.
These really are tough decisions and I still have mixed feelings.
