An example of the atitudes towards disability in professional training: When discussing support and accommodations with the senior tutor (also doubles as pastoral care co-ordinator) of my medical school in relation to my 'disability', I was informed that all medical schools have an obligation to follow the General Medical Council's strict guidance on equality for medical students with disabilities. However the same individual then went on to tell me that "we can give students with disabilities all the support we can offer but they are rarely successful". Is it not then surprising that such students should feel that they have the odds are stacked against them and that they are struggling constantly against negative and stereotypical views.
This typifies the perspective that is prevalent that people with disabilities should be 'patronised' and 'allowed' to join in with what other 'normal' students do, just to give the appearance of acceptance and suggest no discrimination exists, but at the end of the day they are still not really considered to be of the same value as others and are merely taking up valuable university places. In a nutshell they are not taken seriously!
I'm absolutely convinced that when it comes to the professions such as medicine, teaching, law etc. there is a sense of effrontery that their 'exulted' profession could possibly be carried out effectively and with a high level of competence by someone who is in essence seen as 'less' than them. They undoubtedly feel it somehow diminishes their own status, and that of their profession when a person with an 'impairment' can do the same job as they do; heaven forbid that they might even do it better. This kind of prejudice is so deeply ingrained that no limits are to be found to the 'clever' intellectual arguments that are dragged out with regularity in order to make what is a, purely, discriminatory stance in most cases appear acceptable:
"Would you want someone like that teaching your children?"
"They wouldn't have the necessary cognitive skills"
"They don't understand other people"
"Patients could be put at risk"
etc.
Of course 'normal' teachers or doctors would never represent a source of similar concern. Before people judge they should at least educate themselves about disorders such as Tourette Syndrome, so they can argue their points from an informed perspective rather than one of ignorance. I have experienced this on many occasions and more often would describe it as 'willful ignorance'.
As it turned out almost no support was provided by my university. In fact the more I told my department about my 'disability', the harder thay made life for me. I was not permitted any accommodations and 'reasonable adjustments' at all in regard to teaching and assessments. I was instead put through a gruelling nightmare of committee meetings, required visits to hospital consultants, additional course requirements not imposed on other students and in addition was subjected to discriminatory and offensive comments by members of the medical school staff. Essentially they were more concerned with finding ways to lessen my chance of qualifying than in giving me the encouragement and support I needed (and was entitled to by law). My 'disability' was also used as an effective means to ensure maximum difficulty for me by placing me under as much stress and uncertainty as possible by dragging out their offical assessment of me for as long as possible (I did not even know if I would be allowed to practice medicine after more than a year of being considered at the time of my final exams which had had to be postponed for one year already due to this process). As my condition is 'life-long' this would be a permanent outcome and I would have wasted 5 years of my life working so hard and getting into enormous debt as a student. The medical school staff were fully aware that Tourette Syndrome is exacerbated by undue stress and took every opportunity to pile as much stress onto me as can be imagined. My fellow students (excepting some with disabilities) were not subjected to this treatment and hence were permitted to enjoy their final year and the excitement of qualifying and starting their first hospital jobs - I instead was put through hell and it became the most miserable period in my life which even several years later I find difficult to even think or write about.
