A few years ago, I randomly took a Women's Studies course in college. I don't remember if I liked how it fit into my schedule or if it fulfilled some liberal arts requirement.
To be fair, the class was awesome! The professor was so much fun. She was a very large, manly lesbian. I don't say that in a bad way. She was happy, intelligent, and had the hottest tiny blonde girlfriend. I was jealous, for sure.
Anyways, one of the final projects randomly assigned asked the students to find out how un-fat-friendly our campus was. When these students finally presented their findings in front of the class, the professor shrieked the same thing I was thinking...the students missed a LOT of things.
Let me tell you how un-fat-friendly the campus is.
Parking...there is virtually no on-campus parking. Even with the will power to arrive an hour before campus woke up in the morning, and armed with a handicapped placard for my car (stolen from my dad), I could never park anywhere that didn't require an immense hike.
Sure, I needed the hike...I mean, I'm fat, and the last thing a fat person needs to complain about is being forced to exercise via completing normal every day activities.
This isn't only bad for fat people though, it's bad for the disabled. When I broke my ankle, I was forced to hop across campus on crutches I could barely use. I was so embarrassed by my inability to walk up and down stairs while on crutches that I'd wait until classes were in session, and the halls were empty, and I'd go down the stairs on my but, dragging my backpack and crutches behind me. Can you imagine all of the germs I touched? Ugh, it was terrible.
However, getting back to addressing just the run of the mill fat - walking issue...the school didn't accommodate me, so I had to adapt. I would only walk to class when they were in session so as to not slow people down who were sharing the sidewalks, to avoid heckling from being an eyesore, and most of all, because after walking uphill, and upstairs, I'd have to dash into the nearest bathroom, lock myself into a stall, and fan myself for half an hour before class started, lest I'd run in with a red face, sweaty hairline, and being completely out of breath.
Can you imagine how embarrassing this was for me? I could never be 'on time'. I didn't have the luxury of attending a class that I'd just arrived for. If I was running late, I'd be forced to miss the class. With a commute time of over an hour, and with an Autistic toddler at home-- I was often late.
I could not schedule classes unless they were either in the same building or unless they were spaced far apart.
Desks-- there are still desks from the 1950's or earlier that look like they came out of an elementary school. Were people back then just much more...tinier? I had to drop many classes just because I not only didn't fit into the desk, but because I knew that I couldn't write or complete assignments while sitting in them.
I had to keep a complete list of classrooms that had desks in them that I didn't fit into just so I could arrange a doable class schedule. After summer, when a lot of rooms were painted, cleaned, and the furniture was moved, I'd have to start all over with my list of rooms without accommodating seats.
Usually, while most students were enjoying their summer vacations, I'd have to sneak to campus and tour rooms where my classes would be potentially held so I'd know if I could keep the class or not due to my inability to fit in some of the desks. And trust me, if there were four or five bigger desks in the room, you could always count on someone who didn't need a bigger desk to take them before you did.
Often, I'd have to make sure I was the FIRST person in the room so I could arrange my desk to be where I always sat, but with the biggest desk.
So...can you imagine the stress of not being able to keep a class because of a physical reason? Not being able to be late...or not being able to sit down without utter humiliation over your fat rolls oodling over the desk. And really, forget having a hard surface to take notes on.
The bathrooms...most stall doors open in and leave a one to two inch gap between the swinging door and the toilet itself. Try straddling a toilet when you're huge and there's no way out unless you allow your legs to rub against the toilet. Yeah, it was THAT gross. I'm not sure how even normal sized people could do it. I'm left thinking that whomever designed the bathrooms hated students.
