I’d be more surprised if postsecondary wasn’t viciously ableist. Never seen any evidence to the contrary, and seen neurodiverse comrades trampled by the workload, demands and occasional shitty profs.

Western “education”

It can be pretty shitty but for my ADHD I get a semi-isolated room (max like 20 people) with dividers and 1.5x time on exams. I know that other accommodations exist but I haven’t thought I needed them enough to ask for them so I don’t know how accessible they are. This is a public school in the south so things could be better or worse where you are but this has been my experience. While this is nice but it is not perfect. I do have to schedule these exams with the testing center myself a week or two in advance and while this is probably unavoidable for a school of this size it still definitely tripped me up at first.

It should also be noted that I am likely also on the spectrum and the reason I have managed as well as I have, which admittedly isn’t stellar, is because I have been able to teach myself most of the subject matter by reading the textbook and doing the homeworks. I rarely attend lectures because I find them uncomfortable and generally not worth it (with exception) but I will meet with the professor occasionally if I get stuck. We all adapt in our own ways, traditional academia is still a hostile environment but its do-able for some

I’m in a similar position. I’d love to go back to school for a number of reasons, but I just cannot get to the point of committing to doing so since I strongly suspect that it will mentally annihilate me. And in the end, I will just have quit a decent job, lost a shit ton of money and what’s left of my self-confidence and hope after flunking/dropping out from the stress.

I think in my case it has to at least partially just be self doubt and a fear of failure, and who knows maybe the structure and routine of living on campus would actually help, but I just don’t know.

Has anyone had a notably positive or at least unexpectedly tolerable experience in postsecondary school and have some tips/info about it?

I suppose this depends a lot on where you are from. In my uni the neoliberalization of studies has paradoxically made studies a bit easier for me because so much is done remotely or by book exams. And this will only increase in the coming years. The “covid is real and should be avoided” years were when I went back and thrived in the remote learning environment.

But they do enforce attendance as a norm. If a course is in person, it’s really hard to get exceptions for it. My grades took a hit as soon as the world decided covid is over and studies became hybrid.

I have managed, but I credit this to my own understanding of my neurotype and an ability to work with it better, not the uni. This is my second try as an adult. It is definitely an ableist environment, nothing shows this better than the full covid denialism that took over everywhere.

I’d still say go for it. I wrote my first thesis about neurodiversity, leaning hard into my special interest which made it easier.

How far are you planning to go? My experience has been that community colleges tend to be way better about this stuff, but it depends heavily on where you are and the teacher in question.

Better than it was but still pretty terrible.

My University gives you extra 10 minutes during exams in a smaller room (still about 15 people with you though) and also it’s slightly easier to get an extension. That’s about it.