Something I've been wondering....

[conuly]

How, exactly, does financial aid work? Do they just say "this is what you can pay, and we'll pay any amount more than that"? Or do they go "this is how much you get, no more"? Or what, exactly?

Edit: See, even though I fill out my FAFSA every year, I have no idea how it works.

Comments

[conuly]

Oy vey. *hugs*

[leora.livejournal.com]

:) I like to think of myself as surprisingly able for a disabled person. They have little scales of disability, and I fall pretty far down on them, as I can't always care for my basic needs (which is why my lothario needs to assist me on a regular basis). Yet, I've done a whole lot on LiveJournal that I'm very proud of. But it makes for a very bizarre feeling. On LiveJournal I am respected and generally viewed as competent. Outside LiveJournal, I am generally viewed as highly disabled. And I usually come across as scatterbrained or stupid because I have problems understanding spoken speech, and I sometimes forget how to speak clearly. Out loud, words will get lost, forgotten, or twisted. For some reason, I can still type fluently. It seems to use a different pathway.

So, it's nice to have a place where people see my abilities. Most of the time I'm viewed as fairly useless. And I know that a lot of my doctors view me that way. Too disabled to be of any value. It's part of why I hate interacting with them.

[conuly]

*laughs*

I almost wish I had your problem. ALMOST. Instead, I have people who don't know me very well (or at all) trying to tell me that I'm "just fine, perfectly normal" while all the time I'm screaming at them inside my head.

[leora.livejournal.com]

Oh, I get that too. Lots of people think I'm lazy, malingering, or just weird. None of my disabilities are visible. Many of them aren't even visible to doctors. That's part of why they view me so poorly. I look like a fairly healthy, albeit poorly sighted, girl who for some reason keeps complaining of being highly disabled and in lots of pain. But I look so healthy...

They speech problems are a serious issue. They don't tend to understand that I can't understand what they say well, and that I can't communicate with speech well. And even if I try to explain it, people just don't get it. But then, every time I go to the hospital somebody either hands me written paperwork and says, "here, you can read this." (uh thanks, but no, I can't) or tries to direct me with hand-waving. I have the big white reflective stick with red bit at the bottom. If they can't even understand being blind means you have trouble seeing, then I doubt I can explain totally invisible disabilities. Some days I wonder if I'm really the blind one.