Understanding rights and resources

Understanding your rights and resources is a huge thing for potsies. If you are anything like me, advocating for yourself can be extremely hard. With POTS being an invisible disability, quite often people can think that you are faking your issues just to get special treatment and accommodations but that is not the case. I can’t count how many times I have been sitting down and someone has told me to “get up, you are being lazy” when I am on the verge of passing out or when I park in a handicap parking spot and people have the audacity to say “you know you have to actually be handicap to use that spot. You can’t just use your grandparents handicap pass.” It is so frustrating and annoying to constantly be told what you need or don’t need.

As someone who has been diagnosed with POTS you are have the right to get a handicap parking pass if you think it could help you, which in many cases it helps a lot. According to Tennessee law,

“Disabled driver or passenger license plates, placards and decals are available to Tennessee residents who:
* are confined to a wheelchair.
* walk with difficulty or uncertainty.
* have 20/200 vision or worse with corrective lenses.
* are the parent or legal guardian of a person who is permanently disabled and incapable of operating a motor vehicle.”

Since POTS affects people’s ability to stand or walk for long periods of time, you can get a handicap parking pass by filling out an application and having your doctor fill out a form confirming that you have a disability that fits the requirements.

In school or in the workplace you also have the right to accommodations. These accommodations can include more time off, the ability to sit down when needed, more frequent breaks, the use of mobility aids, or the ability to carry a bag with POTS necessities in them at all time. Legally, any job or school is required to give you accommodations and if they don’t, it’s a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. I suggest requesting these accommodations immediately, even if they don’t seem necessary. I had an issue with this at my current workplace when my supervisors said I can sit down whenever I needed to, but a year and a half into me working there, corporate stated complaining about me sitting down and said I need to be standing at all time and if I needed to sit then I would have to walk all the way to the back of the store so that customers wouldn’t see me. This became a major issue for me because when I requested to speak with the HR department about officially documenting my disability and the need for accommodations, they took over a month to even schedule a meeting with me and I wasn’t given accommodations in the meantime. I eventually had the meeting and got accommodations with the help of my doctors but that was honestly a traumatizing experience. I was told that everyone at corporate was gossiping about me just for siting down occasionally and my safety was put at risk when I was told to walk all the way to the back, on concrete floors, when I felt like I was going to pass out. Not everyone is going to be nice and understanding when you ask for accommodations but they are legally required to give them to you.

Dysautonomia International is an organization that is all about dysautonomia and advocating for those with these disabilities and they have an amazing page that goes over workplace accommodations for everyone with dysautonomia. This information also applies to getting accommodations at school because that is just as important for you people with POTS. Another on of my favorite POTS organizations is Standing Up To POTS. Their mission is to improve the quality of life for those with POTS through research, advocacy, and support, and they have an entire resources library for practitioners on how to best support their POTS patients.

I will be posting more about resources and rights for potsies throughout the rest of my campaign so be sure to subscribe to my email list to stay up to date on all things POTS.