Invisible illnesses, team safety, and my experience as a chronic illness patient in FIRST

In general, if you have a disability that is not obvious – you’re not walking around with a white cane, you’re not in a wheelchair, etc… – then you (or your parents) need to make sure that disability is communicated to the adults associated with the team. If there are any accommodations that need to be made for your disability, those should be discussed with those adults.

It may be that a team’s culture has some unhealthy attributes – a propensity of working until late in the night is an example. And, as somebody who is especially susceptible to the effects of that unhealthy culture, you are in a good place to advocate for changes to that culture. But, “crazy hours” are something that comes with the territory. There’s no way to build a good competition robot without a lot of work.

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