July 12, 2021 In the fall of 2019, then-senior Dana Pepowski (Communication â20) sought help from AccessibleNU after symptoms of her chronic illnesses began to worsen. The accessibility counselor she worked with was the first person at Northwestern, and in her life, to ever validate her accessibility needs and illnesses, which are not obviously detectable. Pepowski said she had very little success in receiving accommodations from school leadership. She has numerous chronic illnesses â including gastroparesis, colonic dysmotility and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome â all of which can cause physical pain or fatigue, impacting her daily functions. Pepowski said she would often wake up in the morning with chronic pain. Some nights, she wouldnât sleep at all due to the pain. She said she needed flexibility to miss class or rehearsals when the pain reached an unbearable level.