How To Advocate For Yourself When You Have Allergies

When you get diagnosed with a severe life-threatening allergy, at times it can feel difficult and scary to advocate for your needs because there are a lot of common misconceptions about allergies. Sometimes, people also do not follow proper safety precautions which can put you in danger. When you have severe allergies, it requires you to have a baseline amount of trust that the people around you are going to follow your accommodations in order to keep you healthy and safe. The responsibility of keeping someone safe from their allergen(s) should be shared by everyone. 

Here is a general list of things that you can do to help advocate for your needs as someone with anaphylactic allergies. 

Make Sure You Make People Aware of Your Allergies In Advance 

• I cannot stress this point enough! If people are unaware of their allergies, then they are unable to provide the accommodations that you need in order to ensure that you are safe. If you think that there is a potential that your allergen could be present somewhere that you are going make sure to call in advance, write an email, talk to a manager, etc. Make sure that the place you are going is prepared to accommodate you. 

• With my latex allergy, I usually have to call ahead to places to make sure that there are no latex balloons present, and that if food is being served all food-handling gloves are latex-free. 
  

Make Sure to Let Someone Know Around You 

• While it is important for the venue staff to know about your allergies, you should also consider letting someone close to you know about your allergies as well. Usually, I like to go to events with one of my friends who is aware of my allergies. However, if they are not attending with me, I will let somebody at my table know that I do have an allergy and to be aware. 
  

Do Your Research

• When I had really severe food allergies, I found it really helpful to look up the menu of the places I was planning to eat at beforehand so I could get an idea of what to order and what type of substitutions I may need to make to the meal. Also, since my latex allergy has worsened, I now try to look up Google images of unfamiliar places to see if they normally have balloons out. Sometimes doing all of this research is quite timely, but it is worth it to make sure that I am safely able to go out and enjoy myself. 
  

Call Things Out When You See Them 

• If you see that someone is not following the proper protocols or accommodations that are in place for individuals with allergies, do not be afraid to let them know what they need to be doing in order to keep everyone safe. You should also encourage others around you to do the same. 

• When you are able to demonstrate how to properly advocate for individuals with allergies, it can also inspire other people to advocate for safe spaces, which in turn helps make places more inclusive for everyone. 

• A prime example of this happened in my Masters classes, when people in my department heard about me having a severe latex allergy they went ahead and let others know to not bring in latex into the classrooms or the department in order to keep me safe. 

When you are newly diagnosed with anaphylactic allergies trying to figure out how to put the proper accommodations in place can be really challenging. Here is a general list of some common accommodations that you can ask for when going somewhere new. 

*It is important to note that not every individual with anaphylactic allergies will require any or all of these accommodations, so it is important to still ask the person with allergies what they need in order to feel safe. 

Common Accommodations Can Include:

Keeping Spaces Allergen-free 

• You can request that the place you are hoping to attend remove all allergens from the premises (or at the very least away from where you are located in the venue). 

• In the case of my latex allergy, I ask that the venue does not have latex at the venue at all during the duration of the event. 
  

Wipe Down High-touch Surfaces 

• This isn’t something that people tend to think of, however, I have had many allergic reactions due to cross-contamination of surfaces such as sinks, door handles, etc. Simply asking people at venues to give high-touch surfaces a wipe-down can significantly lower the risk of cross-contamination occurring. 
  

Airing Out The Space

• Some individuals with allergies can be really sensitive to things such as dust and pollen, so people may request that doors and windows remain open for a certain period of time to help create some airflow in the venue. 
  

Removing Allergens Before Events Start 

• Since latex can live on surfaces for multiple days, I tend to request that whenever possible all latex be removed from the venue 72 hours before I plan to be there. 
  

Listing Out Ingredients/Having Substitutions 

• It is good to call ahead to the venue to ask for them to list out every ingredient in each of their dishes so everyone is aware of what is in the food. Also, if you do come across something you are allergic to there is no harm in asking the staff if you would be able to sub out parts of your meal to something that you can eat. 
  

Ask If Venue Staff Know How to Administer An Epi-pen 

• It may be good to call ahead and see if venue staff and other event attendees are trained on how to administer an epi-pen in case of an emergency.
  

Make People Aware to Not Bring in Allergens 

• You can contact staff at the venue and request that they send a message out to other guests asking them to not bring specific allergens to the venue. This is an important request to make especially if your allergies are airborne as guests may not know about your allergies and may accidentally put you in danger because they were not made aware. 
  

Signage 

• On a similar note to the previous point, you can also request that the venue put up signage reminding people not to bring allergens into specific places because an individual is allergic. This helps to make people aware that there is someone with a severe allergy without blatantly pointing the person with allergies out. 
  

Set the Temperature 

• Some individuals with allergies may be sensitive to hot or cold temperatures, so you can request that the thermostat be set to a specific temperature.