Among the many unhealthy trends in American education is the expansion of “disability accommodations.” Students with disabilities are entitled to special treatment, or accommodations, to make things fair for them. But the definition of “disability” has loosened considerably in recent years. Once students and especially parents discovered that a supposed disability could be easily manipulated to obtain an accommodation, the trend took off.
In today’s Martin Center article, Graham Hillard looks at this phenomenon.
He writes, “Late last year, the Atlantic’s Rose Horowitch penned a widely shared essay on campus ‘disability accommodations,’ the practice whereby students with learning disorders such as ADHD receive extra time on tests or the use of ‘otherwise-prohibited technology.’ The piece did not make for pleasant reading.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, this is most prevalent at “elite” schools like Amherst and the University of Chicago.
Looking at the UNC system, Hillard observes, “Moreover, a number of UNC System schools that maintained modest disability percentages until recently have experienced sudden, massive jumps in the last few years. While these phenomena may be entirely innocent, they are highly suggestive of loosening assessment standards in disability-services offices, where a larger ‘case load’ inevitably means more funding, higher staffing levels, and greater prestige on campus.”
Aha! The hidden motive: More disability means more money for the school.