Students with disabilities face tricky transition to college
October 25th, 2008From the Washington Post, a feature on the growing number of students with learning disabilities who are entering college. Twenty years ago, only one in 100 students with learning disabilities would graduate from high school and go on to a four-year college. Today, that number is about one in nine.
For many, the transition isn’t easy. Many colleges have programs to assist students, but …
what colleges must do is far less defined legally, and professors and administrators at some schools seem to remain skeptical about the needs that students might have. Schools must provide assistance to students, but only if the students disclose their disabilities.
… The students who are most successful, experts say, are the ones who adapt quickly to independence from their parents and become their own advocates.
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November 2nd, 2008 at 2:07 am
Between the lack of information given to parents about the types of educational experiences that their children should be getting from the time they are 14 years old (in Michigan) and the time they graduate; and the lack of information that school districts or individual teachers divulge, I don’t believe that Sarah’s comment is at all helpful.
Delving deeper into the research, there is evidence that transition planning has overlooked education about ADA, practice in self-determination, and advice about the appropriate circumstances in which young adults with learning disabilities might properly disclose their disabilties (Gerber et al in Learning Disabilities, Research and Practice). Many young adults do not disclose because they fear stigmatization, or reduced opportunities if they disclose. However, non-disclosure removes any obligation on the part of the institution of higher learning or an employer to accommodate under Section 504 or ADA.
What is really at issue here, is an abridgment of civil rights through innuendo: if you suggest that you might treat a person in a lesser manner, you discourage appropriate self-advocacy. I hope that future generations will be more generous and welcoming of people who aren’t exactly like them. In the meantime, I would hope that Sarah would consider how judgmental her comment might be considered.
October 26th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
If students don’t learn to advocate for themselves by the time they get to college, maybe it’s not time for college!