This case seems to be to be one where the student’s needs should be front and center, to me. But at my school, faculty don’t even have to find out why the student needs changes to the course — something that would help us to determine what is reasonable, let alone help us to brainstorm other ways of helping the student. I understand privacy, but it seems to me when asking a faculty member to change — sometimes totally — the class, there needs to be SOME amount of information exchanged, if faculty are going to have the right attitude. Clearly in this case, the disability was obvious, but that is not always the case.

And then there was this, several years ago. I had a student with multiple personality disorder (she disclosed it to me). The disabilities office decided that I had to call in and talk w/the student to decide if the ‘right’ personality (out of 20) was taking the test — otherwise I had to throw out that grade and test her again. I am not qualified as a psychologist and there was one on the disablities office’s staff! But that student got to take, sometimes, 5 or 6 tries at the quiz — is that fair to my other ‘able’ students who did not? I just need help seeing how to balance the issue of working with one student’s needs and the needs of the other students too. Is there any case law on that? No one at my school wants to talk about this side of the ADA act.

Worried about this too, at 8:45 am EDT on July 31, 2006

Diagnosis and accomodations

I think it is unfair to take the extreme cases to interpret what or who decides accomodations for a disabled student. I teach in a college and I am also a parent of a child with severe language disabilities. Even I have faced professors who have refused to provide the accomodations for my son’s documented disabilities. One even said he had to take the test in his office and not at the quiet room at the college’s disabilities center. I explained to the professor that it would make my son extremely anxious and by law heis supposed to be provided with the accommodation. My son’s case had to go through a committee before the professor would agree. Most disabled students do not have this level of Advocacy to help them obtain the necessaryhelp. I think it is the ignorance of the professors and their stereotypes about people with disabilities that go againt these students. I think the disabilities’ office in the institution should take an active role in educating teachers about disabilities in general and the needs of a particular student. This in my opinion is rarely done if not unheard of! Schools (K-12) took to inclusion in the same way many years ago and are finding out that just by providing the necessary help they actually help these students to perform as well as their non disabled peer if not better! At the community colleges repeatedly we are finding out that students with disabilities have a better rate of retention and persistence towards a degree than their nondisabled counterparts. So let’s stop complaining and see how we can readjust our attitutdes toward the disabled but highly motivated disabled students.

underdog, Director of academic Assessment, at 10:00 am EDT on July 31, 2006

disabilities

I am an adjunct at a university that requires instructors to accommodate students with disabilities. However, the institution provides support for both the student and the instructor—up to a point. The student must first register with an appropriate oversight committee and present documentation of a disability to the instructor. If the student requires a notetaker, the school pays one of the other students in the class a nominal fee. The school also offers special services for testing if the student needs more time than allotted for the class. For the most part this has solved the problem. However, last year a severely disturbed, schizophrenic student insisted on taking my course and I was not allowed to refuse him. He had a long history of disturbing the classrooms of other instructors. I was completely powerless to prevent having him in my class, and after he virtually stalked my office I knew what I was up against. This student ruined the classes of many of my colleagues, and other students blamed the professors for being unable to control the student. As it turned out, the student ended up in the hospital before he could sign up for my class. In my view, there must be some limit regarding who can be accommodated. I think my institution generally does a pretty good job accommodating students with special needs—but has gone too far over the line when it comes to allowing severely mentally ill students into courses.

vida pavesich, at 10:35 am EDT on July 31, 2006

Try to put yourself in their shoes...

As someone who has taught for several years as a graduate assistant and as an adjunct, I am certainly sympathetic to the teachers who have to deal with accomadation issues. As someone who is newly disabled however, I am more sympathetic to students.

It is very difficult to understand what it is like to be disabled. It’s especially difficult to understand when the disability is invisible (like mine). So please, talk to your students and try hard to understand what they are going through. And remember, just because the student looks ok, it doesn’t mean that they are ok.

Karen, at 4:15 pm EDT on July 31, 2006

Reasonable Accommodations

“According to the lawsuit, the instructor and teaching assistants turned down — without explanation — Bradford’s requests for accommodations such as providing him with notes of class lectures and discussions and copies of slides used in class sessions.”

If the student is looking for the faculty to disgorge entire lecture series in full written form to him, that is very different from asking for a note-taker, tapes of lectures, or copies of a colleague’s classnotes. The latter two would count as reasonable accommodations; the first would not. Depending on what the student wants here, his request may not constitute a *reasonable* accommodation under the statute.

JBM, at 5:10 pm EDT on July 31, 2006

who decides?

I love hiding behind legalese: inhuman. I love also those non-disabled people who decide who it is who is going to decide who is disabled—always, for some reason or other, a non-disabled. This is akin to the organ donation problem where judges decide on “quality of life” issues, always always always using their life quality as the base, if not some fictional “average American.” In fact, a non-disabled individual has absolutely no idea of quality of life issues for the disabled and, therefore, resists accommodation, often on grounds of “reasonableness.” Let’s see...huddle in football were developed to accommodate deaf players, strike-ball sign were developed to accommodate deaf pitchers, those curb cut mothers like so very much were developed to accommodate the disabled, typewriters, raised numbers (and a star or letters) on elevators (along with the voice announcements), typrwriters. Get off it people: you couldn’t live very well without the accommodations that have been made for the disabled.

As to Bradford and the foolish adjunct: all he asked for was NOTES, not fully written notes. Hello? Is there anybody home? In 1963, when I was in HS, a classmate contracted rheumatic fever and was confined to her bed at home; the school made it possible for her to get her classes, to visit if you will, by phone. All classes, every day. She was in one of my classes.

What the hell’s the problem? Why does helping someone have to be legally mandated? Why does helping someone have to be subject to “reasonableness"? Says a shit load about us and our society...and about hypocritically religious people.

Look, how many of you non-disabled fools—and, yes, you’re fools—could possibly exist in a world where there were no doorknobs because the people of that world didn’t need them or in a world where there was no light or you legally could no move faster than 400 metres/hour? You’d damn well want accommodation. (Actually, we want accommodation every time we ask for a favor, especially a “special” favor...or forgiveness.) But...buck up kiddies, your time is coming: when you get old(er) you will suddenly become disabled. Enlightenment will be yours. jimsecor

James L Secor, Ph.D. at Xiamen University, at 5:15 am EDT on August 1, 2006

response to Dr. Secor

Professor Secor, I don’t want to be the first to break it to you, but the ADA is a creature of law, and when words are in need of defining, potential litigants will use the normal modes of legal interpretation to arrive at definitions. You seem to be asking everyone to ignore the ADA, ignore any pretext of fair treatment for all students, and rely on “compassion” as a rule of decision.

If you are going to cite specific organ-donation cases, I would appreciate a citation. I think that you may be referring to judges “Deciding” “quality of life” issues regarding organ donation for political reasons, and not because such cases were actually litigated. As an academic, surely you can appreciate the urgency of providing citations.

That said, assuming your “quality of life” cases exist, I don’t see how they are analogous to the ADA. The ADA requires that employers, service providers, and government entities make “reasonable accommodations” for disabled people. It does not require that a given service provider make the “quality of life” of a handicapped person necessarily any higher.

Of course, schools are free to make whatever accommodations they want. But, in some cases it is prohibitively expensive, or will hurt others. For instance, many people have noted that bending to mentally-ill students will detract from other students’ classroom experiences. Likewise, the large number of students (mostly girls for some reason) that claim to have difficulty taking tests create an uneven and unfair playing field for students that have less time to take such a test.

Next, you seem to think that there is something strange or wrong with legislatures or courts deciding legal matters based on their own experience. Again, even in a democracy, the path of the law is experience. Of course people use their own experience, and their own values. Do you really expect someone to make a decision based on someone else’s values?

Then you close by calling people “fools,” which doesn’t do much to advance the conversation, and signals that you don’t treat academic discourse too seriously.

Larry, at 7:30 am EDT on August 1, 2006

Academic Accommodations

As the coordinator of a program in a community college that works with faculty daily to establish academic accomodations that are reasonable, I would like to make it clear that finding one solution for all is just what the law guards against. What colleges and universities need to do is to develop a consistent process for supporting these student needs. The good thing...most faculty want the best for each of their students and work with the disability support services and the student to meet that need without changing the essentials of a course. The difficult work...even those of us that believe we are “non-disabled” have different learning styles and we learn better from some professors than others. All you have to do is take a look at a “rank-your-professor” website to see the variety of comments from students.Finally, if the request seems inappropriate to you, seek those individuals on your campus that may be able to share information so that you can make the right decision. Part of that research that we all enjoy in higher education. And if you don’t feel it’s the right accommodation, follow the procedures on your campus for an internal review. It is much less painful than court and usually very educational.

Gail Conrad, DSPS Coordinator/Professor at San Diego Mesa College, at 4:45 am EDT on August 4, 2006

Larry, your “The sooner colleges adopt a ‘facilities-only’ (and braille) approach to disabled kids, the happier we will be,” approach advocates outright intentional exclusion of autistics. You should be quite ashamed. What state’s Bar do you belong to?Please also provide you Bar #, as your intent to incite Title II ADA violations is quite clear. Your anti-disability stance is not remedied by your efforts to hide behind the official stamp of Bar membership. You do not speak for those of us who graduated law school, are bar applicants, or those who are attorneys.

MaryJ.D./M.B.A.

Mary, J.D./M.B.A., at 5:05 pm EDT on August 17, 2006