Rights and Responsibilities
Common Assumptions and Attitudes
Here are some common assumptions and attitudes toward students with disabilities:
“Accommodations are unfair advantages.”—In the spirit of equal opportunity, being provided with necessary accomodations is not a special privilege. Accommodations are meant to put students with disabilities on a level playing field with other students, however, it’s often not even enough to do that let alone give an unfair advantage.
“Accommodating a student means lowering my standards.”—Students are in your class because they want to learn. Students with disabilities should be held to the same standard as all students. Please don’t lower your standards or expectations because you want to make things easier. It is a better solution to provide accommodations and modify teaching methods and materials so that all students learn better. Please provide your students with the education they are here for.
“Students will invent a disability to get special treatment” and “Students will try and work the system.”—More often
than not, students will not disclose their disability for fear of these kinds of assumptions. The disadvantages of disability far outweigh the “advantages” of
“special treatment”. Students can be required to provide documentation of their disability.
“Students aren’t smart enough to make it in college” and “Students with disabilities don’t belong here in the first place.”—Students with disabilities have fulfilled the same academic requirements as their non-disabled peers. Disability does not affect how “smart” a student is, it affects HOW they learn. The difference between a student’s success or failure in college often depends on the quality of the accommodations, supports and services that they receive.
