Accommodation Nation

[Anonymous]

"Accomodation Nation" article in the Atlantic.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/01/elite-university-student-accommodation/684946/

There's a paywall, but the main context is in the quotes below. Bottom line: a lot of UMC and wealthy families are misusing the testing accommodations process.

DCUMers rail on TO ( and ascribe it to URMs) but avoid this topic.

I wonder why?


"Accommodations in higher education were supposed to help disabled Americans enjoy the same opportunities as everyone else. No one should be kept from taking a class, for example, because they are physically unable to enter the building where it’s taught. Over the past decade and a half, however, the share of students at selective universities who qualify for accommodations—often, extra time on tests—has grown at a breathtaking pace…”

“The change has occurred disproportionately at the most prestigious and expensive institutions. At Brown and Harvard, more than 20 percent of undergraduates are registered as disabled. At Amherst, that figure is 34 percent.”

Said a professor at a selective university: “You hear ‘students with disabilities’ and it’s not kids in wheelchairs. It’s just not. It’s rich kids getting extra time on tests.”

[Anonymous]

I will no longer subscribe to the Atlantic or even add traffic to their site, but I can imagine what the rest of the article is like. You know what the solution is to this 'problem'? Give everyone extra time - it is ridiculous, particularly at the college level, to think one person is smarter or better educated or better prepared because it takes them less time to solve a problem or write an essay than the next person.

[Anonymous]

I remember this from law school. The only “kid” with an accommodation was the “bro” with the rich family. All this sssst about “slow processing” and specific versions of “adhd” that just amount to “let my kid take the test at their own speed but yours has to do it timed.” More for the rich, once again, undermining the truly needy.

[Anonymous]

So some professor thinks all disabilities are physical? That the ADA and the IDEA only apply to kids in wheelchairs?

Ignorant.

[Anonymous]

Thanks to IDEA and 504, more students with disabilities are able to graduate from high school and go to college than ever before. This is a *good* thing.

[Anonymous]

My freshman Ivy child has two roommates and both have extra time. They each are given 2-3 days to take exams that the rest of the kids are given 2-3 hours to complete. Both attended private schools. Both are very bright and very wealthy. Both have the extra time for "anxiety."

I'd be pissed if I was a professor or a person who had a kid with dyslexia or significant ADHD or a learning difference. It's apparently a huge difficulty to get these exams proctored, especially if the student also needs a quiet study pod because there are not enough pods for the onslaught of students who now require them.

I have no idea how this generation of kids will cope in jobs with deadlines and noise and without parents to run interference. But I guess the workforce will adapt. Maybe everyone will get a week and a soundproof pod to write an email.

[Anonymous]

Not this again.

You know why rich kids get more accommodations than poor kids? Because poor kids who SHOULD receive accommodations do not because their parents don't know they're eligible for it or don't have time to argue their case, and the schools they attend aren't as attentive to these things as the rich kids' schools.

One of my kids is supremely functional and fast-thinking. The other has severe ADHD, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, low processing speed and a speech impediment, diagnosed when he was little and confirmed at 10 and 17. He needed a lot of school services and accommodations, but the biggest help was double time for his low processing speed, measured below the 5th percentile. He had double time for his ACT test, and he has double time in college, that he is trying to wean himself off, because he knows workplaces will not have any accommodations for him.

My son's issues won't go away magically. They will always be there. He might be fired from multiple jobs for lack of productivity. He absolutely needed his accommodations in K-12 and to suggest that our money bought unnecessary services is outrageous. On the contrary, we were sufficiently educated and wealthy to get him the help he needed, and that's why he made it into college in the first place.

Healthcare and mental health evaluations and services NEED TO BECOME CHEAPER, so that poorer families can benefit from them too.

What this article is missing is that modern society is uncovering a host of variability in brain function. That is particularly true for autism diagnoses. It doesn't mean people are gaming the system and being diagnosed when they don't have whatever it is. It means our methods of diagnosis have improved significantly and are covering more and more of the population, and that's why there are more people being diagnosed. And because scientists advance to a more granular understanding of mental health differences, the threshold for diagnosis keeps getting lower. But still, due to cost, it's the rich people who get diagnosed first. It doesn't mean they're lying about their symptoms.

All this poses a greater societal question of how to think about brain variability. We should accept that people function differently and that some are entitled to more time, or noise canceling headphones or whatever it is, without pathologizing their condition and labeling them as "disordered". Because this is really the crux of your complaint: that people with no perceived handicap are acting as if they deserve pity, community resources and extra attention, and that it's not fair, because they're not handicapped.

Instead, you should think about it as: people with different brain functioning are entitled to a different learning or working environment, even if they're just as smart than others, so that they can contribute to society instead of not being able to fit in at all and thus become a drain on society.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not this again.

You know why rich kids get more accommodations than poor kids? Because poor kids who SHOULD receive accommodations do not because their parents don't know they're eligible for it or don't have time to argue their case, and the schools they attend aren't as attentive to these things as the rich kids' schools.

One of my kids is supremely functional and fast-thinking. The other has severe ADHD, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, low processing speed and a speech impediment, diagnosed when he was little and confirmed at 10 and 17. He needed a lot of school services and accommodations, but the biggest help was double time for his low processing speed, measured below the 5th percentile. He had double time for his ACT test, and he has double time in college, that he is trying to wean himself off, because he knows workplaces will not have any accommodations for him.

My son's issues won't go away magically. They will always be there. He might be fired from multiple jobs for lack of productivity. He absolutely needed his accommodations in K-12 and to suggest that our money bought unnecessary services is outrageous. On the contrary, we were sufficiently educated and wealthy to get him the help he needed, and that's why he made it into college in the first place.

Healthcare and mental health evaluations and services NEED TO BECOME CHEAPER, so that poorer families can benefit from them too.

What this article is missing is that modern society is uncovering a host of variability in brain function. That is particularly true for autism diagnoses. It doesn't mean people are gaming the system and being diagnosed when they don't have whatever it is. It means our methods of diagnosis have improved significantly and are covering more and more of the population, and that's why there are more people being diagnosed. And because scientists advance to a more granular understanding of mental health differences, the threshold for diagnosis keeps getting lower. But still, due to cost, it's the rich people who get diagnosed first. It doesn't mean they're lying about their symptoms.

All this poses a greater societal question of how to think about brain variability. We should accept that people function differently and that some are entitled to more time, or noise canceling headphones or whatever it is, without pathologizing their condition and labeling them as "disordered". Because this is really the crux of your complaint: that people with no perceived handicap are acting as if they deserve pity, community resources and extra attention, and that it's not fair, because they're not handicapped.

Instead, you should think about it as: people with different brain functioning are entitled to a different learning or working environment, even if they're just as smart than others, so that they can contribute to society instead of not being able to fit in at all and thus become a drain on society.

I don't think ANYONE begrudges your severe ADHD, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, low processing speed, speech impediment, 5th percentile processing kid extra time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My freshman Ivy child has two roommates and both have extra time. They each are given 2-3 days to take exams that the rest of the kids are given 2-3 hours to complete. Both attended private schools. Both are very bright and very wealthy. Both have the extra time for "anxiety."

I'd be pissed if I was a professor or a person who had a kid with dyslexia or significant ADHD or a learning difference. It's apparently a huge difficulty to get these exams proctored, especially if the student also needs a quiet study pod because there are not enough pods for the onslaught of students who now require them.

I have no idea how this generation of kids will cope in jobs with deadlines and noise and without parents to run interference. But I guess the workforce will adapt. Maybe everyone will get a week and a soundproof pod to write an email.

Accommodations can be requested at work also, obviously only approved if the job and manager can make it work. As someone who has mild adhd, anxiety, and a physical condition, hybrid/remote work has been a godsend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not this again.

You know why rich kids get more accommodations than poor kids? Because poor kids who SHOULD receive accommodations do not because their parents don't know they're eligible for it or don't have time to argue their case, and the schools they attend aren't as attentive to these things as the rich kids' schools.

One of my kids is supremely functional and fast-thinking. The other has severe ADHD, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, low processing speed and a speech impediment, diagnosed when he was little and confirmed at 10 and 17. He needed a lot of school services and accommodations, but the biggest help was double time for his low processing speed, measured below the 5th percentile. He had double time for his ACT test, and he has double time in college, that he is trying to wean himself off, because he knows workplaces will not have any accommodations for him.

My son's issues won't go away magically. They will always be there. He might be fired from multiple jobs for lack of productivity. He absolutely needed his accommodations in K-12 and to suggest that our money bought unnecessary services is outrageous. On the contrary, we were sufficiently educated and wealthy to get him the help he needed, and that's why he made it into college in the first place.

Healthcare and mental health evaluations and services NEED TO BECOME CHEAPER, so that poorer families can benefit from them too.

What this article is missing is that modern society is uncovering a host of variability in brain function. That is particularly true for autism diagnoses. It doesn't mean people are gaming the system and being diagnosed when they don't have whatever it is. It means our methods of diagnosis have improved significantly and are covering more and more of the population, and that's why there are more people being diagnosed. And because scientists advance to a more granular understanding of mental health differences, the threshold for diagnosis keeps getting lower. But still, due to cost, it's the rich people who get diagnosed first. It doesn't mean they're lying about their symptoms.

All this poses a greater societal question of how to think about brain variability. We should accept that people function differently and that some are entitled to more time, or noise canceling headphones or whatever it is, without pathologizing their condition and labeling them as "disordered". Because this is really the crux of your complaint: that people with no perceived handicap are acting as if they deserve pity, community resources and extra attention, and that it's not fair, because they're not handicapped.

Instead, you should think about it as: people with different brain functioning are entitled to a different learning or working environment, even if they're just as smart than others, so that they can contribute to society instead of not being able to fit in at all and thus become a drain on society.

All of this. THANK YOU.

- mom of severely dyslexic and dysgraphic student who is also gifted

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not this again.

You know why rich kids get more accommodations than poor kids? Because poor kids who SHOULD receive accommodations do not because their parents don't know they're eligible for it or don't have time to argue their case, and the schools they attend aren't as attentive to these things as the rich kids' schools.

One of my kids is supremely functional and fast-thinking. The other has severe ADHD, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, low processing speed and a speech impediment, diagnosed when he was little and confirmed at 10 and 17. He needed a lot of school services and accommodations, but the biggest help was double time for his low processing speed, measured below the 5th percentile. He had double time for his ACT test, and he has double time in college, that he is trying to wean himself off, because he knows workplaces will not have any accommodations for him.

My son's issues won't go away magically. They will always be there. He might be fired from multiple jobs for lack of productivity. He absolutely needed his accommodations in K-12 and to suggest that our money bought unnecessary services is outrageous. On the contrary, we were sufficiently educated and wealthy to get him the help he needed, and that's why he made it into college in the first place.

Healthcare and mental health evaluations and services NEED TO BECOME CHEAPER, so that poorer families can benefit from them too.

What this article is missing is that modern society is uncovering a host of variability in brain function. That is particularly true for autism diagnoses. It doesn't mean people are gaming the system and being diagnosed when they don't have whatever it is. It means our methods of diagnosis have improved significantly and are covering more and more of the population, and that's why there are more people being diagnosed. And because scientists advance to a more granular understanding of mental health differences, the threshold for diagnosis keeps getting lower. But still, due to cost, it's the rich people who get diagnosed first. It doesn't mean they're lying about their symptoms.

All this poses a greater societal question of how to think about brain variability. We should accept that people function differently and that some are entitled to more time, or noise canceling headphones or whatever it is, without pathologizing their condition and labeling them as "disordered". Because this is really the crux of your complaint: that people with no perceived handicap are acting as if they deserve pity, community resources and extra attention, and that it's not fair, because they're not handicapped.

Instead, you should think about it as: people with different brain functioning are entitled to a different learning or working environment, even if they're just as smart than others, so that they can contribute to society instead of not being able to fit in at all and thus become a drain on society.

I don't think ANYONE begrudges your severe ADHD, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, low processing speed, speech impediment, 5th percentile processing kid extra time.

The professor quoted in the article sure is...unless the kid is in a wheelchair, apparently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not this again.

You know why rich kids get more accommodations than poor kids? Because poor kids who SHOULD receive accommodations do not because their parents don't know they're eligible for it or don't have time to argue their case, and the schools they attend aren't as attentive to these things as the rich kids' schools.

One of my kids is supremely functional and fast-thinking. The other has severe ADHD, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, low processing speed and a speech impediment, diagnosed when he was little and confirmed at 10 and 17. He needed a lot of school services and accommodations, but the biggest help was double time for his low processing speed, measured below the 5th percentile. He had double time for his ACT test, and he has double time in college, that he is trying to wean himself off, because he knows workplaces will not have any accommodations for him.

My son's issues won't go away magically. They will always be there. He might be fired from multiple jobs for lack of productivity. He absolutely needed his accommodations in K-12 and to suggest that our money bought unnecessary services is outrageous. On the contrary, we were sufficiently educated and wealthy to get him the help he needed, and that's why he made it into college in the first place.

Healthcare and mental health evaluations and services NEED TO BECOME CHEAPER, so that poorer families can benefit from them too.

What this article is missing is that modern society is uncovering a host of variability in brain function. That is particularly true for autism diagnoses. It doesn't mean people are gaming the system and being diagnosed when they don't have whatever it is. It means our methods of diagnosis have improved significantly and are covering more and more of the population, and that's why there are more people being diagnosed. And because scientists advance to a more granular understanding of mental health differences, the threshold for diagnosis keeps getting lower. But still, due to cost, it's the rich people who get diagnosed first. It doesn't mean they're lying about their symptoms.

All this poses a greater societal question of how to think about brain variability. We should accept that people function differently and that some are entitled to more time, or noise canceling headphones or whatever it is, without pathologizing their condition and labeling them as "disordered". Because this is really the crux of your complaint: that people with no perceived handicap are acting as if they deserve pity, community resources and extra attention, and that it's not fair, because they're not handicapped.

Instead, you should think about it as: people with different brain functioning are entitled to a different learning or working environment, even if they're just as smart than others, so that they can contribute to society instead of not being able to fit in at all and thus become a drain on society.

I don't think ANYONE begrudges your severe ADHD, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, low processing speed, speech impediment, 5th percentile processing kid extra time.

DCUM sure makes it seem that way every time this topic comes up. I usually read the first page or two and then have to stop myself from opening the threads anymore because they become so full of posters who clearly resent any accommodations and seem to forget there are legitimate reasons and students who actually need them, even if there are others who manage to abuse the system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not this again.

You know why rich kids get more accommodations than poor kids? Because poor kids who SHOULD receive accommodations do not because their parents don't know they're eligible for it or don't have time to argue their case, and the schools they attend aren't as attentive to these things as the rich kids' schools.

One of my kids is supremely functional and fast-thinking. The other has severe ADHD, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, low processing speed and a speech impediment, diagnosed when he was little and confirmed at 10 and 17. He needed a lot of school services and accommodations, but the biggest help was double time for his low processing speed, measured below the 5th percentile. He had double time for his ACT test, and he has double time in college, that he is trying to wean himself off, because he knows workplaces will not have any accommodations for him.

My son's issues won't go away magically. They will always be there. He might be fired from multiple jobs for lack of productivity. He absolutely needed his accommodations in K-12 and to suggest that our money bought unnecessary services is outrageous. On the contrary, we were sufficiently educated and wealthy to get him the help he needed, and that's why he made it into college in the first place.

Healthcare and mental health evaluations and services NEED TO BECOME CHEAPER, so that poorer families can benefit from them too.

What this article is missing is that modern society is uncovering a host of variability in brain function. That is particularly true for autism diagnoses. It doesn't mean people are gaming the system and being diagnosed when they don't have whatever it is. It means our methods of diagnosis have improved significantly and are covering more and more of the population, and that's why there are more people being diagnosed. And because scientists advance to a more granular understanding of mental health differences, the threshold for diagnosis keeps getting lower. But still, due to cost, it's the rich people who get diagnosed first. It doesn't mean they're lying about their symptoms.

All this poses a greater societal question of how to think about brain variability. We should accept that people function differently and that some are entitled to more time, or noise canceling headphones or whatever it is, without pathologizing their condition and labeling them as "disordered". Because this is really the crux of your complaint: that people with no perceived handicap are acting as if they deserve pity, community resources and extra attention, and that it's not fair, because they're not handicapped.

Instead, you should think about it as: people with different brain functioning are entitled to a different learning or working environment, even if they're just as smart than others, so that they can contribute to society instead of not being able to fit in at all and thus become a drain on society.

I don't think ANYONE begrudges your severe ADHD, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, low processing speed, speech impediment, 5th percentile processing kid extra time.

The professor quoted in the article sure is...unless the kid is in a wheelchair, apparently.

Can someone who can get past the paywall say if that professor is identified in the article? I honestly would like a heads-up so I know where my kid should not go.

[Anonymous]

If you don't have a grasp on the material, then no amount of extra time is going to change that . . . but be angry about extra time if it makes you feel better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not this again.

You know why rich kids get more accommodations than poor kids? Because poor kids who SHOULD receive accommodations do not because their parents don't know they're eligible for it or don't have time to argue their case, and the schools they attend aren't as attentive to these things as the rich kids' schools.

One of my kids is supremely functional and fast-thinking. The other has severe ADHD, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, low processing speed and a speech impediment, diagnosed when he was little and confirmed at 10 and 17. He needed a lot of school services and accommodations, but the biggest help was double time for his low processing speed, measured below the 5th percentile. He had double time for his ACT test, and he has double time in college, that he is trying to wean himself off, because he knows workplaces will not have any accommodations for him.

My son's issues won't go away magically. They will always be there. He might be fired from multiple jobs for lack of productivity. He absolutely needed his accommodations in K-12 and to suggest that our money bought unnecessary services is outrageous. On the contrary, we were sufficiently educated and wealthy to get him the help he needed, and that's why he made it into college in the first place.

Healthcare and mental health evaluations and services NEED TO BECOME CHEAPER, so that poorer families can benefit from them too.

What this article is missing is that modern society is uncovering a host of variability in brain function. That is particularly true for autism diagnoses. It doesn't mean people are gaming the system and being diagnosed when they don't have whatever it is. It means our methods of diagnosis have improved significantly and are covering more and more of the population, and that's why there are more people being diagnosed. And because scientists advance to a more granular understanding of mental health differences, the threshold for diagnosis keeps getting lower. But still, due to cost, it's the rich people who get diagnosed first. It doesn't mean they're lying about their symptoms.

All this poses a greater societal question of how to think about brain variability. We should accept that people function differently and that some are entitled to more time, or noise canceling headphones or whatever it is, without pathologizing their condition and labeling them as "disordered". Because this is really the crux of your complaint: that people with no perceived handicap are acting as if they deserve pity, community resources and extra attention, and that it's not fair, because they're not handicapped.

Instead, you should think about it as: people with different brain functioning are entitled to a different learning or working environment, even if they're just as smart than others, so that they can contribute to society instead of not being able to fit in at all and thus become a drain on society.

Me again. Sorry for the novel.

I wanted to add that often, the "anxiety = extra time" crowd may have other issues going on, but their parents didn't pay for the full neuropsych, or they are in denial of the other issues, or the other issues are really difficult to untangle. My friend has a child with mild ADHD and anxiety, for which she has extra time. There are other things going on, but they're in the realm of ODD/autism variants/possibly BPD, and those are really difficult to parse and officially diagnose. The extra time really helps this child lower her stress level and prevents too many aggressive spirals. My other friend has a child with "dyslexia and anxiety". They are all in denial of the significant inattentive ADHD and the child is not medicated or coached in organizational and functional skills. Thus, the only help she can receive is extra time. They don't even have dyslexia services. Sigh. Anyway.

Conclusion: these are very complex issues, and you can't start judging other people without being cognizant of how mental health services work in this country, and what taboos still exist for many families surrounding it.