Accommodation Nation

[Anonymous]

All of the defensive parents who have kids with real disabilities should be equally annoyed and outraged that a good number of these kids are using a fake diagnosis to pretend that they have a disability and cheat on tests.

If you attend a private school or live in an affluent neighborhood, you will know of a kid (or in my kid's case, dozens of kids) who had zero issues at school, zero issues getting As throughout middle school and zero need for additional time on tests until they found out around 8th or 9th grade that they can tell a doctor that they are struggling with anxiety or have difficulty paying attention in class and can get extra time for tests. This is a very easy thing to do for wealthy kids.

In fact, certain independent college counselors recommend this to parents as a strategy for getting additional time to score high on the SATs.

No one here is saying that a kid with actual physical limitations should be denied accommodations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All of the defensive parents who have kids with real disabilities should be equally annoyed and outraged that a good number of these kids are using a fake diagnosis to pretend that they have a disability and cheat on tests.

If you attend a private school or live in an affluent neighborhood, you will know of a kid (or in my kid's case, dozens of kids) who had zero issues at school, zero issues getting As throughout middle school and zero need for additional time on tests until they found out around 8th or 9th grade that they can tell a doctor that they are struggling with anxiety or have difficulty paying attention in class and can get extra time for tests. This is a very easy thing to do for wealthy kids.

In fact, certain independent college counselors recommend this to parents as a strategy for getting additional time to score high on the SATs.

No one here is saying that a kid with actual physical limitations should be denied accommodations.

All the defensive parents who have kids with "real disabilities" know that their kids' medical information is private, and that anyone who is throwing around statements like "40% of students have accomodations and they're all fake" is talking out of their nether regions. Many disabilities are not "visible," and no one except the kids' school and their doctors has the full picture. Parents who have kids who are struggling know enough not to judge what they don't know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All of the defensive parents who have kids with real disabilities should be equally annoyed and outraged that a good number of these kids are using a fake diagnosis to pretend that they have a disability and cheat on tests.

If you attend a private school or live in an affluent neighborhood, you will know of a kid (or in my kid's case, dozens of kids) who had zero issues at school, zero issues getting As throughout middle school and zero need for additional time on tests until they found out around 8th or 9th grade that they can tell a doctor that they are struggling with anxiety or have difficulty paying attention in class and can get extra time for tests. This is a very easy thing to do for wealthy kids.

In fact, certain independent college counselors recommend this to parents as a strategy for getting additional time to score high on the SATs.

No one here is saying that a kid with actual physical limitations should be denied accommodations.

First, many people are saying exactly that -- they are overtly suspicious of every kid, esecilally those with late diagnosis (when in fact late diagonsis is tragic and those kids are hurt the most by having been "passed along").

As to the wealthy fake dx, if true, you have literally no way of knowing whether you kid's friends test results were legit, or as you assume, faked by an unscrupulous psychiatrist. Frankly, if you think this is true, name the psychiatrist and the counselor! Call them out on it. If we have another Varsity Blues on on our hands, blow the actual whistle on the cheaters, don't just vaguely smear all kids as if they were all in on it. You have done the equivalent of implying that every kid on an Ivy sports team cheated to get there through the Varisty Blues scandle by saying "so many did" though we can't tell which didn't. In the end, there were fewer than 50 families, a miniscule percentage of college athletes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All of the defensive parents who have kids with real disabilities should be equally annoyed and outraged that a good number of these kids are using a fake diagnosis to pretend that they have a disability and cheat on tests.

If you attend a private school or live in an affluent neighborhood, you will know of a kid (or in my kid's case, dozens of kids) who had zero issues at school, zero issues getting As throughout middle school and zero need for additional time on tests until they found out around 8th or 9th grade that they can tell a doctor that they are struggling with anxiety or have difficulty paying attention in class and can get extra time for tests. This is a very easy thing to do for wealthy kids.

In fact, certain independent college counselors recommend this to parents as a strategy for getting additional time to score high on the SATs.

No one here is saying that a kid with actual physical limitations should be denied accommodations.

maybe you look at my kid and think they had zero issues but i'm sure not sharing his struggles with you!

[Anonymous]

I agree market forces will exert themselves on people who haven't learned to maximize their abilities and speed.
If a field requires speed, organization, and vast amounts of knowledge, you won't be able to accommodate yourself into it. But I do see more young people not being able to handle real life - on psych meds for normal anxiety, too many days off work, etc. In medicine, if you can't work accuately and at tops speed, you won't make it.

To the PPs saying they make all kinds of sacrifices to help their struggling kid - that's not a sacrifice, that is parenting. We are all doing that.

Every kid/person has challenges. They all have to work on something. All parents have to help them with whatever that is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree market forces will exert themselves on people who haven't learned to maximize their abilities and speed.
If a field requires speed, organization, and vast amounts of knowledge, you won't be able to accommodate yourself into it. But I do see more young people not being able to handle real life - on psych meds for normal anxiety, too many days off work, etc. In medicine, if you can't work accuately and at tops speed, you won't make it.

To the PPs saying they make all kinds of sacrifices to help their struggling kid - that's not a sacrifice, that is parenting. We are all doing that.

Every kid/person has challenges. They all have to work on something. All parents have to help them with whatever that is.

You seem to want to generalize without much knowledge. Yes a child who is getting accommodations to address low processing speed wouldn’t pursue a career as an ER doctor but might be perfectly fine in the medical field doing research where quality of thought is rewarded over speed of thought. Many job fields that prize speed will end up decimated by AI anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of the defensive parents who have kids with real disabilities should be equally annoyed and outraged that a good number of these kids are using a fake diagnosis to pretend that they have a disability and cheat on tests.

If you attend a private school or live in an affluent neighborhood, you will know of a kid (or in my kid's case, dozens of kids) who had zero issues at school, zero issues getting As throughout middle school and zero need for additional time on tests until they found out around 8th or 9th grade that they can tell a doctor that they are struggling with anxiety or have difficulty paying attention in class and can get extra time for tests. This is a very easy thing to do for wealthy kids.

In fact, certain independent college counselors recommend this to parents as a strategy for getting additional time to score high on the SATs.

No one here is saying that a kid with actual physical limitations should be denied accommodations.

All the defensive parents who have kids with "real disabilities" know that their kids' medical information is private, and that anyone who is throwing around statements like "40% of students have accomodations and they're all fake" is talking out of their nether regions. Many disabilities are not "visible," and no one except the kids' school and their doctors has the full picture. Parents who have kids who are struggling know enough not to judge what they don't know.

This. PP would accuse me and my kid of faking it because my kid wasn’t diagnosed until 10th grade and had been a perfect student until then.

But we parents know that internally the kids were compensating and masking and holding it together too long and about to fall apart. We were just fortunate enough to be able to afford the $3,000 in testing and not rely on the very few options through insurance with long wait lists.

[Anonymous]

This semester at University of Maryland, 1/2 of the students 19/40 in one of my courses, and 22/40 students in another course, had testing accommodations. According to disability services at the university, requests for accommodations have exploded since the pandemic.

[Anonymous]

You spend $400 to get massive advantage all through school and college years.

It is the best deal there is and the greatest return on investment you can make.

No wonder people take advantage of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This semester at University of Maryland, 1/2 of the students 19/40 in one of my courses, and 22/40 students in another course, had testing accommodations. According to disability services at the university, requests for accommodations have exploded since the pandemic.

This is ridiculous.

Most are cheating.

And at a school as diverse as UMD, one can I only guess the demographic doing this.

White.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This semester at University of Maryland, 1/2 of the students 19/40 in one of my courses, and 22/40 students in another course, had testing accommodations. According to disability services at the university, requests for accommodations have exploded since the pandemic.

That's the point were you should stop fooling around, and start giving the accomodations to everyone. Universal Design, inclusive for all.

[Anonymous]

What happens if you give a cochlear implant to someone who isn't deaf?

Or give a ramp to someone who can walk up steps?

If a disability accomodation helps someone, that someone was disabled, by definition. Save your anger for the people who are DENYING accommodations to people who can't jump through hoops to get the accomodations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This semester at University of Maryland, 1/2 of the students 19/40 in one of my courses, and 22/40 students in another course, had testing accommodations. According to disability services at the university, requests for accommodations have exploded since the pandemic.

That's the point were you should stop fooling around, and start giving the accomodations to everyone. Universal Design, inclusive for all.

Accommodations level the playing field. They don't hurt your non disabled kid. Save your outrage for something real. This is really gross.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This semester at University of Maryland, 1/2 of the students 19/40 in one of my courses, and 22/40 students in another course, had testing accommodations. According to disability services at the university, requests for accommodations have exploded since the pandemic.

That's the point were you should stop fooling around, and start giving the accomodations to everyone. Universal Design, inclusive for all.

Accommodations level the playing field. They don't hurt your non disabled kid. Save your outrage for something real. This is really gross.

Yeah, right.

Let me guess: you say accommodations level the playing field, but you're against DEI, for URMs, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What happens if you give a cochlear implant to someone who isn't deaf?

Or give a ramp to someone who can walk up steps?

If a disability accomodation helps someone, that someone was disabled, by definition. Save your anger for the people who are DENYING accommodations to people who can't jump through hoops to get the accomodations.

What? This makes no sense whatsoever. Give me an extra hour on any test and I’ll do better. Give me an elevator so I don’t have to walk up stairs and I’ll be happier. Neither of these things demonstrates that I have a disability.