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CONTACT:
Jane Shaw
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shaw@popecenter.org
Pope Center Examines How Universities Accommodate Moderate Learning Disabilities
RALEIGH, 3/25/2010 – Universities are providing extra time on tests, quiet exam rooms, in-class note-takers, and other assistance to college students with modest learning disabilities, but these policies are rarely discussed. A new paper from the John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy examines the nature of this assistance and discusses the policy questions it raises.
“Accommodating College Students with Learning Disabilities: ADD, ADHD, and Dyslexia,” by Melana Zyla Vickers, is based on interviews with on-campus experts in learning disabilities, professors who deal with learning-disabled students, and students themselves. It includes statistics showing the rise in accommodations for mild learning disabilities (not severe ones such as autism).
The rise in accommodation has been fueled by changing diagnoses of learning disabilities and by federal laws that mandate accommodation.
Vickers is a widely published journalist who writes editorials on education and public policy for USA Today. She also is a regular contributor to the Weekly Standard and National Review Online and has appeared on the PBS show Newshour, CNN, Fox, and other news channels.
On March 25, Vickers will speak in Raleigh along with Jim Kessler, Director of the Department of Disabilities Services at UNC-Chapel Hill.
The John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy located in Raleigh, NC, and is a nonprofit institute dedicated to excellence in higher education.
For a PDF of this report:
For more information on the Pope Center and its publications, visit popecenter.org.
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