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Why are 38 percent of Stanford students saying they're disabled?

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Re: Why are 38 percent of Stanford students saying they're disabled?

#331

Post by powerclue »

dlivingston wrote: post #305
powerclue wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you gotten one of these notes yourself? It's not trivial. It's a huge pain in the ass, and everyone along the path is saying, "I don't believe you".

I have, and my experience does not match yours. It was extremely trivial and was little more than (1) booking a psych appointment, (2) filling out an intake ADHD questionnaire at home (which can easily be filled out to give whatever diagnosis you'd desire), (3) meeting the psych & getting a formal diagnosis, and (4) picking up my Rx from the pharmacy.

Dx out here required all those steps plus attestations from family and teachers, historical accounts, written narratives, a check in with the GP, bloodwork and blood pressure, and ongoing follow ups at least quarterly.

Plus all that happens before you get an accommodation, which is a wholly separate process.

Re: Why are 38 percent of Stanford students saying they're disabled?

#332

Post by IAmBroom »

slibhb wrote: post #296

We will end up with everyone identifying as disabled (or at least "neurodivergent"). Then we'll all be back on the same level and someone will have to invent a new category that will also grow until it too encompasses everyone. And so on.

Nihilistic guesses are fun. They make you look smart, without any of the difficulty of understanding or thinking of solutions.

Re: Why are 38 percent of Stanford students saying they're disabled?

#333

Post by ok123456 »

losvedir wrote: post #258
windows_hater_7 wrote: post #113

I go to one of those elite universities now, and I get academic accommodations. I think some of the increase is truly from greater awareness about disabilities among teachers and parents. My mom was a teacher, and she was the one who first suspected that I had dyslexia. I repeated kindergarten, and I was privileged that my parents were able to afford external educational psychology testing. Socioeconomic status is a…

> and I get academic accommodations What does this mean, exactly?

Typically: Take tests with no time restrictions. Retake tests. Use assistive technologies (e.g., calculators) that are usually disallowed.

Re: Why are 38 percent of Stanford students saying they're disabled?

#334

Post by op00to »

paulpauper wrote: post #248
estimator7292 wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I nearly failed high school and I flunked or dropped out of college four times. I just absolutely cannot work within the framework of modern schooling. I say this as humbly as possible, but still I'm one of the best engineers I know and working on some pretty advanced stuff. And yes, I'm rather autistic. The way my brain works is just fundamentally incompatible with school. Starting from fundamentals and building up…

I say this as humbly as possible, but still I'm one of the best engineers I know and working on some pretty advanced stuff. And yes, I'm rather autistic. lol...there is nothing humble about this statement. >50% of people think they're above average.

And pointing this out adds to the discourse here how?

Re: Why are 38 percent of Stanford students saying they're disabled?

#335

Post by lumost »

shetaye wrote: post #81

Regarding Stanford specifically, I did not see the number broken down by academic or residential disability (in the underlying Atlantic article). This is relevant, because > Some students get approved for housing accommodations, including single rooms and emotional-support animals. buries the lede, at least for Stanford. It is incredibly commonplace for students to "get an OAE" (Office of Accessible Education) exclus…

They lead with the headline that most of these students have a mental health disability - particularly ADHD. Is it surprising that legalized Amphetamines drive teenagers to higher performance for a short period in their lives? Adderall and other amphetamines only have problems with long term usage.

It should be expected that some portion of the teenage population sees a net-benefit from Amphetamines for the duration of late high school/college. It's unlikely that that net-benefit holds for the rest of their lives.

Re: Why are 38 percent of Stanford students saying they're disabled?

#336

Post by swatcoder »

barchar wrote: post #294
qazxcvbnmlp wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well put. > A lot of modern, aspiring-middle-class and online culture Theres also a pernicious way of identifying with the struggle. Instead of I have trouble focusing in certain situations, so maybe I should find ways to spend my time (careers, hobbies) that work well with that. We instead go to 'I have ADHD' and my 'job' should make special accommodations for me. Regardless of whether a job should or should not mak…

I don't see how you spending time in ways that work well with your challenges is different from your job providing accomodations, except that if your employer is willing to work with you then you don't have to randomly roll the dice until you come up with an employer where things happen to work in whatever way you wanted. It's not like one of the accomodations on the table is "not doing your job"

The difference reduces to:

1. The career I would like to have, and the life I desire to live, is my free choice. Once I've made that choice, the community's responsibility is to give me whatever I need so that I can apply myself to that career and live the life I imagine for myself.

vs

2. I have certain capabilities and limitations. The community has certain needs. If there's any way for me to do so, it's my responsibility to figure out how my capabilities can service the community's needs, respecting my limitations, and it's the community's reciprocal responsibility to make sure my contribution is fairly acknowledged so that I can live a secure and constructive life. I'll figure out the rest from there.

Re: Why are 38 percent of Stanford students saying they're disabled?

#337

Post by ThinkingGuy »

eszed wrote: post #282
whalesalad wrote: post #32

It's like when all the prisoners in Orange is the new Black start to claim they are Jewish in order to get the nicer Kosher meals from the cafeteria.

Lol! I did that (sometimes) when I was in hospital in the UK. If you requested a halal meal they sourced it from a takeaway down the street, which was excellent, and a wonderful break from the usual dismal fare. I wasn't a dick about it, and would ask the meal order folks if it was OK to request one that day; sometimes they said 'yes', and sometimes not (based on what, I don't know), but they knew what was up, and di…

Supposedly this "trick" works on airline flights, too.

Re: Why are 38 percent of Stanford students saying they're disabled?

#338

Post by fooker »

lostmsu wrote: post #73
hibikir wrote: post #58

I think there's a non-malicious explanation for a percentage of this. As I grew up in the 80s, there were two kinds of gifted kids in school: The kind that would ace everything anyway, and the kind that, for a variety of reasons, lacked the regulation abilities to manage the school setting well, with the slow classes and such. A lot of very smart people just failed academically, because the system didn't work for the…

> The percentages of workers that are neurodivergent is much higher than usual Is it much though? 38%? I haven't seen one in 15 years across 5+ different companies. > there's a big cadre or neurodivergent people that are just in the line where they are very productive workers anyway Alternatively, it just became popular to label others or oneself that way. And tech elites have nothing better to do in free time. Also…

> I haven't seen one in 15 years across 5+ different companies.

Hmm, have you looked in the mirror perhaps?

Re: Why are 38 percent of Stanford students saying they're disabled?

#339

Post by trollbridge »

RachelF wrote: post #245
MangoToupe wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose stanford does optimize for cheating, but this still seems excessive

Sadly, society also optimizes for cheating. Meritocracy is a myth. In many ways Stanford is preparing students for the real world by encouraging cheating.

Or Stanford is influential enough that it creates the future new world, which now will have far more cheating.

Re: Why are 38 percent of Stanford students saying they're disabled?

#340

Post by iamwil »

My general impression of kids from elite colleges are that they're very good at finding some sort of loophole in the system to exploit, and they get lauded for it. And if they balk, for whatever reason, they feel like they're falling behind those that do. So then there's a feedback loop for everyone to take advantage of some kind of exploit to stay competitive. "You'd be stupid not to do X also, if everyone else is." with no consider to morals or character--because they're not easy to measure.
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