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

reason.com

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

#341

Post by scratchyone »

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.

This is not what they're describing. Have you ever gone through the process of receiving an accommodation at a university? It is significantly more challenging than just having a diagnosis. They will look for every single possible excuse to refuse you access. They will require you to repeatedly book new doctor's appointments to get extremely specific wording for any accommodation you may need. Your doctor will have to fill out multiple forms for the university. Then, for each class, you will have to meet with every professor you have to request your accommodations. Many of these professors will try to talk you out of using them, or find ways to get around them.

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

#342

Post by tomrod »

IgorPartola wrote: post #310
aaronbwebber wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It means that the action we should take in response to this article is "building more dorms with singles" rather than "we need to rethink the way that we are making accommodations for disabilities in educational contexts". That seems like an important distinction, and makes the rest of the article (which focuses on educational accommodations) look mistaken.

I worked in residential life while in college and can tell you that placing freshmen in singles is a horrible idea. It leads to isolation and lets mental health issues fester. Some need it but you do not want to place anyone who doesn’t into a room alone especially in their first year.

Meh. I think you're overstating it. To meet your anecdata, I had both the first college year, and single > double by a large margin.

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

#343

Post by woodruffw »

bee_rider wrote: post #188
woodruffw wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Libertarianism, it would seem In some peculiar, perverted sense, given that evaluating claims of disability requires breaching students' medical privacy. You wouldn't normally expect libertarians to so overtly be okay with invasions of personal privacy.

I think they are just commenting on the bias of Reason magazine (it is a well known libertarian magazine).

I know; I'm pointing out this is manifestly not a libertarian worldview. It's part and parcel with Reason being ideologically paleoconservative with a libertarian dressing.

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

#344

Post by Aurornis »

mapontosevenths wrote: post #79
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…

> Because they really are both very smart and disabled at the same time. I agree with almost everything you say here. However, I wanted to point out that you make the same mistake the articles author does. "Disabled" and "Diagnosed" are not actually the same thing, even though we do describe ADHD and the like as "learning disabilities." Being diagnosed with a learning disability or other type of neuro-divergency does…

The original article is more enlightening: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/01/elite-universit... (Gift link taken from the linked article, not my own)

The stats are thin because not everything from private universities (where the disability numbers are highest) is reported. However they did get this:

> L. Scott Lissner, the ADA coordinator at Ohio State University, told me that 36 percent of the students registered with OSU’s disability office have accommodations for mental-health issues

Note that's only accommodations for mental health issues, so exclusive of the numerous other disability types.

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

#345

Post by Hizonner »

eszed wrote: post #246
OneDeuxTriSeiGo wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Best teacher I had in university offered "unlimited time on tests". Their tests were hard as hell but they were scheduled after the last class of the day and ran until like 10 at night. It worked out to like 5 hours of test time even if most people could complete the test in like ~1.5-2 hours. The policy was essentially "you have until the teacher/TA needs to go home" and given everyone in university is always swampe…

Yep. That's exactly what I did when I taught at the university level. Mind you, I was single then, and had no family responsibilities, and the school was small enough that I could ask for the last test slot of the day and always easily get it. But, it's excellent for everyone. It's unfortunately not practical for every class to do when everyone's taking all of their finals in the same week. There will be inevitable s…

Get rid of academic terms, so that the finals don't all fall in the same week. Probably a hard sell.

Be less obsessed with evaluation and grading. Which probably means people have to be less obsessed with having a credentialing and gatekeeping system while calling it an "education" system. Probably an even harder sell. Although since the next step is for the AI to eliminate the need for credentialed humans, maybe we get it throught the back door.

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

#346

Post by newsclues »

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…

Follow the incentives

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

#347

Post by BeetleB »

OGEnthusiast wrote: post #319
BeetleB wrote: post #287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've made it a principle to live my life according to certain ideals - one of which is not to play these games/tricks. I'm doing better than fine. Have others who cheated done better than me? Sure - some have. Why should I care? I'm a high income earner and I don't need an even wealthier life. I am not at all an outlier. If you're amongst a crowd that won't value you for not cheating, it's on you to change the crowd…

If you don't mind sharing, which country do you live in? I'd imagine the ability to play fairly and still get ahead varies a lot based on local cultures/norms.

The US.

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

#348

Post by clusterhacks »

throwaway314155 wrote: post #260
dunk010 wrote: post #229

The whole thrust of the article is complaining about timed tests and some kids getting more time. That's doubtless unfair if some are overclaiming, but the real solution is to not do timed tests at all - they are only serving to produce an arbitrary bell curve so that some can have higher grades and get better career opportunities. Better to not have a timer at all, and let people's actual ability shine.

Realistically there has to be _some_ time limit. No one is going to sit in a room for 10 hours while you finish your test.

Why?

How strong is the argument that a student completing a test in 1 hour with the same score as a student who took 10 hours that the first student performed "better" or had a greater understanding of the material?

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

#350

Post by olalonde »

TuringNYC wrote: post #257

I had neither healthcare coverage in high school nor expensive college consultants. When I got to college (Cornell) all my friends told me they had plenty of extra time on the standardized exam (the SAT) by virtue of doctors letters declaring conditions requiring accommodations. I'm sure some of these were legitimate. But practically everyone I spoke to supposedly had ADHD and resulting accommodations on the SAT. I'm…

It seems a bit ridiculous. How long before people claim "low IQ" or "bad memory" as a condition?
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