Why are 38 percent of Stanford students saying they're disabled? • Hacker News Board

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

#861

Post by TeMPOraL » Fri, Dec 05, 2025, 9:16 AM UTC

jaredklewis wrote: post #429

TeMPOraL wrote: post #424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eliminating time limits on standardized tests is infeasible; it would require changes to processes on a state or national levels, and mindsets in education as a whole. It's also a complex enough issue that you'd have factions arguing for and against it six ways to Sunday. It's not going to happen. In contrast, special-casing few disadvantaged students is a local decisions every school or university could make indepen…

You say it is infeasible for standardized tests, but why? Is it that much harder to give 50 students and extra hour than to give 5 students an extra hour? Or just design the tests so that there is ample time to complete them without extra time. But putting aside standardized tests, in the context of this discussion about Stanford, I think these accommodations are being used for ordinary tests given for classes, so St…

> You say it is infeasible for standardized tests, but why? Is it that much harder to give 50 students and extra hour than to give 5 students an extra hour?

It's that much harder to change the rules of standardized testing for all students, for complex and possibly dubious reasons, than it is to make an exception for small number of clearly disadvantaged students. One is inviting nation-wide political discussion on the merits and fairness and consequences of the changes, the other is an isolated act of charity with (initially) no impact on the larger educational system.

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

#862

Post by emptyfile » Fri, Dec 05, 2025, 9:18 AM UTC

SoftTalker wrote: post #55

p1esk wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure it was always like this

No, "disability" used to be something of a stigma. Now it's celebrated, and people proudly identify with it. If you're saying that people always try to game the system, whatever it is, then I agree however.

[dead]

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

#863

Post by TeMPOraL » Fri, Dec 05, 2025, 9:19 AM UTC

jimnotgym wrote: post #840

Aurornis wrote: post #558

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Being diagnosed doesn't immediately mean you should be accommodated. This is the loophole. Universities aren't the ones diagnosing, they're the ones accommodating. The current meta-game is for parents and students to share notes about which doctors will diagnose easily. Between word of mouth and searches on Reddit, it's not that hard to find doctors in any metro area who will provide diagnoses and accommodation req…

Presumably the University could do their own assessment to see what is appropriate? Not just rely on a note?

They rely on the note in order not to do their own assessment. It's outsourcing.

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

#864

Post by nephihaha » Fri, Dec 05, 2025, 9:20 AM UTC

This is more likely to be autism, which is classed as a "learning disability" by some people. In my experience, it is very common among academia, so I would not class it that way. Social and sensory, yes, but many autistic people are highly capable at learning.

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

#865

Post by nephihaha » Fri, Dec 05, 2025, 9:23 AM UTC

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.

The average does tend to be skewed by the extremes.

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

#866

Post by Quothling » Fri, Dec 05, 2025, 9:40 AM UTC

astrange wrote: post #678

Quothling wrote: post #604

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up in a Danish town of 20.000 people and two schools. In my school there were 3 dyslexic children. They went to the "special" class 4 hours a week. I'm not sure what to call it, "special" isn't the right word, but it's not just because my English is not sufficient to come up with the right name. It's because this was the place they put all the children with what we'd call disabilities today. Some of the studen…

> I'm not sure what to call it, "special" isn't the right word, but it's not just because my English is not sufficient to come up with the right name. It's the sort of thing that doesn't have a fixed name, because once it's had a name for ~10 years everyone decides the term is offensive and gives it a new name.

It was called special aid, but the reason I can't come up with a defining term is because it was a class with all the trouble kids across age spans from 6 to 14 years old gathered together. Then when the government mandated that schools had to help dyslexic children, they threw them into the mix. I'm not sure how anyone thought that was a good idea. It's no wonder that parents at the time would actively fight any sort of diagnosis because their children would be send into those "special" classes.

Anyway. It used to be that dyslexic children didn't go very far in the education system, and today they do. In part because they can get extra time during tests. I imagine there are similar stories for ADHD and whatever else you have these days.

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

#867

Post by thomasahle » Fri, Dec 05, 2025, 9:42 AM UTC

yAak wrote: post #385

Scubabear68 wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you are a long way from Kindergarten to an elite university. I mention this because it is odd to me that you picked your 4 to 5 year old self to validate why you are getting accommodations in your teens/twenties at a self-described elite university. My own kids have some issues and varying levels of accommodations, but those have evolved and lessened over time. As you would hope they would! You seem to imply your…

Dyslexia isn’t curable. It doesn’t magically go away with help, techniques, or accommodations —- it just becomes more manageable. He/she probably wouldn’t have gotten into an elite university without that help through childhood.

Lots of things don't go away, like socioeconomic factors, intelligence differences, not having been tutored in childhood, but we don't accommodate for that.

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

#868

Post by thomasahle » Fri, Dec 05, 2025, 9:45 AM UTC

al_borland wrote: post #737

loremip wrote: post #430

New York Times had an interesting podcast recently where they talked about how so many children are being diagnosed with autism to the point where it's hurting the severely autistic student population ( https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/podcasts/the-daily/autism... ). There's a finite set of resources pooled for special needs students, and now most of these students have relatively minor symptoms compared to those w…

For those with more mild issues, they should really be realistic about what the needs are. I was diagnosed in my 40s with ASD and ADHD. It may have been helpful to know earlier (though I could debate both sides of that), but I didn’t need any special classes or helpers that would take resources from others. I’m wondering if some kids are saying they need this stuff to justify the condition or to play up the sympathy,…

> I’m wondering if some kids are saying they need this stuff to justify the condition or to play up the sympathy, to make the condition their personality.

In a highly competitive environment like Stanford, isn't it more likely that it's to get more time on tests -> better grades -> higher paying job?

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

#869

Post by lazide » Fri, Dec 05, 2025, 9:45 AM UTC

Spooky23 wrote: post #690

koolba wrote: post #674

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are now also online telehealth services that don't hide the fact that this is one of their services. You pay their (cash only, please) fee and they'll make sure you get your letter. The same thing is happening with "emotional support animal" letters. This used to be a thing with medical marijuana as well (maybe still is?). The answer is for schools to grab their share of this money by selling each of these ac…

Or just operate so that everyone gets the academic benefits. My roommate in the 90s was ahead of the curve, he memorized the Cosmo quiz “do you have ADD” went to the student center, got a script that he sold or snorted, and got to take his test in a comfortable room at a time scheduled centrally. Just randomize assignments to rooms all over campus.

That’s actually impossible (everyone gets the same benefits).

You’re talking about a lottery, which randomly distributes them - which is only fairer in the sense it’s unpredictable, not that anyone that actually needs it would get what they need.

It’s typical gaming of the system, and shortly it’s going to have to switch to punishing those gaming it or it will spiral even more out of control.

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

#870

Post by gorgoiler » Fri, Dec 05, 2025, 9:47 AM UTC

Aurornis wrote: post #367

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…

The original article which is linked in this post goes into much better detail: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/2026/01/elite-universit... Schools and universities have made accommodations a priority for decades. It started with good intentions, but parents and students alike have noticed that it's both a) easy to qualify for a disability and b) provides significant academic advantages if you do. Another big acc…

I’ve been playing a bunch of cool board games recently. Some of them are incredibly complicated and yet really well balanced*. Hiring these game designers to “rebalance” the mechanics of school disability allowances would be a really smart move. After all, a good board game designer’s job is to ensure a fair competition while people literally try to game the system.

Also it would be fun if you had to pick a star card every semester for one off mechanics like:

“red letter day: papers submitted in tuesdays must use red pen and will be graded in black ink”;

“balogna bingo: all sandwich labels through April will include a random number — match four numbers with another student and your next lunch is free!”; or

“vocabulary dairy: free froyo every week for the students in the 90th percentile for how many times they use the words important, therefore, or however in their papers, but you have to agree to buy a Manual of Style (and provide proof of purchase at the froyo counter)”.

*Ironically one is called RA https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/12/ra