40% of Stanford Students Get Disability Accommodations. Here's Why That's Not a Scandal.

Are college students abusing disability accommodations? There have been some recent articles on this topic, and we're going to address them today.

Got me diagnosed when I was in third grade, and it was the most relieving day of my life because I finally had like kind of a place to hang my hat and say, see, I told you I'm not lazy, definitely not stupid. I just learned differently. Like, that's totally okay. With dyslexics, we were often, you know, just set up for failure because, you know, we were given books and tasks that really are not appropriate for the level that we were at.

So, how do you expect anyone to be open to learning when their entire relationship with reading, with learning, is physical pain? Wish I had understood when I was younger that the fact that my brain worked differently than people meant that I would be good at things in ways that other kids were not going to be good at. I just assumed, I can't be dyslexic because letters don't jump up and down for me.

Dyslexia is not a disorder. It is not a disease. Once you sort of own it and embrace it, then you can have the power to deal with it. It's sort of empowering and also enriching to the whole community. To those who don't understand what dyslexia is, that it's not a negative, it's not a problem, it's like we keep saying superpower.

Hey everyone, we're Nick and Sonja and this is Dyslexia Journey. And today we want to address some recent articles and give you our thoughts about whether or not college students are abusing disability accommodations. Okay, so it seems like the article that sparked this recent round of discussion on this topic was published in the Atlantic magazine on December 2nd of 2025. The title is Accommodation Nation, subtitle, America's Colleges Have an Extra Time on Tests Problem, by Rose Horowich.

And just to give you a sense of the, I guess, tenor of this article, let me just read the introduction to you so that you can see when we're talking about sort of the stance that this article takes that you can get a sense for it. So let me just read it from the beginning. Administering an exam used to be straightforward. All a college professor needed was an open room and a stack of blue books.

At many American universities, this is no longer true. Professors now struggle to accommodate the many students with an official disability designation, which may entitle them to extra time, a distraction-free environment, or the use of otherwise prohibited technology. The University of Michigan has two centers where students with disabilities can take exams, but they frequently fill to capacity, leaving professors scrambling to find more desks and proctors. I think I'll stop there, because I think you can already get the sense here.

So obviously, this article, starting out, is framing this as a problem, right? It's framing it as, oh, the poor professors, this is hard for them. It's not framing it around the benefits of disability accommodations for the students who need them or anything like that. Yeah, and I want to say, too, that we're going to address, you know, some valid points. After we do this introduction where we give you the sense of the discussion going on in the tenor of the articles, we're going to talk about some valid points that they have and then give our sort of critique of it, because we do have a different take on what's going on here.

Yeah, yeah, and I guess I was a little early out of the gate there on the critiques, but I think it's interesting just to talk about, even from the first paragraph, how it's framed. The statistic in the article that seems to have triggered the most discussion was one where, and let me quote this to actually get it correct from the article. It says, this year, 38% of Stanford undergraduates are registered as having a disability.

And so this is probably the appropriate point at which to disclose that we both attended Stanford as undergraduates and graduated from there. So that did make this story, I think, maybe a little bit more interesting to us initially, but this is really, like, that's the statistic that stuck out and that people sort of jumped on. But this is really a more general story about how disabilities are still viewed in society, which is really worth talking about, especially in the context of dyslexia.

Yeah, so people took this story and ran with it, some really just to sort of increase the sensationalism of it. There was an article in onreason.com by Emma Camp that the title is, Why are 38% of Stanford students saying they're disabled? Subtitle. If you get into an elite college, you probably don't have a learning disability.

I think that speaks for itself, but it's hard to read that as a parent of a dyslexic kid and not get angry. Right, but we'll get into that. We'll get into that, yeah. Our exact takes in a moment. And then a more purporting to be a more balanced article in Fortune magazine by Preston Foer said, 40% of Stanford undergraduates receive disability accommodations, but it's become a college-wide phenomenon as Gen Z tried to succeed in the current climate.

And that, the article, again, is meant to be inflammatory, I think. They quote someone named Derek Thompson saying, quote, It simply does not make any sense to have a policy that declares half of the students at Stanford cognitively disabled and in need of accommodations. Right. So this is, in case you haven't been following it, that's the tenor that this discussion took in the sort of conversation. Yes, right. Okay. Okay. So, moving on from there.

It feels like we should start with saying that the original Atlantic article, first of all, was much less inflammatory than those follow-up pieces. Right. And had some valid points. So, let's talk about some of those valid points. Okay. So, the first point that we think is valid and worth discussing from the article is that this is an undeniable trend. So, the amount of students at elite colleges who are identified with disabilities has risen over the past 15 to 20 years.

So, in addition to the statistic that they cited about Stanford, they do say that approximately 34% of students at Amherst are identified and approximately 20% at several Ivy Plus schools. I think they talked about Harvard specifically in the article. Right. And so, that is interesting and worth discussing because, I mean, of course, we can think of better identification and all kinds of reasons why that might be true. But, of course, there can be other reasons why it's true, too.

Like, I mean, is it possible that some people are being over-identified? I mean, that's always possible. I mean, or is there something else going on? I mean, so, it's definitely worth noting that and realizing that there could be multiple causes. Right. And, I mean, I'll even go a little further. Is it possible that some people are trying to game the system? I mean, I would say, I mean, my thought on it is probably yes, just because in any system, there's probably a certain small, very small percentage of people.

They're still trying to game the system. Right. Okay. So, another valid point that the article, the Atlantic article, brings up is that access to diagnostic testing is a real issue. So, I mean, at least right now, from what we can tell, maybe it's even up from this, neuropsychiatric testing can cost, you know, $2,000 to $5,000. And there's just equity issues in general, too, like with parents having the resources and all kinds of ways to participate, to, you know, time-wise even, to be able to make sure that their kid, to figure out what's going on with their kid and help them get the help they need, but definitely financially.

And so, that is a real issue, and it's definitely been possible, right, that only the more privileged people in that way are able to take advantage of disability accommodations at these universities. Yeah, and I'll point out that the equity issue with regard to access to America's elite schools, colleges, and universities is not limited just to disability identification by any means.

So, it's very clear that the ability to get into these top colleges is generally, I don't have a statistic at hand for this, but it's generally correlated with household income. Yeah. And, I mean, just you think about the families that can afford to pay for SAT prep classes and ACT prep classes. So, it's kind of along the same lines. Hire private tutors, hire people to help with their college applications and all that kind of thing.

So, I think this is perhaps one piece of the bigger equity problem in the United States around elite higher education. And I'll just quote the Atlantic article on this. As more elite students get accommodations, the system worsens the problem it was designed to solve. The ADA was supposed to make college more equitable. Instead, accommodations have become another way for the most privileged students to press their advantage. Now, within that quote, we have some critiques because it does apply, imply, sorry, that, you know, kind of an abuse sort of thing there also.

But the point about equity is definitely, you know, financial equity is true. Yeah, for sure. So, okay. And the third and final point that we'll discuss for today that we think is a valid point and interesting to discuss from the Atlantic article is actually what they led with in the intro that I read. That this does increase the burden on professors because for many reasons. So, students are taking the test at different times.

So, basically, and I wanted to qualify this by saying that this is within the system that most schools have come up with to handle these accommodations. There are a lot of students taking the tests at different times and at different locations. So, specifically in a testing center on campus that is more sound controlled and has access to the assistive technologies. But it is complicated because the professor has to prepare the test perhaps ahead of when they're giving it to the rest of the class and arrange.

I mean, the way it usually works, unfortunately, at the schools is that the professor is kind of responsible for arranging this with each student kind of one-off for each test. Right. Which, like, that definitely is more work for the professors. Like, I think we can't deny that. Right. And I do think that's a good – and, of course, we have more to say about what the solution to that would be in a moment here.

But that's actually a good segue into the first criticism that I wanted to bring up. Sure. So, switching over to criticisms, accommodations – we know this from personal experience with our daughter – are not this magical, wonderful, now-my-life-so-much-easier thing that people act like they are. They really aren't. In fact, I'm not going to name who this person is, but someone also close to us doesn't even use his accommodations partly because of the hassle of using them.

You know, it's some perhaps milder forms of, you know, what are considered disabilities. But still, like, it's definitely – you know, when we said the thing about scheduling with the professors, the student has to do that, too. That means approaching your professor much more. Like, you feel like you're inconveniencing them. You have to – there's a huge workload, like, extra thing to do to have to do that. Scheduling the test is difficult.

You know, it can be difficult. Usually, you get, you know, in the mode of working with the center. Yeah, but – But like you pointed out, you pointed out the capacity filling. Well, then there's a scared thing sometimes for a student, like, am I even going to be able to get a slot? Especially if the professor changes the test. Yeah. Because some of these testing centers book up a couple weeks out.

And professors don't always schedule their tests necessarily far enough ahead for the students to schedule the tests in the testing center. Yes, yes. So, there's – and, you know, even when the time is might not feel convenient. I mean, it's just – there's a lot of aspects to it. I don't want to go into all of them here because it's not the main point of this. But it's not so, like, dreamy as they're making this sound, basically.

Right. And then a second criticism is that they're really lumping – with these statistics, they're lumping all kinds of disability together. So, I mean, I think I thought of that especially when they said cognitive disability. But first of all, what does that even mean, cognitive disability? But, you know, things like having a migraine or more – some other kinds of disability are lumped into these statistics, too. So, these aren't even only about learning disabilities, specifically.

Right. Exactly. So, just to say a little more on that. So, besides being dyslexic, there's ADHD, anxiety disorders, depression, cognitive illness, autism, physical – other physical disabilities. So, they just aren't the same thing at all and require very different kinds of support. So, not all of those are necessarily going into, for example, having extended test time. Some of them are, some of them aren't, but it also sort of inflates what the number sounds like.

Right. Because, you know, of course, when you start looking at lots of different areas, there's going to be a lot of number of people. But with that said, you know, even just being dyslexic, because it is – you know, especially when you look at the full spectrum, it's considered to be like one in five people, right? Right. So, I mean, that's going to start to – That's 20% right there. So, I mean, it is a lot of people who have learning differences or, you know, neurodiversity.

And then when you lump in other physical disabilities and things as well, it's just going to be so many people. And so, we're going to get to this in a moment. But, like, that means we need better solutions, right? Right. And just to add to that, I mean, if you stipulate that the population of an elite school is representative of the population as a whole, which probably isn't true, but let's say it is for the moment, then, yeah, 20% of those kids are going to have dyslexia.

If you add in all the other things, I think migraines, for example, is maybe even higher than that. You've got ADHD, all that stuff. I mean, 38% starts to sound totally reasonable. Right. Right. Yeah. I mean, and that really adds to the questioning of, is it really that when places don't have as many in the percentage, just that their students are people who aren't identified and aren't getting the help that they need, right?

So, it just – it begs that question. But there was also this fundamental understanding by a lot of the people quoted of disabilities. So, for example, this is a quote here. Lindstrom worries that the system encourages students to see themselves as less capable than they actually are. By attributing all of their difficulties to a disability, they are pathologizing normal challenges. And when it comes to a disorder like ADHD, we all have those symptoms sometimes, Lindstrom told me, that most of us aren't impaired by them.

But, I mean, that's not really – I mean, that is really not true. Most of us don't have ADHD. Like, you know, saying – it's just a fundamental misunderstanding, right, of ADHD to say, like, oh, well, I'm sometimes disorganized or I'm sometimes distracted. It's like, like, obviously not the same thing as having ADHD. Right. So – Yeah. And I think there's probably similar fundamental misunderstandings about dyslexia among a lot of these people.

Yeah. So that goes back to, I think, just holdovers from not understanding. Yeah. What's going on at all. Yeah. Yeah. So – And I think implicit – you know, going back to the numbers, it just struck me that when people say, oh, 30% is so high and we say, well, okay, 20% of people in this country have dyslexia. I think there's an implicit, unstated bias here that people are saying, well, dyslexic people aren't likely to be at elite universities.

Yes. I did notice that, too, because it was kind of an implication like, well, would they really be there otherwise? So if they're saying they have it and they're there, is that really just that they're making it up? Right. And so I think we can't say this too often, dyslexia is not correlated with intelligence. Right. There are – people with dyslexia have the same spectrum of intelligence as people without dyslexia. Right.

And so the difference can be when there isn't – aren't the appropriate accommodations, they're unable to show it. Right. You know, within the academic system. Yeah. Unable to show it. Yeah. I mean, so there's really this unstated but implied assumption in all of this discussion that these people with these disabilities don't deserve to be at the elite schools. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Well, and then – and that combined with they're lying. Right. If they say they have a disability and they're there.

Yeah. Okay. So there's kind of two separate things going on there. It's kind of two different things going on. Yeah. Okay. So I want to dig into – so as another criticism of the Atlantic article, and I think this is perhaps the most egregious misuse of statistics in the article, I would like to first read the quote from the Atlantic article. They say if the rise in accommodations were purely a result of more disabled students making it to college, the increase should be more pronounced at less selective institutions than at so-called Ivy Plus schools.

In fact, the opposite appears to be true. According to Weiss's research, only 3% to 4% of students at public two-year colleges receive accommodations, a proportion that has stayed relatively stable over the past 10 to 15 years. So, two main problems with that statistic. One is it confuses identification with actual prevalence. So just because 2% to 3% of the students at the two-year schools are receiving accommodations, that means 2% to 3% have been identified with a disability.

That doesn't say anything about the actual prevalence of that disability in that population. Right? Mm-hmm. Okay. Secondly, in my opinion, they have cause and effect backwards. The people who are identified with disabilities are the ones who get the help they need in order to enable them to make it to the elite colleges. And the people who aren't identified are the ones who don't get the help they need who end up at the two-year colleges.

Right. So, to me, that seems very clear about how that works with the numbers. But the criticism that we have is just the way that they're talking about time tests specifically. So, the article treats time tests, you know, as this default standard, which, you know, it has been over time, to be fair. But, and that they're this fair measure. But really, really what time tests are measuring isn't exactly, you know, knowledge and, you know, comprehension and that kind of thing.

There's a lot of processing speed, anxiety tolerance, and, you know, just even test-taking strategies, things like that, that go into that, that are not purely about the purest measure of someone's learning. And so, that's just important to keep in mind, because, you know, if we're taking that as the be-all, end-all, like, should we be, even in the first place? Which leads to our final point, actually, because I think questioning the system and questioning how things have always been and questioning what the gold standard is, is, you know, the way it's hard.

It feels harder to do, but it can be the most important thing. Right. I mean, so the original subtitle of the Atlantic article is something like, schools have a timed test problem. I would say, yeah, maybe they do have a timed test problem. Maybe they shouldn't be giving timed tests at all. Right. Like, why is that the gold standard? Right. And, I mean, I understand that it feels very difficult to change things that are so ingrained, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't happen.

So, the articles in most of this discussion really have been framed around this idea that the baseline system is fair, and, you know, especially like in our experience, maybe your experience too, we already don't feel like it's not fair. We understand that it's not fair. And accommodations, in a way, is really just this sort of patchwork to the system. But should it really be that we're questioning why is the system designed in a way that so many people need the accommodations rather than making some more fundamental changes to the system?

So, when we've talked to people in the past, other experts in the field of work and other areas, and just in our own opinion too, it's really true that accommodations and trying to make things more equitable, and even more so if we change the fundamental systems, is actually beneficial to everyone, right? Because we're really all on these different spectrums of how we learn and how things are best for us. I think, you know, in the workplace discussion, having, you know, whatever around us that helps us to succeed best at our work, like having things that are more individualizable, more flexible, like systems that work more that way, actually benefits everybody.

And so, this whole idea, because I guess that's the other fundamental thing too, right, that the articles have, is this idea of fairness and what fairness is. And so, it's this idea that, like, someone getting, being able to do something in a way that works better for them is unfair, when really it should be, if we change our mindset completely around that, we should get to all of us, lifting all of us up, instead of it being this sort of competitive thing that somehow then they're getting an advantage, you know, over someone else.

So, yeah, I think that's a great point and a great place to end this. Yeah, we'd love to hear your comments on this too. And I am curious if anyone else saw this discussion that's been out there. Yeah. And what your thoughts are. Did it make you as angry and frustrated as it made me? Let us know. Right. And I want to point out, we forgot to say this at the beginning, but if you have any topic ideas for us, or if you have any questions, we haven't done one for a little while, but we like to sometimes do a roundup of your questions too.

So if, if so, just go ahead and contact us, you can put it in the comments and we, on YouTube and we probably see it. But if you're, if you want to contact us directly or do it because you're listening to the podcast, you can email us at parenting Dyslexia Journey at gmail.com. Thanks everyone.