I’m in college, and everyone is always saying "Oh, I totally have ADD" and are actually completely serious. Countless people say that when people get accommodations (such as extra time on a test) for their learning disabilities that it gives them an unfair advantage.
Do a lot of people think this? And why?
Having ADD can be a major disadvantage — many of those kids barely get through high school, no matter how bright they are. Accommodations, such as extra time on a test, acknowledges both their potential and their problems and attempts to level the playing field a bit.
October 31st, 2009 at 12:39 am
I don’t think it’s unfair, they cannot concentrate the way a normal person does so yes they need more time to keep going over in order to see the whole picture as you would in such a short time.
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October 31st, 2009 at 12:46 am
Having ADD can be a major disadvantage — many of those kids barely get through high school, no matter how bright they are. Accommodations, such as extra time on a test, acknowledges both their potential and their problems and attempts to level the playing field a bit.
References :
October 31st, 2009 at 1:15 am
I’m split on the issue. While there certainly are people out there who have real disabilities, the disability office at my university apparently can’t tell the difference between ‘disabled’ and ‘low IQ’ – not being very smart isn’t a disability, it’s a sign you shouldn’t be in college in the first place. I wouldn’t worry too much about it though – the people who’d fake a real disability to get a few extra minutes on a test are the type who couldn’t be bothered to study for it in the first place. The students with real problems usually end up working hard and doing just fine on their own, and the ones I suspect are faking it usually manage to screw themselves over despite the accommodations.
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October 31st, 2009 at 1:24 am
An awful lot of people say that, but not everyone who says it gets the accommodations provided for people with learning disabilities. To be registered with the disability office you have to provide a lot of documentation and stuff, and they don’t just pass out the same accommodations to everyone. They base it on any accommodations you received in school and what your doctors recommend. So I don’t think it gives an unfair advantage. I think some people who don’t have learning disabilities try to get diagnosed but you just can’t help that really.
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