Subject: [Wash-at] Article: SchwabLearning.org Asks Attorney Paul Grossman about Legal Rights for College Students with LD
From: Ginette Perkins (gperkins@wa.easterseals.com)
Date: Wed Jul 21 2004 - 14:07:56 PDT
SchwabLearning.org Asks Attorney Paul Grossman about Legal Rights for
College Students with LD
You can find the article here:
http://www.schwablearning.org/articles.asp?r=847
also below is the article in plain text:
SchwabLearning.org recently had the opportunity to speak with civil rights
attorney Paul
<http://www.schwablearning.org/articles.asp?r=847#grossman#grossman>
Grossman. His legal work on behalf of students with disabilities - including
learning disabilities (LD) - spans nearly three decades. Paul assigns much
of his commitment to civil rights to his educational experiences as an
individual with LD. Paul graduated high school as a remedial reader, left
college because he could not pass Spanish, and returned, finally graduating
near the top of his law school class.
Individuals with disabilities had to organize, engage in civil disobedience,
and risk their health to get our disability rights laws into effect.
We asked Paul about the legal rights and responsibilities of college
students with learning disabilities. Note: Throughout this interview Mr.
Grossman was speaking entirely in his private capacity. No official support
or endorsement by the U.S. Department of Education is intended or should be
inferred. Following is a transcript of our interview with Paul.
SchwabLearning.org asks: Your track record and experience in civil rights
law is impressive. How does it relate to your work in disability law?
Paul Grossman answers: My career as a civil rights lawyer did not begin nor
will it end just with the issue of disability. I'm old enough to have
handled a few school desegregation cases in the South and some of the first
large urban school district cases on behalf of limited English speaking
children. I remember when women did not get into graduate school. Today,
women make up more than half the student bodies of some our best medical and
law schools. In each of these areas, progress toward equal educational
opportunity has been driven as much from recognition of the benefits of
diversity as the impact of the law. Today, diversity in the student body
with regard to race, national origin, and gender are considered an essential
element of a high quality education for every student in the classroom. Now,
we must make the same case for students with disabilities, including
students with learning disabilities. I am quite clear that students with
disabilities greatly enhanced the teaching experiences in my classes at the
Hastings College of Law.
It always disturbs me that so few people know how much individuals with
disabilities have benefited from the race, national origin, and gender civil
rights movements and equally important that individuals with disabilities
had to organize, engage in civil disobedience, and risk their health to get
our disability rights laws into effect. The first major piece of disability
rights legislation was Section 504 of the
<http://www.schwablearning.org/articles.asp?r=30> Rehabilitation Act of
1973. The regulations that make it possible to enforce Section 504 would not
exist but for such activities.
SchwabLearning.org: Many parents have a good grasp of the legal rights which
Section 504 and the IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act)
provide their children through high school. From a legal standpoint, what do
they (and their kids) need to know about the legal rights of college
students with LD?
Paul Grossman: It's critical for them to understand that the IDEA does not
apply to higher education and that Section 504 applies quite differently in
college than in high school. There are no IEPs in college!
A student cannot assume that, just because he was found to be eligible for
services under the IDEA or Section 504 in high school, the same evaluation
documentation will be sufficient in college. Further, the range of services
and accommodations that are available in college are not the same as in high
school. The due process rights in high school are quite extensive; by
comparison, the ones in college are fairly limited.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) applies to elementary school,
middle school, high school, and to virtually every college and university.
The truth is that, in elementary and secondary education, the ADA has little
impact. In higher education, the ADA has great importance. Nonetheless,
especially for students with learning disabilities, in higher education, the
single most important law is Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. This law
applies to nearly every college and university in the United States.
If you are not a "qualified" individual, neither Section 504 nor the ADA
protects you. You must meet the essential academic requirements for
admission or for staying in college. You must also meet the essential
technical requirements, which usually pertains to two different things. One
is the ability to comply with the code of conduct. Students in college with
disabilities who get into discipline problems will not be able to avail
themselves of manifestation hearings, etc. Generally, their disabilities are
not very pertinent to disciplinary proceedings. The other types of technical
qualification tend to pertain to physical performance standards. For
example, if you want to be admitted to a dental hygiene program, you may
have to show certain fine dexterity skills that are essential to the task.
Even if you don't have those fine motor skills because you have a
disability, you may well not get excused from meeting those qualifications
and requirements.
SchwabLearning.org: In public elementary and secondary schools, many
students with LD are legally entitled to modifications and
<http://www.schwablearning.org/articles.asp?r=306> accommodations. Is that
also true in the college and university setting?
Paul Grossman: There are some important accommodations ("academic
adjustments") that students with documented learning disabilities frequently
get in college such as early registration, a somewhat reduced course load,
and extra time on examinations. But In higher education, modifications to
the curriculum that are fundamental are not available. Basically, the
university's legal responsibility is to provide the student with a
disability access (via accommodations) to the information that is provided
in the curriculum for all students. There is no legal duty to re-teach,
repackage, or reformulate that curriculum. There are no special day classes,
for example. There isn't even a duty to provide tutoring unless, of course,
such a service is made available to all students.
SchwabLearning.org: Are colleges and universities allowed to ask applicants
if they have disabilities?
Paul Grossman: It is illegal for a college or university to make a
pre-admission inquiry into whether or not an applicant is an individual with
a disability. This is in contrast to elementary and secondary school where
teachers and other school officials have an affirmative duty to tell parents
that they have reason to believe a student may need special education and to
suggest an evaluation. Colleges must carefully consider the evaluation
information presented to them by a student, and even tell the student what
may be missing from the evaluation, but only under very rare circumstances
does the college have a duty to conduct or pay for the evaluation.
SchwabLearning.org: At what point after being admitted to a college should a
student reveal her learning disability?
Paul Grossman: If you need accommodations, the minute you are accepted is a
probably a good time to reveal your disability. Unless you start the
accommodation process, the university has no responsibility to accommodate
your disability. Every college and university has its own accommodation
process. It is important to learn about the process in advance. Generally,
this process may be identified in the college catalogue or website. Also,
there is nothing wrong with calling the disabled student service personnel
at a college you are thinking about attending, and asking for information
about accommodations. For example, some colleges liberally allow for course
substitutions, while others almost never grant a course substitution. Some
colleges provide extensive tutoring and learning labs; others provide none.
Accommodations are an opportunity provided to us by law. They are a civil
right. Accommodations can make a huge positive difference in our lives; not
just for better grades but for all things in life that come with getting a
diploma and having a strong academic record - most important, a chance to
live up to our potentials. Conversely, your status as a person with a
disability will do very little or nothing to excuse poor performance. If you
wait a semester to request accommodations, you may end up with an
unnecessary set of low first semester grades dragging down your grade point
average. However, if you don't need any accommodations, my advice is to not
disclose your disability. One never knows how a particular professor feels
about students with learning disabilities.
SchwabLearning.org: As a college student with dyslexia, you've said you
experienced both struggles and success. What advice would you offer young
people with LD as they prepare for college and their future?
Paul Grossman: When I decided to return to college, I found it useful to do
some reframing, which is to say, I decided to see the world differently. The
ancient Jewish philosopher and Rabbi, Hillel, articulated my favorite
framework for life, as an individual with a disability. Hillel's advice
begins, "Let no one else set your limits." I tell children with learning
disabilities, "Don't ever let the guidance counselor tell you what you can
or cannot do. You decide what your limits will be." I think developing this
attitude in high school is very important. Students with LD must also
understand what a learning disability is. Learning disabilities are real,
not just something mom and dad made up to explain to their friends why
school is hard for you. As the brain
<http://www.schwablearning.org/articles.asp?r=35> scans performed by Drs.
Sally and Bennett Shaywitz reveal, dyslexia, for example is an organic,
language processing-based disability. Our brains are wired differently from
those of fluent readers. It is harder for us to read for a real reason. It's
not about being lazy or unintelligent.
We are only lazy when we decide to give up on learning how to compensate for
our specific weaknesses and best capitalize on our strengths. Every student
has to develop a personal effective learning style. A thorough evaluation,
perhaps more thorough than one is likely to receive for free from a school
psychologist, is part of coming to understand the peaks and valleys of our
thinking and learning skills. Of course, it does no good to get such an
evaluation, if no one carefully explains to you the meaning of the test
results. For example, I learned that it was critically important to me to
never miss a lecture in college, even if I didn't have time to do all the
assigned reading.
Also, learn to be your own advocate. The research by Gerber, Ginsberg, and
Reiff tells us that the number one issue that distinguishes successful
people with learning disabilities is character, whether the LD individual
has "fire in the belly." Find the anger in yourself and harness it! Let that
anger be the energy that empowers you to study late at night or study twice
as hard for a test as the "next guy." Let the anger give you the courage to
ask for the accommodations to which you are legitimately entitled.
Of course many things drive innovation in higher education. But, most
certainly, those of us who have disabilities are an engine for innovation
and positive change in higher education.
There is often an alternate route to success. The ability to find those
routes is an important predicate to having an LD and being successful. Each
high school student should develop a self-service strategy in case of
trouble in college. What will you do if, one night, you find out there's
more reading to do than you can possibly accomplish? That's exactly what
happened to me at Oxford University. I was expected to read a lengthy,
complex book every day. The way I got around it was to read the first and
the last chapters, skim the rest of the book, and go to the pub at night.
Really! I went to the pub because I knew when my professor was going to be
there and I could talk to him about each book. This worked because I am an
auditory learner and my professor, after two pints, loved to talk.
Hillel's guidance continues, "If I am not for others, who am I?" Here too
the advice of Hillel is right on point. I know of no better way for someone
to get beyond himself and become a better self-advocate, than to learn to
advocate for or otherwise support others. LD students are too often
misperceived as engaged in "gaming the system," for a selfish advantage.
They are often considered "into" self-victimization. The perception is quite
different when the student is known as an individual who works to level the
playing field for everyone.
Hillel completes his guidance with the admonition, "If not now, when?" This
is so true for LD students in high school. Accommodations in college are a
civil right, but one with limits. Not everyone identified in high school as
having a specific learning disability will qualify in college as "disabled"
and be entitled to accommodations. Even if one receives accommodations they
are unlikely to be as robust in college. Students with learning disabilities
need to learn the essentials of "self-accommodation" as soon as possible.
This means heading for college having practiced self-advocacy in IEP
meetings and the classroom, a solid set of independently managed study
skills, an individualized approach to learning, and a thorough mastery of
adaptive technology.
After "fire in the belly," mastery of adaptive technology
<http://www.schwablearning.org/articles.asp?r=488> , not IQ, not reading
fluency is the single most important predictor of success in college. If
you're going to use a reading pen, Naturally Speaking, Kurzweil 3000,
Inspiration, a spell-checker, don't wait until college to learn how to use
it. Start using it now on a daily basis.
SchwabLearning.org: What do you believe drives innovation and change in
higher education?
Paul Grossman: Of course many things drive innovation in higher education.
But, most certainly, those of us who have disabilities are an engine for
innovation and positive change in higher education. When we come to a
university and ask to modify how a skill is tested, or ask a college to
consider whether a requirement is "essential" or not, what we are really
doing is asking for creativity and improvement in the quality of the
instruction.
One of my missions in life is to convince colleges and universities that the
instructional approaches and techniques that work for individuals with
disabilities, often work best for all students. Along with many members of
the disability community, I would like to "universalize" the breakthroughs
that come from including students with disabilities in higher education. I
firmly believe that the disability community must see to it that universal
design, as opposed to narrow accommodation, becomes the route to our
inclusion in the academic world.
CSchwab Learning 2004 Created: 7/12/2004
About the Contributor(s)
Paul Grossman has served for over twenty years as the chief regional
attorney of the San Francisco office of the U.S. Department of Education,
Office for Civil Rights and is a nationally recognized authority on the
topic of disability and higher education. He founded the disability law
course at the University of California's Hastings College of Law.
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