Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Tell Us How You REALLY Feel!

Recently an email thread came along asking about certain colleges and how accommodating and inclusive they are, especially regarding potential students with disabilities on the autism spectrum or other social communications disorders. With the name deleted, here is my response:

I do not have experience with any of those schools, but my son (NLD) is currently a freshman at [Anonymous College] and their disabilities office and faculty leave a lot to be desired. At this point, we are hoping he will treat [Anonymous] like a junior college experience and transfer after his sophomore year (despite the difficulty that transitions can mean). I wish I had done a LOT more questioning of disabilities services before he decided on a school. In fact, he chose [Anonymous] only for their theater program and was "encouraged out" midway through his first semester. TERRIBLE

Bottom line is -- keep grilling them and know what support your son will have access to!!!
Good luck!


Was I too harsh?

2 comments:

Joan Azarva said...

No, you are 100% correct. Most parents write a college tuition check and feel they're doing well by their teen because there's a disability services office on campus.

Most colleges DO NOT provide more than accommodations for students. You have to dig deep to find out what, if anything, the college does over and above this.

Saying they have tutoring and sending students to the tutoring lab for students-at-large doesn't cut it for students with disabilities - at least not initially.

If you're the parent of a HS teen with a disability and want to know how to find the best college fit, so your teen can navigate successfully, visit:
http://www.conquercollegewithLD.com

PatK said...

Thank you for the confirmation and for the website link!