Understanding Disabilities

Accommodations
The definition of a disability included in both Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and in ADA legislation of 1990 states:

“A disability is any physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities.” The range of disabilities that students may have is broad; some are often more evident, such as hearing, mobility, and visual impairments and others are not visible. Over 90% of students with disabilities at Mount Holyoke register with some type of hidden disability such as Learning disabilities, ADD/ADHD, chronic medical conditions, psychiatric disabilities and substance use disorders.

Disability Services (a part of the Dean of Student’s Office), and the Office of Learning Skills work closely to provide accommodations that allow access to, and full participation in, the education process.

In 1973, the passage of the Rehabilitation Act (Section 504) recognized the potential of students with disabilities and guaranteed them certain rights. With the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, the law has been strengthened:

First: The student with a disability cannot be discriminated against on the basis of her disability.

Second: Students with a diagnosed disability should be provided with reasonable accommodation related to their learning needs. These accommodations are usually negotiated through Disability
Services and the Office for Learning Skills and may include such things as:

•  extended time on tests
  --typically about one and one half the usual time
• test setting
  --a quiet, distraction free environment to take the exam
• alternative forms of testing
  --essay tests taken on a computer with a spell and grammar check, tests recorded onto audio tape, oral testing
•  note taking assistance
•  textbooks, articles, printed handouts on tape, in electronic format enlargements or other alternatives
•  computer support and use of assistive technology such as a laptop for note-taking, screen reading and voice activated software
•  foreign language substitution
• 12 credit load per semester
• Sign language interpreter, captioning, FM amplification system

To receive accommodations, under the law, a student must have self-identified with Disability Services and/or the Office for Learning Skills and have appropriate documentation that is comprehensive and timely. Students with Learning Disabilities must have documentation dated within the past three years with the assessment including testing on cognitive ability (intelligence testing), academic achievement, and specific testing of information processing. At Mount Holyoke, referrals can be made to assist students seeking assessment.

Many first-year students and newly admitted transfer students typically register upon entering Mount Holyoke, but students with disabilities may register at any time while attending the college. Accommodations are provided on an individual basis. Mount Holyoke seeks to encourage students with disabilities to become as independent and self-sufficient as possible.
What is a Learning Disability?
Disabilities Associated with Information Processing:

The brain is a complex organ and not fully understood. This complexity is reflected in the differences between each of us as learners and teachers. Some of us may be excellent at listening to lectures (auditory learners), while others of us may be strong at reading (language strengths), and still others may be exceptional at art and visual learning, written expression, even athletics (fine and gross motor coordination and visual integration). Along with these strengths, each of us also has relative weaknesses, or challenges, in our learning process. Most of these do not constitute a disability.

Otherwise intelligent individuals can have significant weaknesses at the level of reception, processing, or expression, or in some combination. Invariably, this shows up in the efficiency of their academic performance. When a person with average to above average intelligence has a significant deficit in an area of information processing, and it is not due to psychological, environmental, or physical reasons, the limitation is said to be a learning disability. The challenges may be in specific areas of learning:

• Taking in information:
• Auditory, i.e., listening to lectures
• Visual, i.e., reading, analysis of visual objects or diagrams
• Retention and comprehension
•  Remembering details
• Getting the big picture
•  Expression: oral or written
•  Foreign language acquisition

In the discussion that follows, we use the term learning disability (or LD) to refer to these disabilities of information processing and to distinguish them from attention disorders.

In many ways, students with a learning disability have coped with a significant weakness by strengthening other skills to help with their learning process. Some students at MHC have been diagnosed in elementary school and have possibly been supported through their earlier education. Because of under-identification in girls, many students are diagnosed only after they come to MHC. Some "hit the wall," their coping strategies get overwhelmed by the amount or type of work required in a given semester, while others are identified through their repeated failure in trying to learn a foreign language.

If a processing LD has not previously been identified, look for signals

• Grades of C's or lower in a foreign language; history of repeated failure in areas of foreign language acquisition, or comments such as, "the grades were gifts."
• A pattern of bouncing from one language to another or self-selecting away from languages.
•  Math or science difficulties, especially with students committed to these areas, e.g., science major or pre-health.
• Can't "hear" lectures or takes them down word for word without processing it.
• Reading speed or comprehension is seen as significantly below expectations.

Attention Disorders--Attention Deficit Disorder/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD/ADHD)
Some neurological disorders, termed attention disorders, result in difficulty focusing, which interferes with learning whether or not there are processing difficulties. Individuals with such disorders may be inattentive, impulsive, have difficulty in organizing and prioritizing, and initiating and maintaining focus, so that their attention is drawn to stimulating things other than what is appropriate.

Although each of us may exhibit some of these behaviors at one time or another, the person with ADD/ADHD will have many or all of them for her lifetime. In many, but not necessarily all, cases the person with an attention disorder may also have a processing disability. Because there are varying degrees of severity of attention disorders, and because they frequently can be managed with the use of medication, we may not be aware that a particular student in our classroom has ADD/ADHD. As with processing disabilities, students may or may not choose to make this known to their teachers and advisors.

Contacts on Campus
Advisors may find themselves working with students with a variety of disabilities. The contact point for accommodations related to learning disabilities or ADD/AHD is the Office of Learning Skills (2504). Accommodations for physical disabilities, including hearing, mobility, and visual impairments, chronic medical conditions, substance use disorders and/or psychiatric disabilities are coordinated through Disability Services in the Dean of Students Office (ext 2550).

The academic deans work in close collaboration with Disability Services to develop a plan for both academic and general accommodations that will allow the student to function effectively on campus. More detailed information about available services may be found in the “Accommodations for Students with Disabilities” segment of the Disability Services web site.

Myths about Disabilities
Myth: A person with a learning disability cannot learn, and therefore should not be in college.

Fact: By its very definition, a person with a learning disability is of average or above average intelligence.

Fact: The average GPA of LD students is actually slightly higher than the College average

Myth: It's all psychological. Therapy and study skills are what they need.

Fact: Students must go through extensive testing in order to identify specific cognitive processing difficulties. In fact, psychological and skills deficits must be ruled out before a diagnosis can be given.

Fact: Many times the student has already been compensating for the disability with other strengths which may include motivation and attitude as well as study skills.

Myth: Males are much more susceptible than females to learning disabilities.

Fact: Learning disabled girls are under-identified in elementary and secondary schools for a number of reasons. Over two thirds of our learning disabled students identify themselves, or are identified, after they begin their studies at MHC.

Myth: Even if we support them here, they won't make it in the World of Work.

Fact: Women with learning disabilities have graduated in large numbers from MHC, including degrees with honor and summa cum laude. Many have gone on to graduate and professional schools and to exciting and fulfilling careers.

Fact: Our students are in good company! Some other people with LD who have gone on to exciting and fulfilling careers are:

• Albert Einstein--couldn't balance his checkbook
•  Thomas Edison--didn't read until he was 12 years old
• Virginia Woolf--had a terrible time with spelling
•  Cher, Winston Churchill, Tom Cruise, Susan Hampshire, Eileen Simpson, W. B. Yeats, Hans Christian Andersen, and many more!