Students apply to colleges when they presume they meet entrance requirements. Colleges are characterized as reach when there are too many qualified applicants. Students with disabilities also apply to schools when they meet entrance requirements and some are reaches. Elite schools are no stranger to students with disabilities applying, attending and graduating.
The admissions process is described as blind in because a student’s disability is legally prohibited from being part of the admissions decision. Information that discloses disability is set aside by whatever means the school uses so disability-related content won’t taint the admissions decision. The cost of accommodations is compared to the entire institutional budget. The school who admits the student with a disability can’t claim that the accommodations are too pricey. While this process often works better in theory than practice, schools are diligent about not getting themselves into legal binds by denying admissions to a student with a known disability, even if that student’s profile suggests s/he doesn’t meet admissions criteria.
Disability does not mean that entrance requirements are altered or waived for students with disabilities. In higher education, there is no special education for students with special needs. Students with 504 plans or formal plans more likely receive accommodations often don’t require academic assistance, The term otherwise-qualified means that the student met admissions requirements, but has now requested accommodations and has submitted documentation verifying the need for auxiliary aids and services to access the curriculum.
Students with disabilities taking the ACT/SAT are legally protected from submission of flagged scores to colleges for a very good reason.Flagging suggests that the scores are not quite fair or representative of a student’s skills, knowledge and aptitude for college-level work. In my opinion, adding information about disability in the application is self flagging. If the decision to admit includes information about disability and that information was supplied by the applicant, how can a claim of denial of admission based disability be brought and/or substantiated when the applicant disclosed the information? Its easy to find an attorney, but winning isn’t. Everything in the application is fair game for the admissions committee. If the student with a disability is denied admissions and decides to appeal the decision, the student’s disability then can become part of the appeal.