<p>Does anyone have a list of schools that have accommodations specifically for students with learning disabilities? We've found out that our S (HS sophomore) has an auditory deficit that makes it very difficult for him to process complex auditory information (eg, taking notes while a teacher is lecturing, or listening to and understanding a complex set of tasks delivered aurally). He is otherwise very intelligent and a great reader/writer.</p>
<p>His audiologist recommended that he attend a college that has programs in place for students like him. (Not Landmark or similar place, but rather a "regular" school that has accommodations.)</p>
<p>I’m not sure I understand your question. ALL schools in the U.S. are required to provide accommodations for students with learning disabilities. Not all are as accommodating as others for certain disabilities, of course, as the definition of “reasonable accommodation” varies by school, so your best course of action is to pick schools you like anyway and then talk to their disabilities office to find out how they handle a specific disability. But learning disabled students rights are protected under the Americans with Disabilities act and schools are required by law to provide reasonable accommodation to students with learning disabilities.</p>
<p>Check out Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) for specific auditory disabilities. Some schools with good LD programs in general are University of Denver and Arizona State.</p>
<p>Hi, I’m a special ed teacher (as well as English) and can try to answer your questions. First of all, there are some excellent reference books out there for students with disabilities going to colleges. For instance Petersen’s puts out a book called “Colleges for Students with Learning Disabilities.” This is just one book.</p>
<p>Each college is quite different in what it offers. To clarify the previous poster, it’s very important to understand that schools are only required to offer help under the 504 law, NOT under IEP under IDEA. IEPs stop after high school–these are the more stringent ‘free and appropriate education’ all schools must by federal law supply. Once you graduate and go into the ‘real’ world, you are covered by the 504, which people are most familiar with in terms of, say wheelchair ramps–colleges must make all buildings accessible. However, different colleges can and do interpret the 504 in different ways, and different colleges are VERY different in their attitudes and levels of support for students with disabilities. Just to give one small example, in a college I taught in, a student had to self-identity whether he had a disability (I had no way of knowing). They had to come to me at the beginning of the course and speak to me privately about their disability. Then the student had to have this disability confirmed by the college via documentation. Then once the accommodations were formalized, he/she had to hand them in to me, and then and only then, could I give the accommodations, which by the way, I was pretty free to interpret liberally or conservatively. Thus, the procedure was humiliating for many students and onerous and many students decided not to bother. I would not have recommended my college to students with learning disabilities, honestly. Another college I know of has an entire department focused on learning disabilities, keeps computerized records of each student so the professor is automatically notified, has easy to access support services, etc. </p>
<p>The moral–Yes there are accommodations available, but DO YOUR HOMEWORK. THese vary a great deal from college to college.</p>
<p>“a student had to self-identity whether he had a disability (I had no way of knowing). They had to come to me at the beginning of the course and speak to me privately about their disability. Then the student had to have this disability confirmed by the college via documentation. Then once the accommodations were formalized, he/she had to hand them in to me, and then and only then, could I give the accommodations, which by the way, I was pretty free to interpret liberally or conservatively. Thus, the procedure was humiliating for many students and onerous and many students decided not to bother.”
This is also what my son went through at his U, and after ALL THAT, he was given as an advisor in the Disabilities office someone who works only with DEAF students, and had absolutely no idea what an Auditory processing disability was. Aaargh! So he said to Hell with trying to get any meaning full help from the D.O.
Regardless of where he goes to college, your DS is going to have to learn to advocate for himself, by sitting up front, going to a professors office hours if he didn’t “get something”, and in general asking for help when he needs it.
OP, you may want to have your son start using this now-
[Livescribe</a> :: Never Miss A Word](<a href=“http://www.livescribe.com/smartpen/desktop.html]Livescribe”>http://www.livescribe.com/smartpen/desktop.html)
this pen has a recorder and computer chip built in, and when used with the special paper sold with it, a student can replay any part of a lecture just by putting the tip of the pen on any part of note he made. Notes can also be uploaded to a computer. it is a fabulous hi-tech tool for those who have a hard time listening while visually focused. This pen does the “listening”, so students can copy the important notes written on the whiteboard, and then later replay the lecture when they miss something auditorially.</p>
DD does this since her processing issues are managed differently for different classes. She does not seem to think they are humiliating. They are a part of her self advocacy. Even the disabilities office is not real familiar with the processing issues, they are quite cooperative in letters to the professors and intervening if necessary. It has never been necessary. All professors have worked with her. Through this process she has learned more about what works for her and what doesn’t. Self advocacy is a skill that must be learned to go into the “real” world.</p>
<p>I believe Shawbridge has a S with a form of dyslexia that makes it very difficult to listen and take notes at the same time. His S is a college freshman at a top school receiving accommodations such as audio textbooks and notetakers. He is very knowledgeable about LD accommodations and I’m sure would welcome a PM.</p>
<p>I think that the first thing to do is try to have a very specific sense of what sort of accommodations and support your S will need in college. Will he need access to notetakers; the ability to record lectures; permission to take a reduced course load? These sorts of accommodations should be easy for virtually any college to provide. You would probably want to talk with the LD offices where your S is accepted – perhaps applying to a wider array of colleges than one might if LD support were not an issue – to be absolutely certain of the way they will accommodate him. You could also do research on the quality of accommodation at colleges that interest him before applying, so you could tailor the list. But if your S is looking for pretty simple accommodations of the extended time, use of assistive technologies that are readily available variety, he should be able to find those services at most US colleges.</p>
<p>Or are you looking more for a college that has a more integrated program for LD students such as counselors assigned to them on an ongoing basis, access to tutoring geared to their specific LD’s, regular monitoring, support groups? If you are wanting this level of support, then you probably are wanting a college like Arizona which has a well-developed program with extensive services and involvement with LD students and where you won’t have to be cobbling something together.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. My S right now is VERY reluctant to have any sort of accommodations that would make him stand out among his peers. For example, when we talked with the GC about having another student take notes for him on carbon paper, he was vehemently against the idea. And the thought of a tape recorder is inconceivable. He told me later “Mom, if I did that, it would severely affect my social life.” He is hyper tuned in to what others think of him, or of standing out in some “negative” way. </p>
<p>Menloparkmom I love the idea of Livescribe-- I had heard of it previously. And yes, he does need to learn to advocate for himself. I hope he can learn to do that in the next 2 years, as he hasn’t yet gotten there…how do you help a kid to do that?</p>
<p>I am wondering generally if a smaller college with more direct teacher/student interaction/support is better for kids like my S? I worrry about him falling through the cracks at a large school, even one where LD accommodations are easily accessible. Any thoughts about this?</p>
<p>I had notes taken in my spanish classes on carbon paper-- they would turn it in to the teacher after class and the teacher would hand them off to me privately later. Nobody, including the note taker, ever knew the notes were for me. When I was his age I was really hyper concerned too, I like to think he’ll grow out of it as I did but some people take well into adulthood to reach that level of maturity and acceptance with their differences. All you can do is encourage him to find ways to get the supports he needs that he is comfortable with, and encourage him to be educated about his disability. The more I learned about dyscalculia the less embarrassed I got. It just took some time.</p>
<p>With regard to small school vs large school, I just went from community college to Umich and am missing the smaller college when it comes to learning disabilities. Maybe it’s just Umich, but it seems because the school is so large everything is decentralized so it’s hard to find who has the authority to help me. For example I have an auditory processing issue, my adviser tells me to go through the disabilities office, the disabilities office tells me the language department doesnt accommodate auditory processing difficulties and if I want to argue I can talk to my adviser about it, adviser has no idea what disabilities office was talking about. At my small community college the head of the disabilities office read through my documentation, and said, "okay, what do you need?’ I listed off what I had held previously and he made a few suggestions in addition, and he sent the email off to my professors telling them that was what I should have. End of discussion, no big deal. At Umich it’s hit and miss. My dyscalculia and dysgraphia were no big deal and if possible handling it was even simpler than at my CC, but apparently because the romance languages department is stubborn the disabilities office feels they can wash their hands of the issue and leave me to figure it out all by myself-- which isn’t likely to work out in my favor. But Umich also has more scholarship programs and better access to equipment I could use (we just got a grant where if you could make a case for requiring any sort of equipment under like 1k, if memory serves, they could get it for you), and they have more faculty for me to talk to help me get the support I need. At the CC they had the one guy, but the one guy had much more influence over my professors. Overall I think the small college benefits probably outweighed the cons, but some big schools definitely have better programs than some small schools. It’s more the characteristics of the program itself and how it is benefited/hindered by the size of the school than just the size of the school.</p>
<p>Had to rush out before finishing my post to my satisfaction-- I have also given a tape recorder to a professor before and had them just place it in front of them to record and then give it back to me later, as well. That one is more of an inconvenience to them than the carbon paper is but I have had teachers that didn’t mind. There are ways to work around the embarrassment issue sometimes that are worth looking into if he think it would help him.</p>
<p>And my last sentence…
“It’s more the characteristics of the program itself and how it is benefited/hindered by the size of the school than just the size of the school.”</p>
<p>…would have been better articulated, I think, if I had said that the size of the school is really just one factor that can go either way. A good disabilities program in many cases will still be good if it’s in a big or small school, but one that is lacking will be lacking no matter where it is. You can’t assume either way with any size school.</p>
<p>OP, if you can, why not get Livescribe for him now, so he can try it out and get used to using it. There so many new things he will have to adjust to when he gets into college, it would be helpful for him to find a helpful note taking devise/ technology that works for him before he gets there. I can also envision this devise being a way to help him be a valuable classmate with others in study groups, since his notes can be uploaded to a computer and then shared with others. And yes, going to a college with smaller average class sizes would probably be a good idea.</p>
<p>We were impressed and pleased with the accommodations office at our son’s school (Colorado College). We met with them for about an hour during orientation week and they sent him away with a LiveScribe, including a large supply of media (the special note pads), free of charge.</p>
<p>This is a selective school with an unusual, one-course-at-a-time curriculum (called the “block plan”). Good for kids who prefer to focus intensively on one subject for 3.5 weeks at a time instead of multi-tasking on 4 or 5 (though you cover equivalent ground over each semester). An added benefit is that the block plan accommodates field work more easily (and the school has a system of Venture Grants to support projects). So kids who prefer a hands-on approach (with small classes, lots of discussion and faculty interaction) may like this school.</p>
<p>I don’t know if this helps, but I thought all schools had Disability Centers. The ones I know of have options for students, including have a notetaker take notes for them in class. Perhaps that is what your son needs.</p>
<p>Most if not all schools a) have disabilities services offices; and b) must follow Section 504 and the ADA and ADAA. However, there is a tremendous amount left to the discretion of the school to determine what they think is needed and how they will respond to requests. </p>
<p>Big v. small. I think big is good if you want a program in which the services are integrated. I’ve heard about Arizona and University of Vermont. One student on this site says that Brown to which he transferred is OK but that Tulane, a bigger school, is much more responsive. Small is good if you want to advocate individually – a small school is likely to be more responsive if it has the budget. Many will not.</p>
<p>We looked at a variety of schools for my son. He decided to apply to more schools and then visit the ones to which he was admitted and only visited 2 schools before applying. We met with the head of disabilities services in both. The good news: he was admitted to too many to visit, but he picked out the most likely schools and we scheduled visits to each and included a visit with the head of disabilities services. Generally, he met with them and then we met with them. As I reported in other posts, some high-end schools define quality education by having students follow their core curriculum or distribution requirements and see any attempts by students to deviate from the prescribed path, even well justified as a result of LDs, to be something to be guarded against. They may also see provision of extra time or services as creating an uneven playing field. One school my son loved (Dartmouth) wanted even more neuropsychological data than The College Board to decide individually on each accommodation and claimed never to have paid for scribes and rarely waived the foreign language requirement (which they ultimately said they would). I think that with a lot of negotiation (which he and I successfully did in HS), the school probably would have given him most of what he requested, but it would have felt like work and not support). Other schools had fewer requirements and two that we visited (Wesleyan and Amherst) were clear that they would provide the accommodations and curricular flexibility he needed. So far, he is getting note-takers and double time on tests, special rooms for dictating papers, and a really supportive Dean of Disabilities Services and others at Amherst. They have agreed that if he needs scribes or readers, they will supply. They are working with him to get audio versions of books and have OCR/screen reader technology, although this is imperfect and sometimes pretty bad (e.g., Aristotle and Plato via a screen reader are essentially unintelligible). He’ll have to talk with them about other solutions.</p>
<p>I think you get a much clearer read if you visit after your kid has been accepted and you send over the neuropsychological or medical data and ask if your son would get these services if he chose to attend than if you visit before hand (especially schools in which the acceptance probability is 8% or 12%).</p>
<p>My daughter also has auditory processing disorder. She is now a senior at Lewis & Clark College in Portland. The first year she took advantage of many of the accommodations they offered. Many more were available to her but she chose not to use them. The office of Student Services was extremely helpful. They have many services in place to help your son. Many of the services would not be noticed by fellow students. The “notetakers” take noted for you and you get them later. No one has to know this is happening. You can get extra time on exams and take them in an alternate location. Once again, no one needs to know this is happening. </p>
<p>Many large schools will have these services as well but I think attending a small (less that 2000 students) was a key issue for my daughter. Over time she has gotten to know her professors and the staff so well. If she needs more time for something or has problems she has no problem meeting with them. The class size has been any where form 10 to 35 students in a class with most classes around 25. This personal attention is important for students with learning issues. At a huge school my daughter would have fallen through the cracks and although the services are there you must be a very aggressive student to seek them out and make them work for you.</p>
<p>I agree that visiting the schools and meeting with the dept in chareg of accommodations is important. Good Luck.</p>
<p>Wow, thank you all so much for your great suggestions. If it’s true that a student has to more proactively seek out accommodations at a larger school, then unless my son has a sea change in personality in the next 2 years, that pretty much eliminates very large schools for him, no matter how good their LD programs are. I just don’t think he will go to bat for himself. It’s easier not to.</p>
<p>Twistedxkiss-- what is your major, if you don’t mind revealing? I’m asking because I am wondering if my S should consider, eg, a graphic or media arts (or similar) major, since it would focus more on visual and kinesthetic strengths (and artistic) which he has.</p>
<p>Shawbridge-- really appreciated your advice, thanks.</p>
<p>Are there majors/career paths that kids with auditory processing problems should steer clear of? I realize this is a subjective question, but I’d love opinions.
Thanks.</p>
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