<p>High achieving physically disabled students and college?
As I've found myself entangled more and more in the college process, I've started wondering why high-achieving physically disabled students aren't more heavily sought after by colleges. I mean, they definitely aren't over-represented and add some of that much sought after "diversity" to the campus. Yet the disabled aren't just not helped, sometimes they are outright shunned. For example, the military academies won't accept modifications on standardized tests and accept only a small number of students with limited physically disabilities (i.e., mild asthama or slight vision problems, with the latter not even being technically considered a disability!). Other schools are inaccessible or unwelcoming that I can't see any physically disabled student going there unless it was their only option or if they really, really wanted to prove a point. There also seems to be a lack of scholarships for mobility impaired students (excluding blind students or cancer victims, both of whom certainly deserve recognition for their accomplishments/obstacles, don't get me wrong.). I don't get it. Disabled students have overcome a ton of adversity, but no college is going to have special recruitment/discovery days for us. Why are they missing out on this?</p>
<p>...which is precisely why i think twice about mentioning it more than a word or two.</p>
<p>I agree that students who overcome physical challenges certainly have overcome diversity. Some colleges do take this under consideration in admissions decisions. </p>
<p>What kind of difficulties have you both encountered in applying to colleges? </p>
<p>"There also seems to be a lack of scholarships for mobility impaired students (excluding blind students or cancer victims, both of whom certainly deserve recognition for their accomplishments/obstacles, don't get me wrong.)"</p>
<p>Such scholarships would probably be private scholarships funded by organizations or individuals, not by the colleges themselves. The place to lobby to get such scholarships created would be through either mobility impaired wealthy individuals or through nonprofit associations that assist the mobility impaired.</p>
<p>May I ask - what type of disabilities you are talking about specifically?? Are these mobility and access issues?? What schools have you considered/applied to and how are they considering your disability in this process??</p>
<p>Have you dont a Google search of scholarships for disabled students - there are many out there - yes - some have specific requirements - but most scholarships do as well.</p>
<p>I would also think that schools that DO have adaptive programs for handicapped students would be including them in information visits and/or that they may have certain times that would be better to visit than others - just an example is ECU - where they do have an Adaptive weekend in their Rec Center - I would think that they would be very considerate of a student considering applying there and would be helpful in many respects - as would be UofI/H/C also.</p>
<p>I ask some of these questions because I think that there is more out there than you may have considered. I have participated in assisting a girl to achieve college success as a handicapped student - and yes - there were several special considerations that had to be dealt with - but not so overwhelming that they could not be worked out somehow.</p>
<p>Well, for the military academies, you do have to remember that they are training people for COMBAT. Even an asthma or bad eyesight might make the difference between life or death.</p>
<p>Exactly, heythatslife. As discriminatory as it may seem, the military has a purpose in choosing the people it does. It can't afford to recruit disabled people who would require extensive training/guidance, especially considering its overall goal of building a military and being as prepared as possible. If a military recruiter has the opportunity to hire a disabled student or a "normal" student, he will inevitably choose the latter because it requires less work to integrate him into the military society, which is all about being efficient.</p>
<p>When it comes to colleges however, I think the situation should be different and allow for more opportunities for disabled students, but for the most part its the same. Students who are physcially disabled would need wheelchair access to all buildings, blind students would need guides and vision-impaired friendly roadways, etc....that means a lot of money and changes on the college's part. They are usually unwilling to go to all the hassles of change for <em>one</em> student. Which means the disabled student loses out and gets rejected.</p>
<p>The only way to change this current system is for colleges to recognize the worth of having disabled students, especially larger numbers of them. Think about it. If 25 well qualified students in need of wheelchair access all applied to the same school, that would be more incentive for that college to accept all of them and change their campus to be more accomodating.</p>