Ensuring Equal Access and Appropriate Remediation: Evaluating Struggling Students With Disabilities

Author’s Note: This blog post uses person-first (students with a disability) and identity-first (disabled student) language to honor and acknowledge the contrasted preferences of persons with disabilities. As enthusiastic supporters of disability inclusion in medicine, it can be disheartening when we witness disabled students struggle. Regrettably, faculty are almost never taught how to appropriately approach remediation for students with disabilities. Traditional methods of remediation alone are insufficient, leading to inappropriate student failure, potential dismissal, or failure to fail for fear of legal repercussions. When the origin of the difficulty is unknown, faculty may misattribute the cause of the student’s struggle to disability alone and use standard academic remediation versus evaluating the potential for revised accommodations. Therefore, we feel it is vital to have the assessment of a disability resource professional involved in the process to complement the faculty’s evaluation. What should happen when a student with a disability struggles? When working with a struggling student who also has a disability, an additional step needs to be added to any root cause analysis of the deficit—a review of the effectiveness of disability accommodations. In addition to academic remediation, the need for new or adjusted accommodations must be considered. What is required under the law? The Americans with Disabilities Act of 19901 and Section 504 ...
Source: Academic Medicine Blog - Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Tags: Featured Guest Perspective disabilities equity evaluation remediation Source Type: blogs