Give the Disabled Their Due

Few find Harvard easy, but disabled students have a particularly difficult time. Often reliant on sophisticated technology, disabled people do the same work at a slower pace. Additionally, college institutions designed to help them can sometimes be a hindrance amid intermittent delays and unclear expectations. Fortunately, much of this appears to be a problem of organization that could be solved by streamlining and improving resources for disabled students.

Over the past twenty years, new technology and legal protections have enabled students with disabilities to attend college in greater numbers. In 1990, 40 students registered with Harvard as disabled; today that number is over 300.

It is laudable that Harvard is willing to invest the time and resources necessary to educate talented students with disabilities. Nevertheless, accommodating a disabled student presents inherently unique circumstances that both the student and the College must understand. The key to a successful undergraduate experience is for both parties to agree to a plan before a student arrives on campus.

Since no two disabilities are alike, accommodations must be individualized. Upon providing medical documentation, all disabled students should be expected to negotiate an agreement that spells out exactly what they can expect from the Accessible Education Office (AEO), which coordinates assistance for disabled students. Personalized agreements will help ensure that a student’s specific needs will be addressed from the get go and kept on file so that students do not have to rehash old battles.

For students to get proper accommodation, however, it is also vital that they be upfront about their needs. Many students are reluctant to disclose information about their condition, sometimes out of a healthy desire not to be defined by their disability, but sometimes also because they feel pressure to hide weakness. The AEO and Harvard must foster a culture in which students feel comfortable sharing their disabilities and getting the assistance they need.

Most of the manpower needed to assist disabled students goes toward coordinating technology such as Braille embossing, text-to-speech readers, or computer monitors with large fonts provided by the Adaptive Technology Lab (ATL) in the Science Center. The ATL operates separately from the AEO, and while students eventually interact with the ATL directly, the AEO must approve initial requests. The Science Center is much more accessible than the AEO’s 20 Garden Street location, and the separation ensures that ATL staff specialize in technology. Integrating the two offices somewhere close to the Yard would eliminate the opportunity for miscommunication and streamline the approval process.

Reformatting course material, such as converting books to Braille or creating audio recordings, can take months, so giving the AEO and ATL adequate time is essential. However, changes regularly occur mid-semester, often for reasons that have nothing to do with the student. If it takes too long to accommodate a disabled student, he or she can easily fall behind. Most students accept that the wheels of bureaucracy turn slowly, but delays are not acceptable in situations where graduation hangs in the balance.

Furthermore, disabled students need not have their entire course plan picked out ahead of time. They should be able to change their concentration and shop classes. Perhaps, then, the two full-time staff members in the AEO and the three full-time workers in the ATL are not enough. Both offices swell their ranks with part-time help when the need arises, but given the number of students with disabilities, additional permanent staff seems like a worthy investment.

No one attends Harvard to be coddled, and disabled students don’t want to hear the mantra, “take four classes, just take four easier classes.” Unlike other schools, like Yale, Harvard does not exempt its disabled students from any graduation requirements, and disabled undergraduates understand that four years here will be a challenge. Despite this challenge, they are entitled to a level playing field, and Harvard should do its best—which currently means doing more—to ensure they receive one.