What laws impact students with learning disabilities who wish to attend college?

Students with disabilities must meet the minimum requirements for admission to college. However, some schools, if made aware that a student has a disability, may use more flexible standards in the admission process, using additional data to answer whether the student should be admitted. Colleges and universities do not have one common standard for admission or for reviewing applications. Students with learning disabilities, ADHD, or other disabilities may benefit from contacting the college’s disability services office before applying in order to learn whether there are any special procedures used by a particular college in assessing the application of students with disabilities. There are also two excellent guides to colleges with programs for students with disabilities; The K & W Guide to Colleges for Students with Learning Disabilities and the Peterson’s Guide to Colleges for Students with Learning Disabilities or ADD. These guides not only list the types of disability support services available through the college, they also briefly describe the application procedures used by the college to assess the students that are designed to take into account the potential impact that a student’s disability may have on their competitive status. For example, increasing numbers of schools no longer require the ACT or SAT test as a basis for application. For further information, go to LD OnLine’s college preparation section of LD InDepth