To the Editor:

“A Diagnosis Can Give Students Extra Test Time (Money Helps)” (front page, July 31) makes clear that there are inequities in access to accommodations in our public education system for students with disabilities and that cases of fraud are rare. However, two additional points deserve mention.

Often , as soon as a student’s performance improves with the use of accommodations, people assume that the accommodations were not needed to begin with. Disabilities do not go away — ask anyone who has one! Assuming that students never needed accommodations in the first place only feeds into the discriminatory belief that some disabilities — especially invisible disabilities — are not real.

The accommodations students receive can dictate whether they are granted accommodations on college admissions tests (SAT and ACT) and, in turn, whether they go to and succeed in college. We would be misguided to doubt their need and make it harder to secure accommodations.

Second, the problem is not that students are receiving accommodations they don’t need, but that a large number of students who deserve and can benefit from accommodations have failed to be identified as having a disability. Far too many students — especially students of color and students in poverty — continue to struggle without an advocate to help them secure the accommodations and supports they need. Those are the students we must turn our focus to.