Article content continued

Other kinds of disabilities can be accommodated because they are not what the exam is testing. Blind students, for example, may need to access exam questions with a text reader. Unlike extra time for mental disabilities, such accommodations create no undue hardships for other students in the class.

Alicia Raimundo is a mental health advocate and a former student at the University of Waterloo diagnosed with dyslexia, depression, anxiety and Asperger’s syndrome. Her attitude is typical. Students with mental disabilities, she told Maclean’s Magazine last year, “might have the smarts to achieve (grades in the) 90s but will only receive 60s. (Accommodations are) about levelling the playing field.”

Extra time does not level the field but tilts it

This claim is false. Extra time does not level the field but tilts it. Given enough time, many students could put together a paper that would earn a 90 — had it been produced within the two hours allotted for the exam. Claiming the right to extra time and then insisting that what you produce is an A paper is like claiming that you should win the gold medal for the 100 metres by running only 80 metres. That logic cheats those who have accomplished more demanding tasks. There is only one gold medal and only a limited number of A grades. Pressure is part of the conditions of the test. Students who can exhibit proficiency only when sources of stress are eliminated are like athletes who can perform at their best only in practice rather than in the big game. Accommodating those students makes no more sense than accommodating the athletes.

The proper purpose of accommodation is to facilitate participation, not to compensate for lack of ability that the test is about. Students who claim extra time for mental disabilities are already able to participate within the normally allotted period. They simply wish to increase their prospects for success at the expense of their peers.

National Post

Bruce Pardy is Professor of Law at Queen’s University. This column is based upon an article published in theEducation and Law Journal.