There are schools that deal with learning differences better than others. We don’t want that be the primary deciding factor on a college–we still really want proper career development work to be done. But in the end, we do want to find the schools that offer better accommodations for those students overall. But again, it’s just another piece of the puzzle.
What we’re seeing more and more is that every college is recognizing the need for great accommodations for all of their students at a variety of levels, whether it’s like a dedicated cafeteria for students with with food allergies, or whether it’s making sure that all of their buildings are accessible so that we don’t need to move classrooms around so that somebody in a wheelchair can take a class that they desperately need to fulfill a major.
We would never recommend a student, let’s go to the school because they’ve got a great accommodation program. Instead, we’re going to find you a great fit for your major. And then in addition, we’re going to find you the kind of accommodations that will help you be ultra successful.
It’s even more important for students on the spectrum or who have a learning difference to focus on career development work, because generally they do show amazing scale in one or more ability domains. There’s nine types of intelligences, and the United States only tests for logical, mathematical or linguistics. And sometimes that’s not the case for students who are on the spectrum or have a learning difference.
So career development work is crucial for students with learning differences. Preparing for college is a very different world than it was even 10, 20, 30 years ago in that regard.
