The Case of Susan

Susan is a freshman enrolled at your small private university. She hopes to graduate with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, majoring in visual arts and maybe someday attend graduate school for a master’s in fine arts. Although Susan is an art major, she is required to take two English courses that require a great deal of writing. Susan reveals to you that she has an Auditory Processing Disorder. You learned in your EDCEP 853 College Students with Special Needs course that a person with an auditory processing disorder periodically experiences an inability to process verbal information. This learning disability (LD) can make it difficult for students to understand and organize large amounts of spoken information presented in lectures or class discussions (“Learning Disabilities,” 2012). Learning disabilities are often called “hidden disabilities" because they are not self-evident. Some students would rather not reveal their learning disability. If your suspect someone may have a “hidden disability”, you should respect their privacy and refrain from questioning them about the possible existence of a disability. It is important, when working with a student that happens to have a disability, to remember to work with the “whole” student and all of the facets that go into a fulfilling academic experience rather than simply addressing the issue of the disability (Vance & Bridges, 2009).

Like many students with invisible disabilities, such as learning disabilities, Susan is worried about how she will be perceived if she reveals her disability. Susan was academically successful in high school with the help of special instruction and accommodations such as extra time and modified lecture notes provided by her teachers. She was hoping that in...

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http://www.wmich.edu/disabilityservices/Orientation.html#Initiating

Lapadat, J. (1998). Implicit Theories and Stigmatizing Lables. Journal of College Reading and Learning. Retrieved March 2, 2012 from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3247/is_1_29/ai_n28720741/ ?tag=content;col1

Lewis, L. & Farris, E. (1999). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. An Institutional Perspective on Students with Disabilities in Postsecondary Education, NCES 1999-046. Washington, DC.

Learning Disabilities. (2012). DO-IT Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology. Retrieved March 2, 2012 from http://www.washington.edu/doit/Faculty/Strategies/Disability/LD/ld_ faq.html

Vance, M. L., & Bridges, L. (2009). Advising students with disabilities: Striving for universal success. (2nd ed.). Manhattan, KS: NACADA.