Myth: Accommodations are "special treatment"

Transcript

 "If I do this for one student, they're all going to want it."

"They don't need extra time, they just need to focus."

"They just say they have ADHD to get special treatment."

As a teacher, I heard all of these in the staff lounge. It came from new teachers and teachers who had been teaching for a long time. So let's talk about it.

Accommodations are not special treatment. They remove barriers to learning. That's their purpose. So for example, if someone can't see, well, we don't tell them to try harder. We don't accuse them of being lazy. We don't accuse them of faking it. We give them glasses so they can see.

We give them glasses so that they can have access to what everyone else already can. And that's not an unfair advantage. It's just evening the playing field.

That same logic applies to learning accommodations. Extra time, flexible seating, assistive technology, breaks - these supports, um, exist to provide that access so that the students can fully participate.

And because we're working with kids, there will be students who say, "Well, that's not fair. They get to do this, or they get to do that." Use that as a teachable moment. Fair doesn't mean that everyone gets the same thing. Fair means that everyone gets what they need.

So I'm curious, what's one accommodation that you've seen truly help a student thrive?

Or if you were that student, what made learning feel more accessible to you?

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