Well it’s that time of the year again. Little Jose, Maria, Sunkyo, Min, Keiko, Maesha, Robert, and Suzie are off to classes. They are off to grade school, to high school, and to college.  

If you were in high school in the middle 70’s you found that every student across this country had to take the Scholastic Aptitude Test.  Every student took this test with a time limited. A time limited was applied weather you were disabled or not. You had to take this test within the stated time limit. If you wanted to enter any college in America you had to take this test. Disabled high school students were truly handicapped by these rules. 

Everyone took the test on equal terms or so it seemed. Because I had cerebral palsy it took extra time. They say that this was an equal right of passage for high school students. I tend to disagree.

 Roadblocks everywhere. What a challenge for the disabled high school student who used canes, wheelchairs, letter-boards, or computer voice boxes. 

Disabled students like me did not get the extra time needed to finish the essay part of the SAT. Disabled students had to do their best and finish what they could. Many disabled students received lower scores because of this method of testing. Of course this included me.  Like most disabled students I needed extra time to write but it did not matter.  I never finished the history part of this test and that was my best subject so you know what happen on the rest of this test. We just accepted the score and moved on. 

FAIR AND EQUAL TREATMENT?
This is the same argument African American leaders expressed in the 1950’s and 1960’s. African American administrators pointed out that SAT tests were culturally biased and African American children did not know some of the question on the test. In 1980 the SAT test was revised and a few questions were excluded from this test. 

In 1990 when the Americans with Disabilities Act passed it included the status of students with disabilities taking the SAT test. Every high school had to made reasonable accommodation for these students. Disabled students were granted extra time but were still unable to complete the test. With this giant step toward equality in education every student including the disabled now had a chance to compete equally. NOT! 

What the 1991 SAT National Committee did was flag the test of disabled high school students that took advantage of the extra time to finish the test. Once again these students were singled out not because they were not smart enough but because the could not write as fast or think as fast as other students in that high school.

This is wrong and should not be condoned. The administrators and political activists of the Americans with Disabilities Act agreed and took on a ten-year battle to change this procedure. They claimed that this was unfair and biased. Just as African American Students stated thirty-five years before.  

In 2001 the Federal Courts agree, that the SAT committees could no longer flag test of disabled students. This could have been one of the greatest victories for disabled students in America. Everyone thought this issue was finished but guess what?  A new and completely different issue surfaced; one that administrators, students, and parents thought would never happen. 

Many colleges across this great land have started requesting results of disabled student’s SAT test times. They were subverting the Federal Law by requesting this information. Schools were saying that they wanted the best students in their schools. This smacks of discrimination and segregation of disabled students once again. Only certain elite schools are flagging disabled students’ test results and they were predominately in the east or southeast. The Big Ten, Ivy League, Atlantic Coast, and Southeast College school systems were a few to make such request.  

Again disabled advocates and other political activist were on the battle lines. Again, the local, district, and federal courts attempt to explain how this action by these elite schools are discriminatory and such action should cease.    

A University of Calif. at Berkeley administrator (in records department) who wanted to remain off the record stated that the UC system would take this issue on a case by case basis and he thought that it would not be a big problem at Berkeley. This administrator stated that most schools were not in the business of being post high school tutors or mentors for disabled students. He also stated that with 35, 000 students they could not give special treatment to disabled students. Again like the 1950 and 1960 African American students who fought the same battle for equal access to post high school participation. 

If you are a disabled high school student or a parent of a disabled child, check out all entrance policies. Please write to the schools that you or your child would like to attend. Ask your college councilors if they are flagging SAT scores that have extra time allotted? Ask them why the school is having this practice implemented?   Then it’s your decision either to attend that college or not. 

To all students across America have a great school year and study hard. You are on your way to a wonderful journey enjoy the ride.    I know I did 25 years ago at Southern Illinois University. []