The three annotations all point to the added stress and labor required of students who have learning disabilities. Not only do these students have to spend more time and effort doing tasks like reading and language processing (in fact, it takes them as much as five times as long as students without learning disabilities), they also have to work in a broken and limited system. They feel stigmatized by their peers, misunderstood by their professors and neglected by the school administration. These students’ families end up paying thousands of dollars for testing and necessary supports which in turn puts them at an economic disadvantage. Many families have to take out loans. Without proper testing and documentation, students cannot receive supports in school. Therefore, only well-off families can give their kids the supports they need.
If one in every five students has a learning disability, as states the National Center of Learning Disabilities, then we as a society are discriminating against one in five of the student population. The popular press articles are not ready to discuss the stress disabled students experience; they are more eager to talk about the increased burden disabled students place on the educational system. Therefore, there needs to be more public advocacy and awareness of the mental and emotional disabled students suffer from on a daily basis.
Mental Health and Addictions 