No, Colleges Do Not “Over-Accommodate”
Preview:
Many recent opinion pieces suggest colleges “over-accommodate” students with disabilities, but that narrative misrepresents legal disability rights and fuels attacks on civil rights protections. Federal laws like the ADA and Section 504 require reasonable accommodations without fundamentally altering academic programs, and disability services offices work to ensure compliance and access. Critics often conflate skepticism of accommodations with calls to weaken legal protections, a framing the authors reject as harmful to students with disabilities. Instead, disability accommodations should be understood as fulfilling nondiscrimination obligations rather than giving unfair advantages.
Originally published: December 16, 2025
Author: Chris Parthemos, Martina Svyantek
Position: President-elect, President
Institution: Association on Higher Education and Disability
Published by: Inside Higher Ed