From The Atlantic, to Forbes, to The Wall Street Journal, discussions surrounding testing accommodations at U.S. institutions of higher education have proliferated in recent years. The New York Times reported in March that some institutions list over a third of their students as receiving accommodations — a 50% increase over the last decade.
In December, Forbes reported 20% of students at Harvard University and Brown University receive accommodations, 34% do so at Amherst College and 38% at Stanford University.
At Notre Dame, the Sara Bea Accessibility Services, part of the Center for Student Support and Care, provides services for students with disabilities — including testing accommodations.
In 2018, the University reported 8% of students received some form of an accommodation from Sara Bea. That total increased to 14% in 2023, 6% below the reported national average — numbering 1,700 students.
The department currently offers testing accomodations that include more time, private exam rooms, an exam reader or the use of computers.
“The standards of the test are not lowered, but students are able to better demonstrate their understanding of course material when the challenges of their disabilities are properly managed in an environment more conducive to their needs,” the Student Health and Wellness website states.
Undergraduates with approved accommodations take their exams in the Sara Bea Accessibility Services Testing Center. Notre Dame Law School students are also eligible to receive accommodations.
Joshua Diehl, director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Psychology and an associate teaching professor in psychology, said he has noticed a large increase in the number of students receiving accommodations.
“We’re getting them support earlier in their careers, in elementary and middle school now, whereas oftentimes kids were missed,” he said.
Diehl said the advantages of accommodations outweigh the disadvantages — potential misuse.
He also said professors can address concerns about accommodations themselves. They can install door openers which can be used by all students, including those who are handicapped, and extend the time to take an exam for all students equally.
“If the issue is, ’we’re worried about a small number of students trying to take advantage of something,’ that doesn’t mean you throw the baby out with the bathwater. You change the system, so it’s fair for everybody,” he said.
Other accommodations, such as additional excused absences, are remedied in his classes by “a generous number of excused absences,” and working with the Sara Bea Accessibility Services to ensure proper accommodations are built into his class.
He noted that while some people may try to misuse accommodations, there are still people who are “missed” in diagnoses, included girls and women with disabilities, those “in certain racial and ethnic and cultural backgrounds,” and in lower socioeconomic communities.
In a statement to The Observer, Law professor Richard Garnett wrote that in the Law School, professors are not informed which students receive accommodations.
“Because, in the Law School, we do not know who is receiving testing accommodations, and are assigning grades without this knowledge, our ability to provide candid and accurate evaluations and recommendations to legal employers is undermined,” he stated.
While some accommodations are required by law, he said others are “unwarranted, contrary to the goals and purposes of legal education, and could provide unfair advantages to some students.”
In the Law School, he stated that students there are preparing for a strict and time-sensitive career, in which accommodations will not be “consistent with the nature and needs of the legal profession.”
Regarding students’ future careers, Diehl said accommodations will not affect those already in the workplace, since college activities and exams are specific to college itself.
“Putting accommodations in place allows people who struggle in areas to develop their own types of compensatory strategies to be able to help them without thinking that they’re dumb, without falling behind, without all of the other pressures that go along with school that contribute to additional emotional or behavioral issues,” he said.
While extended time does not impact emeritus sociology professor Richard Williams, he manages the additional excused absences by requesting students attend days when attendance is crucial.
In a written statement, Williams wrote that far more students are in need of accessibility services today than 40 years ago because of an underlying increase in mental and physical health challenges.
“My hope is that, rather than just accommodate problems, universities and society will find better ways to prevent and treat them in the first place,” Williams stated.
Editor's Note: Interview statements in the above article took place in May 2026.
