Back in the day, universities realized that they needed to be more accommodating to people with disabilities. This, paired with legislation to a similar effect, resulted in things like the installation of wheelchair ramps, screen readers becoming normalized, and allowances made for students who needed extra time on assignments and exams.

It’s this last point that has become an issue. According to a recent piece in The Atlantic, an increasing number of students are marking themselves as disabled. This allows them to do things like miss class, receive special accommodations for testing, or have looser deadlines for take-home assignments.

How does one prove they actually need these extra accommodations? Typically, it simply involves a doctor’s note asking that they have them — something that the wealthy students visiting these schools can get with ease. If one presents such a note, they can expect to receive a host of benefits, like “not having a professor call on them in class without prior warning.”

But do the students actually “need” these accommodations? It really depends on your definition of the word “need.” What *can* be definitively stated is that students at expensive, elite institutions seem to be claiming disabilities at a higher rate than those at cheaper, less prestigious establishments. For example, many Ivy League and similarly ranked schools report that between 20 and 40% of students now require accommodations. That number for other, public schools? 3 to 4%.

Naturally, there’s a strong chance that these students are actually better off having these accommodations. Advocates say that, if it’s helping the students, who really cares? It’s an argument that’s difficult to argue with.

The main problem, it seems, is that these “accommodations” do not seem to be evenly distributed. Wealthier students with diagnoses tend to receive significantly more hand-holding than poorer students, who may find greater benefit from it.

Remember, kids: You don’t need a doctor’s note. You can just skip class — I did it all the time, and I’m now only *mostly* stupid!