I'm the father of an autistic child as well as a college professor so I think I can speak with some authority on this subject.

I'm glad that our education system has adopted a stance of accommodation for those with disabilities / special needs. I do think it's something that sets the US system apart from many other countries. However, I am also highly aware that A) the system is being abused, and B) not every demand for accommodation is reasonable.

Partly, it is the fault of the medical profession, which does not (from what I can tell) seem to maintain rigorous standards for who gets diagnosed with a mental health condition. They are not diagnosed via biological markers, but rather behavioral interviews. Anyone with an understanding of the DSM, determined to get a diagnosis, can probably get a diagnosis.

Yes, rich families abuse this. For those who suffer from real disabilities, it is annoying to see when accommodations are abused. On the other hand, you can see why it might be uncomfortable to ever question the reality or severity of a person's mental health diagnosis. And thus, it is rarely ever called into questioned.

As a college professor, I have to deal with unreasonable demand for accommodations. One student demanded to not show up in person for the entire class, and I was not allowed to even question what their issue was. So I had to get another student to record the lectures on this other student's behalf. I do not think that is reasonable at all.

Another time, I had to spend extra hours every week developing accommodations for a blind student. This student had a real need, so I was not too reluctant, but I still thought the demands were unreasonable. Econ is a subject with a lot of charts. I had to write down a verbal description of every single one of my charts in such a way that she could solve the problems. This included sentences like, "The line passes through the points (0,1), (1,3), (2,5), ...". I had to do this for every chart I used in the class. I was not paid extra for the time.

I don't think it's reasonable to ask instructors to be the ones to provide accommodations. In my opinion, the institution should have an office that provides accommodations. So in the case of a blind student, they should have had a staff member do the transcriptions, instead of asking me to do it. If they don't have enough staff, then don't offer the accommodations. It is too much to ask the instructor to double up as a personal care provider.

As a parent of a child with special needs, we have to navigate this tension. We want the best for our child, which would include accommodations, but recognize that school resources are limited. It's a tough balance to strike. And until schools get to know us, there's often an attitude of suspicion, because the two sides (parents and schools) are often at odds with each other over this.

The education system has a lot of problems, but the "accommodations crisis" isn't something I'd lay the blame on their doorstep for. I still tend to blame the medical profession, which has lax standards for who gets diagnosed with a mental health issue.