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Comment by thenipper | Hacker News Reader

How do you handle kids w/ a learning disability who can't effectively write well?

Reasonable accommodations have been made for students with disabilities for decades now. While there might be some cases where AI might be helpful for accommodating students, it is not, nor should it be, a universal application because different disabilities (and different students) require different treatment and support. There‘s tons of research on disability accommodations and tons of specialists who work on this. Most universities have an entire office dedicated to supporting students with disabilities, and primary and secondary schools usually have at least one person who takes on that role.

So how do you handle kids who can‘t write well? The same way we‘ve been handling them all along — have them get an assessment and determine exactly where they need support and what kind of support will be most helpful to that particular kid. AI might or might not be a part of that, but it‘s a huge mistake to assume that it has to be a part of that. People who assume that AI can just be thrown at disability support betray how little they actually know about disability support.

We have a testing center at Montana State for situations like this. I deliver my tests in the form of a PDF and the testing center administers it in a manner appropriate for the student.

>How do you handle kids w/ a learning disability who can't effectively write well?

It's embarrassing to see this question downvoted on here. It's a valid question, there's a valid answer, and accessibility helps everyone.

It's a question that's too vague to be usefully answered especially on a forum like this.

There's not such thing as "disabled people who can't write well", there's individuals with specific problems and needs.

Maybe there's jessica who lost her right hand and is learning to write with the left who gets extra time. Maybe there's joe who has some form of nerve issue and uses a specialized pen that helps cancel out tremors. Maybe sarah is blind and has an aide who writes it or is allowed to use a keyboard or or or...

There is a specific condition called dysgraphia that pretty much fits descripion "can't write well".

Because it’s another nonsensical “think of the children” argument for why nothing should ever change. Your comment really deserves nothing more than an eye roll emoji, but HN doesn’t support them.

Reasonable accommodations absolutely should be made for children that need them.

But also just because you’re a bad parent and think the rules don’t apply to you doesn’t mean your crappy kid gets to cheat.

Parents are the absolute worst snowflakes.

> Your comment really deserves nothing more than an eye roll emoji, but HN doesn’t support them.

(◔_◔)

There is -.-" for exasperation/annoyance

In the context of the immediate problems of AI in education, it's not a relevant thing to bring up. Finding ways for students with disabilities to succeed in higher education has been something that institutions have been handling for many decades now. The one I attended had well defined policies for faculty and specialist full time staff plus facilities whose sole purpose was to provide appropriate accommodations to such students and that was long, long ago. There will undoubtedly be some kind of role in the future for AI as well but current students with disabilities are not being left high and dry without it.

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