An article by a student at Stanford University, revealing that a significant portion of students at elite institutions claim to be disabled in some way in order to receive various concessions, is making waves on the Internet.
A Stanford International Relations and East Asian Studies student claimed that some students are registered as disabled to receive benefits. (visit.stanford.edu)Elsa Johnson, a student of International Relations and East Asian Studies at Stanford, claims that students at her university register themselves as disabled for benefits. In his article published in The Times, he referred to the widespread practice as “gaming the system”. He said students with disabilities received “the best housing on campus” and other benefits, such as extra time to take tests, extra absences from class and more time to submit their assignments.
‘Students who claim to be Jains (but are not)’Johnson, editor-in-chief of the student-run Stanford Review newspaper, also claims that some Stanford students cite religious dietary restrictions to avoid the mandatory $7,944 ( ₹7.18 lakhs) on campus meal plan.
“And so, some students I know claim to be devout members of the Jain religion, which rejects any food that can harm all living things, including small insects and root vegetables,” Johnson wrote.
“Students I know who claim to be Jains (but aren’t) spend their meal money on whole foods and enjoy freshly made salads and other tasty treats, while the rest of us stick to college fare, like burgers made partly from ‘mushroom mix’.”
Stanford’s website breaks down detailed fees for the various meal plans available to students.
“All undergrad students living on campus (except Mirilis) are required to be on the meal plan but students may change their dining hall meal plan during the first three weeks of the quarter,” says a note on the website.
Elsa Johnson, who enrolled at the university in 2023, decided to claim her endometriosis as a disability. She said it took her just 30 minutes to register as a student with a disability after a Zoom call with a woman in the Stanford Office of Accessible Education. Her benefits now include a private apartment, extra absences from class, “some late days on assignments, and a 15-minute late allowance for all my classes.”
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Stanford student says some more disability claims are ‘downright silly’Johnson said she’s seen students claim disability designations for disorders like ADHD and anxiety. “And some ‘disabilities’ are downright silly. Students claim ‘night terrors’; others say they are ‘easily distracted’ or they ‘can’t get along with others,'” he wrote.
38 percent of Stanford students are registered as having a disabilityThis academic year, 38 percent of Stanford University graduates registered as having a disability, according to a report by The Atlantic. Several prestigious American universities are seeing an increasing number of students registering themselves as disabled for physical and mental health conditions such as ADHD and anxiety, according to reports.
At Brown and Harvard, more than 20 percent of undergraduates registered as disabled, the Atlantic reports.
