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Gavin Meoli didn’t realize he had a learning disability until his senior year of high school. Meoli was the firstborn in his family, so his parents didn’t recognize his acting out, inattention and hyper-fixations as symptoms.

Then, while Meoli was preparing to take the SAT, he noticed that his scores weren’t as high as they should be. When he asked for help, Meoli learned the truth — he had undiagnosed attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

“It didn’t matter how hard I tried or if my life was on the line, I was not able to complete assignments and assessments at the pace of my peers ever,” Meoli said. “It was always my normal, my reality.”

In public schools across the United States, 1 in 5 students live with some form of learning disability, not including individuals who lack a formal diagnosis. The US recognizes October as Learning Disability Awareness Month, promoting awareness of learning differences, and how our educational systems can evolve to accommodate them.

At SU, learning disability inclusion is a conversation all year — the university strives to create an accessible campus for all of its students, said Beth Meyers, director of the Taishoff Center for Inclusive Higher Education.

The Taishoff Center is a program within the School of Education that promotes individualized, inclusive higher education for students with intellectual disabilities and learning disabilities. InclusiveU, an initiative within the center, brings students with vast different intellectual disabilities to campus and makes a college education accessible.

Broadly, learning disabilities are neurological disorders that impact a person’s ability to speak, write and comprehend language, perform mathematical calculations, coordinate movement or direct and maintain focus. Though the most common learning disabilities — Dyslexia, ADHD and Dysgraphia — tend to dominate the public discourse and stereotypical perceptions of learning differences, countless other neurological differences impact how a student learns.

Meyers said that SU has pioneered inclusive, accessible education. The university was the first to have an inclusive elementary education program, the first disability studies program, the first university with a disability cultural center and the largest inclusive campus with the InclusiveU program, Meyers said.

Though InclusiveU works with students with intellectual disabilities, Meyers said many students in the program have learning disabilities too, which also impact a student’s ability to learn in the traditional classroom format and can hinder their academic success.

Inclusive education goes beyond the grades a student earns, said Christine Ashby, Director of the Center on Disability and Inclusion. The university has implemented the Universal Design of Learning, an approach to inclusive education that has gained traction in the realm of learning disability support since its inception in 1984, she said.

The UDR approach moves away from the regimented, traditional classroom format, and provides students with more than one way of learning. Educators break teaching down into three specific areas — engagement, representation and action/expression — and provide more than one way to engage with lesson material.

Ashby hopes UDL will make SU education universally accessible to all learners and offer them a holistic college experience.

“We need to broaden our conceptualization of who is a college student, and recognize that a one size fits all approach won’t work if we truly value diversity and equity,” Ashby said.

Alongside InclusiveU, the Center for Disability Resources at SU is at the forefront of inclusive education for its students, employing UDL concepts in its approach to support students with learning differences.

Kala Rounds, an access coordinator for the CDR, meets with students one on one at the start of the semester to discuss their needs and concerns in the classroom. Rounds said she is constantly learning about new ways to make college accessible for all students.

“Within disability and education, we are lifelong learners. We should continue to adapt, to grow and continue to assess and adjust,” Rounds said. “Everyone changes throughout their educational journey, and if you stay in a mindset that never evolves and grows, you’re never going to help students.”

Rounds said she hopes to break the financial barrier between disability and accommodation.

Students at most educational institutions must provide documentation of their learning disability diagnosis to receive accommodations. But students have to take costly tests to either diagnose a specific disability or identify the presence of a learning difference. The evaluations also may not be covered by medical insurance up front, so the student or their parents pay out of pocket and file a reimbursement claim later, Rounds said.

SU students are not required to provide documentation to qualify for accommodations, Rounds said. But if they are curious about whether they have a specific learning disability, or want to learn more about how their brain works, the CDR will connect them to the Learning Assessment Center or the Psychological Services Center, which provide testing to students at a fraction of the cost.

On-campus testing options are especially important because many students’ learning disabilities often go undiagnosed, said Shana Lewis, the systems change coordinator in the School of Education. Lewis works with local elementary schools and parents to educate them about learning disabilities and offer support in how to best accommodate students.

“Everyone presents symptoms differently, which lends itself to un-diagnosis. In ADHD for example, it is typically underdiagnosed in girls,” Lewis said. “For boys, it presents with the hyperactivity where with girls it’s more the inattention. People get angry and are like ‘why aren’t you paying attention?’ And that’s just one example.”

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In addition to raising awareness of learning disability symptoms, Lewis said her personal mission is to dispel the stigma surrounding the word “disability” and the assumption that students with learning disabilities are less capable of academic achievement.

To Lewis, a learning difference is not a question of success — she’s never met a student who doesn’t want to thrive — but rather, it’s a matter of expectation. Society expects students with learning disabilities to underperform in the classroom, Lewis said, and that is damaging to students’ self-worth.

“It’s a neurotypical thing. Who decides what neurotypical is and isn’t, anyways? We all struggle with things throughout our lives. This is no different,” Lewis said. “It’s not a limitation, it’s a part of you, and it doesn’t need to prevent you from doing things.”

Meoli made peace with the term “disability,” no longer viewing it as a weakness or sign of unintelligence, he said. His diagnosis didn’t feel like a handicap. Instead, it gave him the language to explain what he’d been feeling his whole life.

Despite being diagnosed later in life, Meoli now has access to therapy, medication and extra time on exams, and he learned how to advocate for himself in the classroom, he said.

“I am okay with the term ‘learning disability’…I know the school is working hard to help out kids like me and I have not felt stigmatized or ashamed,” Meoli said. “People like me are just as functional if not more than the average person. We just need a little more help and leniency in order to operate in a similar manner.”

By continuing to evolve and increase inclusion for all learners, Lewis believes that all students will be able to excel, as long as they have the resources to do so.

“​​In the end, when students are included and accommodated, and not treated like there is something wrong with them and their brains, it’s going to improve their success,” Lewis said. “We don’t live in a world where we are segregated, our schools should be no different – no matter how you learn.”

Meoli’s ADHD and OCD transformed from a weakness to a strength, he said. Instead of resenting the years he spent feeling less intelligent than his peers, Meoli said he is grateful to have faced the challenges because they forced him to grow and embrace his “superpower,” even if that clarity came at the end of high school.

“It made me learn how to live without help,” Meoli said. “My life may have been more difficult than others for 17 years leading up to the diagnosis, but what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

Published on October 31, 2022 at 11:41 pm