🧠 NEURODIVERSITY — AUTISM & ADHD
This neurodevelopmental condition can affect attention, impulse control, and executive functioning. It can present differently from one person to another.
What is Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)?
This chronic condition occurs when tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus and may cause severe pain and other symptoms.
What is endometriosis?
This form of abuse involves a pattern of behaviors used to gain or maintain power and control over a partner. It can include physical, sexual, emotional, and financial abuse.
What is domestic violence or intimate partner violence?
A student who uses a wheelchair arrives at a campus building, but the only available entrance has stairs and no ramp or elevator. What accessibility barrier does this create?
What is a physical accessibility barrier that prevents or limits access to the building?
This landmark 1990 federal civil rights law prohibits disability discrimination in many areas of public life, including employment, public services, and public accommodations.
What is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)?
People with this neurodevelopmental condition may experience differences in social communication, sensory processing, and repetitive behaviors or interests. It is described as a spectrum because people's experiences and support needs vary.
What is Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)?
This inherited blood disorder affects hemoglobin, causing red blood cells to become rigid and sickle-shaped. It can lead to anemia, severe pain, and other complications.
What is sickle cell disease?
True or false: Domestic violence always leaves visible physical injuries.
What is false? Abuse can include intimidation, coercion, isolation, financial control, and other forms of psychological or nonphysical harm.
A student who uses a wheelchair arrives at class, but the building's elevator is out of service. What accessibility barrier does this create?
What is a physical access barrier that may prevent the student from reaching the classroom?
This federal law prohibits disability discrimination in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance, including many colleges and universities.
What is Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973?
True or false: Everyone with autism has the same communication style, sensory needs, and level of independence.
What is false? Autism is a spectrum, and autistic people have different abilities, experiences, and support needs.
True or false: If someone looks healthy, they cannot have a serious disability or chronic illness.
What is false? Many disabilities and chronic illnesses are not immediately visible.
People with disabilities can face additional barriers when trying to leave abusive relationships. Name one way an abusive partner could exploit a person's disability to maintain control.
Possible answers include withholding medication, destroying assistive devices, controlling disability benefits, threatening to withdraw necessary care, or preventing access to transportation and support services.
A professor plays a video containing important course information but provides no captions. Which students may be affected, and what accessibility feature could help?
Students who are deaf or hard of hearing may be affected, as well as some students who benefit from reading along. Accurate captions can make the video's spoken content accessible.
A college student with a disability believes their university is discriminating against them by refusing to provide legally required accommodations. Which federal government agency investigates disability discrimination complaints involving educational institutions?
What is the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR)?
A student with ADHD struggles to organize assignments, estimate how long tasks will take, and begin projects despite understanding the material. These challenges may involve difficulties with what group of cognitive skills?
What are executive functioning skills?
A student with endometriosis experiences severe pain and fatigue during an exam but does not visibly appear ill. A professor assumes the student is exaggerating. What harmful misconception is being demonstrated?
What is the assumption that a person's appearance determines how severe their illness or disability is?
Research and survivor advocacy organizations report that people with disabilities experience elevated risks of violence and abuse. Identify one reason a person with a disability might face additional barriers to leaving an abusive relationship.
Possible answers include financial dependence, inaccessible shelters, limited transportation, communication barriers, dependence on an abusive partner for care, or fear that others will not believe them.
A student with ADHD finds it difficult to concentrate in a crowded, noisy study area. Name two changes a university could consider to make studying more accessible.
Possible answers include offering quiet study spaces, reducing unnecessary noise, providing flexible study environments, and making information about available accommodations easy to find.
A student who is deaf attends a university event where important information is communicated verbally. The organizers provide no captions or sign language interpretation, even though an effective communication aid is required in the circumstances. What disability-rights principle may be implicated?
What is the right to effective communication under applicable disability law?
An autistic student wears headphones in a crowded cafeteria because the noise is overwhelming. Another student assumes they are being rude or antisocial. What disability-related concept helps explain why this assumption is harmful?
What is ableism? The assumption judges someone against expectations that may not account for their disability-related needs.
A student with sickle cell disease experiences a pain crisis and misses class. Their classmates suggest that they are simply making excuses. What are two ways the university could better support this student?
Possible answers include providing appropriate academic accommodations, allowing flexibility when medically necessary, connecting the student with campus support services, and responding to the student's documented needs without stigmatizing them.
A student with a disability tells a trusted friend that their partner controls their medication, threatens to take away their mobility device, and prevents them from seeing friends. The student says they are afraid to leave because they depend on their partner for daily support. What is one appropriate way the friend could help?
Listen without judgment, respect the student's choices, help them connect with a disability-informed domestic violence advocate, and explore accessible safety-planning options with them. Do not pressure the student to leave immediately or confront the abusive partner.
Your campus has an accessible entrance, but the elevator is frequently broken, accessible seating is blocked, and important event announcements are shared only through images without text descriptions. Is the campus fully accessible simply because an accessible entrance exists? Explain why or why not.
No. Accessibility requires attention to the entire experience, including routes through buildings, functioning elevators, seating, digital information, communication, and participation in campus activities
A university repeatedly ignores reports of inaccessible buildings and digital materials. Students with disabilities are excluded from activities that other students can access. Name one way students can advocate for change and one institutional action that could help address the problem.
Possible student actions include documenting barriers, contacting the campus accessibility or disability services office, submitting a formal complaint, organizing with disability advocacy groups, or contacting an appropriate civil rights agency.