Setting Sail: The long journey toward ADHD accommodations at ASU

Students find mixed results in accessing SAILS

by Bella Mazzilli

Illustrations by Andrea Ramirez

Chrystal Vazquez Garcia, a senior studying forensic psychology, was doing homework for one of her online classes when she came across a video that she was required to watch but was inaccessible to her. The video did not have captions, nor did it have distinct visual cues, which made it almost unwatchable for her as someone who has trouble processing audio.

It was this experience that led her to research disability accommodations at ASU, and that’s when she found Student Accessibility and Inclusive Learning Services.

SAILS is a “central campus resource for students with disabilities to ensure access to their education and help increase awareness in the university community,” according to its website.

After getting in contact with SAILS, she learned that this service could also help her with struggles presented by her Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, a developmental disorder defined by a few key symptoms that affect one’s behavior: inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity.

“ADHD is actually one of the most common mental health conditions,” said Lauren Friedman, an assistant professor in psychology. Friedman is the director of the Hyperactivity, Executive function and Attention Treatment lab, which studies children with ADHD and how they and their families are affected by the disorder.

Vazquez Garcia said she had always known she had ADHD but wasn’t diagnosed until October 2022. Before her experience with learning accommodations, she would work diligently to ensure her executive dysfunction would not negatively impact her studies.

Executive dysfunction occurs when an individual has difficulty managing their inhibition control, cognitive flexibility and working memory. Other processes affected by executive dysfunction include planning, mental processing and problem-solving. Vazquez Garcia said that executive dysfunction makes her feel frozen and unable to function, even when she knows she has tasks to complete.

She applied for SAILS and started receiving accommodations this semester. Since then, SAILS has helped her achieve her goals without the stress of adapting to an educational system that was not created to suit people like her.

However, she admitted that the process of applying for SAILS was a bit confusing and inaccessible for someone with ADHD.

“The interface, like on the computer, it’s a little bit confusing if you don’t really know what you’re doing,” Vazquez Garcia said.

Her experience isn’t isolated, as other students with ADHD have also expressed that they had difficulties navigating the process to obtain accommodations.

SAILS and its counterparts

SAILS has offices on the Tempe, Downtown Phoenix, West Valley and Polytechnic campuses, but these offices do little to help students on satellite campuses, like ASU online and Lake Havasu, leaving them to coordinate accommodations through professors.

“There’s not an office [for satellite campuses], but we usually have people who we work with on-site that are kind of like liaisons,” said Chad Price, the director of operations for SAILS.

SAILS is not the only service offered by the University that can help students experiencing difficulty with mental health. Counseling Services, like SAILS, is a part of Educational Outreach and Student Services. It provides student support at any hour of the day, free of additional charge.

“We train faculty and staff to be supportive and empathetic,” said Aaron Krasnow, associate vice president and director of Counseling Services. 

Krasnow has worked for the University for 21 years and said Counseling Services uses what he calls “feedback mechanisms” to ensure that the service benefits the community. This includes student satisfaction surveys, health advisory committees composed of students and university faculty and staff quality improvement studies.

SAILS also has a process for obtaining student feedback, which is a survey sent out at the end of each semester that asks students about classroom accessibility; however, “that information is actually conducted more from a University level, not necessarily our office,” Price said.

A history of accommodations

In 1973, the Rehabilitation Act established Section 504, which, according to the U.S. Department of Education, is “a federal law designed to protect the rights of individuals with disabilities in programs and activities that receive Federal financial assistance from the U.S. Department of Education.” As a result, the 504 plan became one way to access learning accommodations in primary school settings.

Another way to access learning accommodations is an Individualized Education Program. IEPs became available in 1975 “when the right of students with disabilities to attend public schools were legally recognized under the Education for All Handicapped Children Act,” according to an article by Candid Schools.

A 504 plan and an IEP are often used interchangeably in conversation, but they hold some key differences. Both programs intend to help students with cognitive conditions that impact their education. However, Section 504 provides civil rights protections to individuals with disabilities. An IEP is school-specific, sets goals for the student’s performance and sets a baseline for how achievement is measured.

Learning accommodations for people with ADHD can include extra time to take tests or alternative test-taking environments. IEPs are only available for schoolchildren, but services like SAILS try to meet the needs of students who have aged out of the K-12 school system. 

“ADHD people are pretty bright people and can do well if they can focus and get their work done,” said Ann Guthery, a clinical faculty member in the Edson College. 

According to the SAILS website, a student qualifies for an accommodation if they received accommodations from an IEP or 504 plan when they were younger, have received prior accommodations at another university or have been diagnosed with a condition that impacts their function in everyday life. 

Today, the issue is no longer recognizing that students with ADHD need accommodation. The problem arises when a student attempts to access these accommodations in systems that were often designed by those who are not affected by neurodevelopmental disorders such as ADHD.

The bumpy road to accommodations

For Elora Groeninger, a sophomore studying kinesiology, SAILS accommodations were inaccessible.

“The process of just registering is a little, I don’t want to say intimidating, but that’s kind of the word I’m leaning toward,” she said. 

For students with learning and processing difficulties, a confusing website can be a dealbreaker. If a student cannot navigate the SAILS website, they will not be able to access the accommodations they need and may not be able to reach their full potential in the classroom. The accessibility of the website and its layout directly affect the function of the students SAILS promises to serve.

Groeninger was diagnosed with ADHD right before starting college, and the physician who diagnosed her helped her find resources in Arizona, including SAILS. She had an initial consultation with a representative from SAILS, but when they told her she would have to come up with her own ideas for accommodations, she declined to continue the process.

“I chose not to do accommodations, primarily because I wouldn’t have known what those would have looked like,” Groeninger said. Had SAILS presented her with options for accommodations, Groeninger said she may have continued with the process.

To access SAILS accommodations, documents such as diagnostic forms, letters from doctors or mental health care providers, and communication with professors must be presented through a registration form, according to its website. Then, students must wait to be contacted by an accessibility consultant to set up their initial consultation appointment.

In research for this story, State Press Magazine published a post on the ASU subreddit asking students to share their thoughts on receiving SAILS accommodations for ADHD. One subreddit user replied: “You have to schedule an initial appointment that won’t even happen until late October because they’re so backed up.”

This can pose a challenge for people with ADHD because executive dysfunction can cause them to simply forget about following up. Also, students apply for accommodations throughout the semester as needed. If SAILS is backed up, by the time they respond, a student may have gone months without accommodations.

“I currently am trying to get accommodations with SAILS for ADHD... the system messed up my forms to be able to go in and do an ‘intake’ and on the first day I went in to talk with them, and the earliest appointment was literally more than a month away,” another ASU subreddit user added. “It made me a little upset and frustrated because thinking about other students if someone needed to receive accommodations like ASAP it’s literally impossible from that standpoint.

“Ik a lot of people fake ADHD diagnoses because it’s seen as an easy out for testing or hw accommodations which isn’t cool but as someone that has it ... my accommodations for me look more different than just needing extra testing time or hw accommodations.”

Despite the bumpy road to receiving accommodations, students had positive remarks about SAILS once they were able to get the help they needed. 

For Vazquez Garcia, it was Accessibility Consultant Elizabeth Baker who showed her that it was possible to receive ADHD accommodations. 

“Once I was there and I met with her, she was so nice, she was so understanding, she was really so helpful,” Vazquez Garcia said. “She never made you feel dumb for asking any questions. She was just a very genuine person.”