Editor’s note: These authors are responding to a piece originally published in Vol. 59, Issue 19, “Two cents: Are testing accommodations fair or flawed?” The UCSD Guardian welcomes feedback, criticism, and continued dialogue from our readers in the form of letters to the editor. Our full policies for submission can be found here.
In 1975, the Triton Times published the first publicly registered complaint against the Chancellor’s Committee for Disabled Students at UC San Diego. It lambasted the erasure of invisible disabilities and the campus’s failure to recognize mental and learning differences. It is a tragedy that over 50 years later, we are still debating the same stale arguments. The “Two Cents” piece published on March 2nd is not a “balanced debate”; it is an explanation of the casual ableism and erasure that the disabled community continues to endure. We refuse to let this rhetoric go unchallenged.
The writers treat invisible disabilities as convenient fiction. Because they cannot see a wheelchair, they assume there is no barrier. However, a student’s silence is not the absence of struggle. By suggesting neurodivergence is “manipulated” for gain, the authors engage in gaslighting. To imply that ADHD or Autism are merely “labels” used to game the system ignores the exhaustion of “masking.” This rhetoric mirrors the harmful “welfare abuse” tropes used to disenfranchise marginalized communities, redefining a medical reality as a moral failing.
Staff Writer Cindy Chen uses a Stanford study as a weapon, suggesting that because students at affluent institutions are more frequently diagnosed, the system is being manipulated. This is a perversion of logic. Access to a diagnosis is a privilege; the disability itself is not. Many disabled students navigate life while lacking the thousands of dollars required for the private neuropsychological evaluations needed to “prove” their status. To frame this as “privileged individuals benefiting” is an inversion of the truth. It is the marginalized who are punished by lack of access, yet Chen uses this disparity to cast doubt on the disability itself. We don’t document our struggles for a “leg up,” but to survive a system that tries to push us out.
Similarly, Senior Staff Writer Nicholas Reason argues for the abolition of extra time, claiming it is “exploitable.” This is the old language of exclusion dressed as “fairness.” Reason confuses the speed of a finger with the quality of a mind. By suggesting legitimacy rests on standardized time limits, Reason explicitly states that these professions should remain a playground for the neurotypical.
The focus on “genuine need” and “diluted trust” frames disability access through suspicion rather than equity. By reinforcing the idea that accommodations are a finite resource being “stolen,” the piece forces disabled students into a constant state of “performing” their struggle.
The only honest perspective came from Jaechan Lee, who identified that the problem is not the students, but a system that measures the wrong variables for success. To the Guardian: you are not hosting a “difference of opinion” when you advocate for the removal of rights. You are inciting a hostile environment. We aren’t frauds. We’re here, and we’ll not be timed out of our own education. The ADA was not a gift; it was won by activists who dragged themselves up the Capitol steps. We owe this system no gratitude; the system remains in our debt.
Written by & Signed:
Aryan Dixit, President of the Students’ Civil Liberties Union San Diego
Jasmine Lee, Chief of Staff of the Students’ Civil Liberties Union San Diego
Matthew-Diego Benny, Founder of the Blind Snakes Co-op and the Community Service and
Philanthropy Chair of Lambda Theta Phi Latin Fraternity Inc. (UCSD Associate Chapter)
Megan Sanchez, UCSD Alumna ‘24, Disability Student Alliance
Rehya Arora, Student Organizer of the Students’ Civil Liberties Union
Daniel Soria, UCSD Alumna ‘25, Co-Founder of the Students’ Civil Liberties Union San Diego
and Former Disabled Students Commission Chair
Zoe Wilson, Student Organizer of the Students’ Civil Liberties Union San Diego
Dannie Zhu, Political Action and Awareness Coordinator for Asian and Pacific Islander Student
Alliance & Director of Organizing for the Students’ Civil Liberties Union San Diego
Anthony Zhu, Concerned Undergraduate Student at UC San Diego
Maansi Kesani, Student Organizer of the Students’ Civil Liberties Union San Diego
Jennifer Nguyen, Concerned Undergraduate Student at UC San Diego
Denisse Lopez, UCSD Alumna ‘25, Board of the Students’ Civil Liberties Union San Diego
Dan Boonsuwan, Concerned Undergraduate Student at UC San Diego
Elianna Caraballo, Student Organizer of the Students’ Civil Liberties Union San Diego
Natasha Bhadrecha, Student Organizer of the Students’ Civil Liberties Union San Diego
Jordan Montague, President of Triton Brain Injury Network
Jeethu Sundarraj, Disability Internship Coordinator of Triton Brain Injury Network
