Why the label of “disabled” is often misleading and stereotypical?

A person named William Singer had been running a racket for college admission in the US. He would accept bribes for accepting students into their dream college, and then further bribe college coaches for giving biased interviews, like the student having some forms of disabilities, or being more talented than they actually are.

Singer advised several parents to have their children claim learning disabilities and submit to psychological testing so they would get permission to take the tests over the span of two days, rather than all at once.

He told one father his daughter should "be stupid" during the psychological testing to ensure she received extra time, according to court papers.

Faking learning disabilities is an age-old, familiar trick. Why would any parent want to have their child labelled with a learning disability she doesn't actually suffer from? Because students with learning disabilities are entitled to several concessions and benefits from affirmative action, like filling out diversity quotas in colleges and universities, getting reserved seats, 50 to 100% extra time for tests, which can give up to 350 % increase in the total marks received.

Is this a common practice? In 2018, the Wall Street Journal gathered data and reported that 25% of students at elite American universities are classified as disabled.

Advocates for students with learning disabilities(among whom I find myself) are concerned that this newly publicized round of cheating will lead to tightened access to accommodations, making testing more difficult for students who really need the special accommodations.

This is despicable on so many counts not one. First off, you are faking having something that hundreds of thousands of people ACTUALLY suffer from every single day, and profiting off it; secondly, this would make people having such “disabilities” come off as stupid or retarded.

This leads to a stereotype about disabled people that they are mentally retarded.

The problem here, is that this notion is highly discriminatory at best and WRONG at worst.

I will pick an example to elucidate this point, who is none other than Albert Einstein, considered the world's most famous genius. The Nobel Prize winner is believed to have experienced a learning disability, but popular opinion is that he did not have a learning disability, although he did, at times, express symptoms or signs of learning disabilities. This opinion is the result of Albert's not speaking until he was four years old, and the fact that he tended to avoid interacting with same- aged peers.

After intense research, biographers of Albert Einstein disproved that he was dyslexic, and that the concerns that he might have a learning disability stemmed from his extremely late entry into verbal communication. According to relatives of Einstein, this delayed speech could very well have simply been Einstein's withdrawal from social environments and interaction due to his preference to be alone.

By the time he was seven years old, Einstein's grades were excellent, even though he did fail to pass college exams the first time around. Today, it is likely that Albert Einstein, if examined and studied, might be diagnosed with a mild form of autism known as Asperger's syndrome and even ADHD.

We include this brief summary of Albert Einstein in this article to emphasize that just because a child is different, it doesn't mean that he or she has a learning disability. Learning differences are common in numerous individuals, and should not immediately serve as an alarm that a child is slow, delayed, or otherwise experiencing a learning disability. Once again quoting the genius himself, I would say, “Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” Learning disorders are in fact very real and not excuses for being “lazy” and “dumb” and hence these are terms which should be used with caution.