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Sophia LeMoine

Mr. Smith

ELA

16 October 2023

Learning Disabilities Effect on Success in America

There are many different kinds of learning disabilities that impact different aspects of

people's lives. A learning disability according to the Santa Monica College is defined as a

disorder that “manifests itself with a deficit in one or more of the following areas: attention,

reasoning, processing, memory, communication, reading, writing, spelling, calculation,

coordination, social competence and emotional maturity”(Santa Monica College) and everyone

has a different experience living with them. Some examples of common learning disabilities

include adhd, dyslexia, and dyscalculia. These learning disabilities make it more difficult to

succeed in America; current laws are meant to make sure they have equal opportunities.

Learning disabilities fall under the categories of spoken language, written language,

arithmetic, and reasoning. Things such as dyscalculia fall under arithmetic learning disabilities,

which means that a person could struggle with mental math, remembering numbers (such as

dates), reading graphs, and navigation. According to EducationWeek, a lot of times dyscalculia

makes recalling numbers difficult and “‘Extra time doesn’t always cut it as far as providing

accommodations,’ Peters said. ‘You can’t just test someone from memory when it’s literally

incapable of being stored in their long-term memory. Giving someone extra time to sit there and

not recall something does not get to the heart of the issue.’” (McFarlane ) Even though laws have

been passed and accommodations have been set to try and make everyone's opportunities the

same, sometimes the accommodations are not enough. Since this disability affects memory for
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some people different accommodations need to be made personally to each individual. While

dyscalculia is more a math based learning disability, disabilities such as dyslexia would fall

under the written language category. This disability affects a person's ability to quickly read

information, spell, and may cause them to reverse letters when writing. This can make it more

difficult to keep up with others in school because reading is more fundamental in all classes and

won't slow a person down in just one area. According to the British Dyslexia Foundation

Stephanie Davies, the founder and director of Laughology, a training and consulting organization

using humour, she “would mess about to get out of class. Whilst I could keep up by designing

ways to cope, I would only just get by. I got put back a year and moved into the lowest set - the

‘nurture group’. I was put with young people who were on the other side of the spectrum to me

socially and emotionally so I didn’t fit in” (Davies). Being held back because she wasn't getting

the accommodations she needed for her learning disability made it more difficult for her to be

able to finish school and start a career as it slowed her down.

Learning disabilities can make it more difficult to succeed in America, so in order to help

with this, the government has passed different laws. Although we have laws to help those with

learning disabilities, they are not always successful. The ADA often deters employers from

wanting to hire people with disabilities even though “employers can be and are sued for

discriminatory hiring, most litigation under ada arises when employees are fired. The two most

common violations of ada alleged in charges filed with eeoc have involved, first, discharge,

layoff, or suspension and, second, failure to provide reasonable accommodation. Thus, firms may

have responded to the prospect of litigation by reducing their hiring of the disabled” (DeLeire

21) and since employers have to worry about so many rules with the ADA ontop of providing

often costly accommodations they often choose just not to hire people who disclose their
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disabilities. The government passed the Americans with disabilities act (ADA) to make sure that

if a person does have a learning disability they can make it known to your employer who will be

able to give people certain accommodations and it makes sure that a job cannot be withheld from

them due to the disability. Another act passed by the government to prevent job discrimination

against people with learning disabilities is the rehabilitation act of 1973, which according to

EARN “prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in programs conducted by federal

agencies, in programs receiving federal financial assistance, in federal employment and in the

employment practices of federal contractors'' (rehabilitation act ). This act makes sure that

programs run and funded by the federal government could not discriminate against people with

disabilities. According to IDEA there are also education laws such as the Individuals with

Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that “is a law that makes available a free appropriate public

education to eligible children with disabilities throughout the nation and ensures special

education and related services to those children'' (IDEA), passed to make sure that people with

learning disabilities are able to get education and are able to get jobs,which is when the ADA

comes in. While these laws are a major step in the right direction to equal opportunities for

success for people with learning disabilities, the effectiveness of these laws vary from place to

place depending on enforcement and people getting diagnosese for their disabilities.

People with learning disabilities are often perceived to be not as smart as other people

because they learn differently than the way the majority of people are taught. According to

governors state university “Individuals with learning disabilities experience being ostracized,

ridiculed and labeled as dumb, subnormal and slow learners by their peers” (Pandy 2) and this

can lead to low self esteem and people not wanting to try as hard. There has been a stigma

around people with disabilities and learning disabilities for a very long time, and according to
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Disability Studies Quarterly, their are records of people being treated as inferior for these

disabilities as far back as Ancient Greece where it was believed that this meant you or your

parents were being punished by the Gods and it was recommended that they be “put away in

some mysterious unknown places'' (Munyi). Similarly in other religions such as christianity in

the 16th century, people like Luther and John Calvin claimed that people with these disabilities

were possessed and often tried to exorcise them. Being perceived to be less smart than others can

lead to very low self esteem and people who've been treated this way their whole lives will

struggle to succeed and won't want to try as hard.

Being diagnosed with your learning disabilities early on is crucial in order to achieve

success. Early diagnosis allows people to access their accommodations in order to succeed and it

allows the laws passed by the government to help people receive equal treatment and

opportunities. Late diagnosese or none at all sabotages people's abilities to succeed because it

slows them down in school, can cause them to be held back or to struggle much more than

necessary which will lead to self worth issues as well.

Sophia,

This is a major improvement from the first draft. Your organization of ideas is much

stronger overall. There are still some areas where we can improve. Your thesis is missing

just a couple of words to make it more clear. It needs something like “despite the laws

which…” to make it more clear what your argument is. Additionally, your topic sentences

usually get to the point after another sentence. For our future essays, let's try to get the full

idea into one sentence. There are some signs of synthesis in this paper, but that is an area

where we will want to practice a bit more.

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Works Cited

“about IDEA.” IDEA individuals with disabilities education act,

https://sites.ed.gov/idea/about-idea/. Accessed 19 october 2023.

“AskEARN | Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Rehab Act).” Employer Assistance and Resource

Network on Disability Inclusion,

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https://askearn.org/page/the-rehabilitation-act-of-1973-rehab-act. Accessed 19 October

2023.

“Challenging perceptions of learning disabilities and learning difficulties.” Drive Forward

Foundation, 6 July 2021,

https://driveforwardfoundation.org/challenging-perceptions-of-learning-disabilities-and-l

earning-difficulties/. Accessed 19 October 2023.

“Definition of Learning Disabilities.” Santa Monica College,

https://www.smc.edu/student-support/center-for-students-with-disabilities/faculty-resourc

es/accommodations/Definition-of-Learning-Disabilities.php. Accessed 19 October 2023.

DeLeire, Thomas. “The Unintended Consequences of the Americans with Disabilities Act.” cato

institute,

https://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/regulations/2000/4/deleire.pdf.

Accessed 19 october 2023

Munyi, Chomba Wa. “Past and Present Perceptions Towards Disability: A Historical

Perspective.” Disability Studies Quarterly, 2012,

https://dsq-sds.org/index.php/dsq/article/view/3197/3068. Accessed 19 October 2023.

Pandy, Renee I. “Learning Disabilities and Self-Esteem.” OPUS, 2012,

https://opus.govst.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1126&context=capstones. Accessed

19 October 2023.

Tynan, Katie. “Dyslexia and me: Stephanie's story.” British Dyslexia Association, 16 October

2019, https://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/news/dyslexia-and-me-stephanies-story. Accessed

19 October 2023.
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Rubric

Skill Not Foundational Proficient Advanced

Yet
Identifies a topic Appears in first Thesis establishes a
paragraph complex claim

Thesis establishes a
topic and a claim

Thesis Comments:
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Includes three or Includes multiple Includes specific,

fewer sources pieces of evidence meaningful, and
(from 8-10 sources) well-chosen evidence
Some evidence that clearly relate to that relates to the
relates to the thesis the thesis thesis

Includes multiple Includes a wide variety

Evidence pieces of evidence in of evidence
each body paragraph (primary/secondary
sources, political
Includes multiple types cartoons, opinion
of evidence pieces, studies, poetry,
fiction/narrative, etc.)

Comments:

Summarizes Explains how evidence Explains well-selected

sources supports topic points of comparison
sentence of individual among sources and
paragraphs evidence and their
connection to the
Explains how evidence thesis
Analysis supports the thesis of
the essay Demonstrates use of
advanced vocabulary
and varies sentence
patterns; evidence of
distinct voice and style
in the writing

Comments:

Little connection Explains how the Clearly explains

between texts; texts/sources are relationships among
difficult for the related, though points texts (how they
reader to see how could be more selective confirm or challenge
the texts are related or better developed each other, build on
each other, provide
Synthesis Includes multiple differing perspectives,
sources in each body etc.)
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paragraph
Utilizes a variety of
Utilizes transition transition words and
words and phrases phrases

Comments:

Some elements Heading is correctly No errors in MLA format

missing or some formatted
errors in MLA format
Pages are numbered

Most in-text citations

are correctly formatted

Works Cited: each

source entry is in correct
MLA MLA format
Format
Comments:

Shows evidence of Most quotes are All quotes are correctly

basic proofreading correctly integrated integrated

Follows essay Shows evidence of

Conventions
organization careful proofreading

Shows evidence of
proofreading

Comments:

Essay Checklist

Content:
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Thesis is the last sentence of my first paragraph

Each body paragraph has a topic sentence that is argumentative and relates to the
contents of the paragraph

I have included the 8 pieces of evidence

My analysis explains how the evidence proves my claims
My body paragraphs relate back to my topic sentence and my thesis
I have attempted to synthesize my sources (agreement, disagreements, etc).
By restated thesis is the first sentence of my conclusion paragraph
I have properly cited my sources (in-text, works cited)

Writing
I have eliminated “dead words” from my writing (see list below)
I have looked at my transition words and phrases to ensure that they are effective
My quote integrations grammatically flow with my evidence (avoiding hanging
quotes)
I have included words/phrases from my thesis in the body of my essay (or synonyms)
I have utilized a grammar checker to catch errors
I have read my writing aloud to check for clarity

List of dead words:

● “I”
● YOU
● WE
● LIKE
● THING
● STUFF
● KIND OF
● SORT OF
● GOOD
● BAD
● HAPPY
● SAD
● MAD
● THIS QUOTE SHOWS (INSTEAD: EXPRESSES, ILLUMINATES, DEMONSTRATES,
DETAILS, EXPLAINS)
● “MANY WAYS”
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● “SEVERAL DIFFERENT WAYS”

● “TO BE” VERBS: IS, ARE, WERE