Exemption from language study shouldn’t be the default for disabled students. It is certainly an option, and I argue we should take the lead from students who are the ultimate authorities on their disabilities and best understand the point at which challenge becomes prohibitive and demotivating. If a disabled student wants an exemption and they demonstrate difficulty resulting from inaccessibility, then exemption is absolutely the right call. What I dislike seeing is the exemption option being flung around indiscriminately and before conversations about making supportive adjustments to coursework. Students (the ones who haven’t even considered exemption or appealed for help yet) are being deprived of all the usefulness and beauty of language study.
I wholeheartedly disagree with much of this blog post, for example. There’s certainly some true information here, but a lot that’s not nuanced enough to be helpful or reliable. I also take issue with the overarching organization which emphasizes exemption by fronting it.
Food for thought: at least one student has reported that world language study was actually an asset to her dyslexia (not that we should ever assume this would be the case with all dyslexic students). There’s an entire body of second language scholarship on dyslexic learners (see anything by the wonderful Judit Kormos and her collaborators).
Caitlin Cornell 