Seriously, think about it. 

In most postsecondary schools that I know about, a student has to register for at least four courses in order to be considered a full-time student. 

Yet many students with invisible disabilities cannot handle a four-course term, and are forced to be considered part-time students.

Despite having a diagnosis that includes justification for having a reduced course-load.

You may think “oh, it’s no big deal, ain’t it?  They’ll still get their degrees”.  Except, it is a big deal. 

Being a part-time student greatly reduces the amount of services accessible to the student, everything from student discounts to grants and scholarships needed to pay for tuition, additional software and accessible technology. 

It is a barrier to disabled students who first have to provide documentation to their disability services office in order to be registered as a disabled student, then, each class have to be on top of all the required paperwork for specific accommodations, from extra time for assignments and exams, to note-takers, alternative format textbooks, audio recorders, cue lists, and beyond. 

Each accommodation can have it’s own set of paperwork and requires a student to be responsible to run around between administrative staff, professors and disability services in order to get the signatures and permission to use.  For someone with mental disabilities, this can be a huge, taunting task, especially if their disability affects social skills and executive functioning.

This is for each class, on top of spending about 50% more time going over course materials and working on assignments, extra time to study for exams, per class.

Being forced to take a full course-load despite a diagnosis that says otherwise, forces students with disabilities to play the system and risk mental stress and burnout, to which their studies suffer and creates for them the issue of repairing the damage to their GPA. 

Refusing to play the system, and, following a diagnosis, being considered part-time limits a student who cannot handle working at a job to support oneself at the same time as going to school.  It restricts students from grants, services, and the benefits of a full-time student. 

It restricts disabled students from access to postsecondary education, based on their disability. 

This is discrimination.