Published April 20, 2024

Open letter to George Mason University Board of Directors and President

Dear Dr. Gregory Washington,

I am writing this letter today as a full-time dyslexic George Mason student. The purpose of this open letter is to draw awareness to issues that students with learning disabilities face within academia and how George Mason University can help mitigate these challenges.

Universities help neurodivergent students by offering accommodations. However, many students do not have the proper documentation due to financial reasons, time constraints, or difficulties knowing where to start when it comes to getting an official diagnosis. While Mason claims to be the most diverse college in Virginia with amenities that will be there to support neurodivergent students, this claim is only true for those who have an official diagnosis. 

As previously mentioned, getting adequate documentation can be difficult for neurodivergent individuals. In my own experience, I have had testing done when I was young, but not the full diagnosis panel, which has resulted in me not having the proper paperwork to get accommodations despite knowing I am severely dyslexic. Finding learning disability testing for adults has been difficult to locate and takes up time that I have not had this semester as I have 16 credits to manage while trying to maintain my 4.0 GPA. Additionally, the expense is not something most students are able to pay. Costs vary, but average diagnosis can cost anywhere from $1500 to $5000 and is rarely covered by insurance. 

Reading is especially difficult for individuals with learning disabilities. Many people with dyslexia read at an average of 50 to 150 words per minute while the average non-dyslexic individual has an average of 250. In my own experience, a chapter that would take my non-neurodivergent peers an hour to read takes me three to four times as long. Since I have no accommodations to aid me, I have had to find and purchase resources such as text to speech to help me read my 100+ pages every week. Free text to speech apps are robotic and difficult to pay attention to; this results in me paying 20 dollars a month for a high-quality text to speech app that can assist me with my reading in a natural and easy to listen to voice. Not only is this aid costly for me as a full-time student, but also many professors' reading materials are not accessible for text-to-speech format, forcing me to take time to convert the reading materials into something I can listen to. This is not only inaccessible to me and other people with learning disabilities, but also to other students who may have vision difficulties, working or parent students who lack time to sit down and read, or even just students who learn better listening rather than reading. No matter someone's documentation, Geroge Mason should attempt to make the campus equitable to all. I ask GMU to implement the following actions not just for neurodivergent students but for all students. 

1.      All reading material should be in a form that is compatible with text to speech or audio based alternatives should be provided.

2.      Free premium text to speech should be given to all students to access.

3.      Accessibility resources should be explained at orientation and followed up on in emails explaining to students what is available to them.

As previously said, these changes help not just the neurodivergent community but also all students. If George Mason wishes to be inclusive, a part of this inclusivity should be providing help for individuals even without documentation. Documentation takes money, effort, and time that many individuals do not have. Basic reading help should be accessible to everyone regardless of documentation to make a truly inclusive university. Academia is ripe with ableism and this is one of the first ways to make accessibility a standard rather than a privilege. 

If you are someone who struggles with your learning disability or being neurodivergent in academia, please know that you are not alone. Lastly, I ask anyone reading this to join me in this campaign if you care about accessibility and equity on campus and sign the petition which I will be sending along with this letter to the President to hopefully get the university's attention.