Alvin Christian, Brian Jacob and John D. Singleton
The share of college students identifying as disabled and using academic accommodations (e.g., extended test time) has dramatically increased over the past two decades. We link course tran-scripts, disability office records, and K-12 special education histories at a large public flagship to study accommodations. We provide three main findings. First, we show usage has risen sharply—between 2011 and 2024, usage rose from 4% to 10%, driven by a fourfold increase in mental-health diagnoses. A decomposition exercise indicates K-12 disability growth explains about one-quarter of this increase. Second, we document stark socioeconomic disparities in use.
Conditional on prior documented disability, men and Asian students are less likely to apply and be approved, and conditional on applying, high-income students are more likely to be approved. Third, using student fixed effects and comparisons between approved and non-approved applicants while controlling for rich observables, we find that accommodations yield substantial benefits. Approved students withdraw from fewer courses, earn higher GPAs, persist longer, and are more likely to major in STEM—driven by greater persistence among existing STEM students. Together, these findings clarify the sources of growth and gaps in use and provide some of the first evidence on the academic returns to accommodations in higher education, with direct implications for STEM diversity and retention.