Laptop bans don't violate disability rights even though accommodations are visible

Abstract

A growing number of faculty have forbidden students from using laptops, tablets, and cell phones in their classrooms. Although disability services offices may exempt students with a disability‐related need for a laptop from laptop bans, some disability rights advocates still wrongly criticize laptop bans as a disability rights violation. They argue that requiring a student to register with a Disability Services Office to obtain an accommodation discourages some students from coming forward, and that those who do obtain an accommodation to use laptops effectively reveal to their classmates that they have an invisible disability. In short, the complaint goes, by obtaining an accommodation to use a laptop, students must out themselves as a person with a hidden disability.