Services for students with learning disabilities in U.S. and Canadian medical schools

Between September 1, 1990, and March 31, 1991, 103 of the 142 medical schools in the United States and Canada responded to a questionnaire regarding their services and programs for learning-disabled medical students. Ninety-three schools accepted such students (and ten did not), but only two-thirds had support programs and half lacked the capacity to diagnose learning disability disorders. Twenty-five did not know they could administer licensing examinations in a nonstandard manner, and 19 had no senior administrator or faculty member coordinating learning disability services. The author concludes that these results suggest that medical schools are poorly informed about and unprepared to help learning-disabled students.