Washington and Lee University School of Law Scholarly Commons
Abstract
As society returned to “normal” following the worldwide pandemic caused by the outbreak of COVID-19, higher education students around the world could be heard celebrating and warmly welcoming their return to in-person classes. With this return came the face-to-face social interactions most longed for through the worldwide lockdown with friends, classmates, and professors. Some may even feel that in-person learning is more effective than what had become the norm––Zoom university. At this moment, however, these institutions can and should evaluate the potential benefits and continued utility of this alternate way of doing higher education that was forced upon them for over a year. In doing so, institutions should remember and pay special attention to the way it impacted a growing population within their student body––those with disabilities. Courts in this country must be aware of how this newly discovered way of participating in higher education classes may now be a presumptively reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for those students who, due to their disability, cannot attend in-person. This Note incorporates doctrinal and social science evidence in support of the argument that given the reliance on advanced technologies during the pandemic, virtual learning is a reasonable accommodation for qualified students with disabilities
