Trammell, J. K. (2003). The impact of academic accommodations on final grades in a postsecondary setting . Journal of College Reading and Learning , 34 (1), 76–90. https://doi.org/10.1080/10790195.2003.10850157

One or more academic accommodations was provided throughout the academic year: for exams, additional time to complete the tests and testing in a separate room; and for classroom and coursework, audio recordings of class lectures and course texts ("books on tape").

The sample consisted of 61 postsecondary students with disabilities who attended a liberal arts college in Virginia (U.S.). The participants were divided into three categories: (a) students with attention-deficit disorder (ADD), (b) students with learning disabilities (LD), and (c) students with both ADD and LD.

Participants' end-of-term grades were compared and contrasted. The purpose was to examine whether students with disabilities in each of the three participant groups experienced a differential increase in end-of-term grades when they used academic accommodations required by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The impact of special accommodations on the subgroups revealed a significant improvement in grades for students with ADD and students with LD and ADD, but a drop for students with LD only. Students with ADD, and students with ADD and LD, experienced an average increase in grades with all types of accommodations. Conversely, students with LD experienced a drop in grades with each accommodation.