Students often exaggerate their symptoms to professors as a preventative measures in lecture settings. They often feel as though they have to overstate symptoms to obtain appropriate accomidations and compassion from professors. With an increase in identity work and understanding, students would not need to overstate these symptoms in order to be heard by academic staff.

Gettysburg College

Through the disclosure of a disability, students disclose a part of their identity. Therefore the students descision to disclose their disability is influenced by the extent of that they percieve their disability to be a part of their identity. 

Role of Identity Work in Disability Disclosure

 Adi Sapir & Adi Banai (2024) Balancing attendance and disclosure:
identity work of students with invisible disabilities, Disability & Society, 39:8, 2032-2052, DOI:
10.1080/09687599.2023.2181765

Reference: Balancing Attendance and Disclosure: identity work of students with invisible disabilities

Disability disclosure in academia needs to be a private and personal discussion based on the role of identity work on disability disclosure. Students that choose not to disclose this information often act in self preservation and impression management, making identity work and private conversations more important during this process. 

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