Growing numbers of students are receiving special educational accommodations after being certified as learning disabled. What will be their impact on business and the professions as they graduate and enter their careers? Should the Americans With Disabilities Act protect the ambitions of a dyslexic individual who aspires to be a lawyer, surgeon or aircraft designer?

• More than 5 percent of the nation's students have been diagnosed with learning disabilities.

• Hundreds of thousands of students in elementary schools, colleges and graduate schools now get accommodations like extra time to complete tests, personal notetakers or quiet rooms to work in -- including, for example, more than 300 would-be lawyers who received special treatment when New York state gave bar exams last July.

• The Americans With Disabilities Act, which went into effect in 1992, forbids employer discrimination against people with disabilities, and requires employers to make reasonable accommodations in the workplace.

• Some of those who license accountants, lawyers and doctors have begun to question whether the increasing academic accommodation of those with learning disabilities will lead to career problems.

"There's no question in my mind that there are a lot of people who are just weak academically, or not that bright, coming out of the woodwork claiming learning disabilities," said the head of one licensing body, who spoke in an interview on condition of anonymity.

This authority pointed out that "no one wants to be represented at trial by a lawyer who can't think fast on his feet, or land in the emergency room with a doctor who's too distracted to concentrate."