College Students with Disabilities

Students with mental or physical disabilities increasingly contribute to diverse populations on college campuses. According to Cathy Henderson (1999), the number of full-time freshmen with a disability increased from 2.6 percent in 1978 to 9 percent in 1998. Learning disability is the fastest growing category of disability, and the most commonly cited in 1998 by freshmen (41%). Other disabilities cited included visual impairment (13%); orthopedic-related impairments (9%); speech impairments (5.3%); health-related disabilities, such as those resulting from cystic fibrosis, cancer, and multiple sclerosis (19%); and "other" disabilities (22%). This last category includes attention deficit disorder (ADD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and psychiatric disabilities. Twelve percent of freshmen reported hearing impairments in 1996.

Despite this wide array, students with disabilities are increasingly accessing, persisting in, and benefiting from higher education experiences. After examining National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) data, Laura Horn and Jennifer Berktold reported in 1999 that individuals with disabilities enrolled in postsecondary institutions are likely to be men, older, white, and pursuing an associate's degree at a two-year college (although four-year college enrollments are rapidly increasing). Faced with numerous challenges to being successful in higher education, students with disabilities are more likely than other students to leave college before attaining a degree. However, the Horn and Berktold study indicates that individuals with a disability who do attain a degree are just as likely to obtain employment, to be paid at a similar rate, and to enroll in graduate school as those without disabilities.

Most colleges and universities provide general learning assistance to increase student success. Since 1990, many campuses have focused on becoming learning-centered campuses that emphasize broad approaches to learning designed to create positive academic outcomes for increasingly diverse student populations. These new approaches, designed to improve students' views of themselves as learners, their motivation to learn, and their self-sufficiency as scholars, are especially important for students with special learning needs. (The term students with special learning needs is used to refer to students with learning disabilities, ADD, or mental health problems that interfere with their ability to function fully without assistance in the academic setting.)

The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 prohibit institutions receiving federal funds from discriminating based on disability and are key to the success of students with special learning needs. These pieces of legislation define individuals considered to have a mental or physical disability and describe accommodations and modifications required by law. Case law over the years has also been instrumental in ensuring access and creating an environment geared toward success in higher education and in employment for individuals with disabilities. College campuses are required to recognize the federal imperative to provide equal access to learning for all students they admit and matriculate.

Most colleges and universities provide special support services as accommodations for students with disabilities. In 1998, 72 percent of two-year and four-year colleges and universities enroll students with disabilities (American Council on Education, 2000). Accommodations and modifications include removing architectural barriers; extended-time or alternative exam formats; and providing textbooks on tape, sign language interpreters, tutors, readers, note-takers or scribes, assisted or priority registration, and adaptive furniture, equipment, and technology. Colleges and universities continue to improve physical accommodation as they upgrade facilities and erect new structures. However, students with visual and mobility impairments may still find architectural barriers to easy access to campus, especially in older facilities. As innovative resources designed specifically for accommodation come on the market, particularly those geared toward computer accessibility, colleges and universities are required to continue to conduct accessibility audits and plan for needed modifications to provide access to learning for all college students.

Student Issues

Many students come to college unaware that they have ADD or a learning disability. After a semester or two of difficulties or placement on academic probation, they begin to recognize their particular learning needs. Sometimes they seek and receive formal diagnoses of their disabilities, while others conduct self-diagnoses. Even when students recognize their needs, they are often reluctant to seek help or disclose their needs to others. In 1998, Bradford Kruse, Tina Elacqua, and Ross Rapaport conducted a study of students with disabilities at a Midwestern university, but 79 percent of students declined to participate. The number of students with learning and mental health disabilities is growing, and these students face numerous obstacles in their efforts to become successful college students. The most problematic of these include:

1. A lack of diagnosis for many students with learning disabilities that would alert them to their own particular learning needs
2. A general lack of awareness of strategies and services that could be used by students with special learning needs
3. A reluctance on the part of students with special learning challenges to communicate their needs to others; this is especially true for students with invisible disabilities (e.g., ADD, ADHD, brain injury, dyslexia, mental illness)
4. A tendency of parents to attempt to intervene for their students, even though the most effective intervention is student self-advocacy
5. A lack of classmate acceptance of students with special learning needs
6. A lack of campus staff, equipment, and services to adequately serve this growing campus need
7. A faculty perceived by students with disabilities as having a general lack of awareness or even skepticism about the realities of learning challenges for college students and a reluctance by faculty to provide classroom accommodations
8. A general suspicion that students with a mental disability are being deceptive about their needs in order to secure accommodations related to classroom work

To overcome these difficulties and barriers, students must take responsibility for their own success, advocate for their own academic needs, provide documentation from a qualified professional about their disability to the designated office on campus responsible for services to students with disabilities, educate themselves about accommodations that are particularly helpful to them, and identify themselves to campus career centers and counseling centers and be ready to discuss their needs based on the disability and follow the advice given.

Additionally, if students inform faculty immediately about their special accommodation needs, faculty skepticism may dissipate. If students wait until academic problems arise, faculty may be suspicious of the students' veracity or motives. A useful strategy may be to give skeptical faculty the names of staff and other faculty who are knowledgeable and accommodating.

Students can use resources in the community to assist them in accessing and benefiting from a college education, including Vocational Rehabilitation Program offices, public agencies for a specific disability, Centers for Independent Living, special transit, mental health agencies, and high school counseling offices.

Campus Response

According to Bradford Kruse et al. (1998), students who receive accommodations report greater confidence and self-esteem, lowered anxiety and stress, greater ability to understand course material, and improved academic performance. On the other hand, students who do not receive needed accommodations are more likely to experience anxiety, stress, and academic failure. Actions colleges can take to empower students as learners include:

1. Educate academic advisors and counselors to the range of challenges faced by college students with special learning needs
2. Develop a network of successful upperclass students with special learning needs who can help facilitate workshops and informational meetings for faculty, staff, and students
3. Educate faculty regarding indicators of learning disabilities and mental health disabilities
4. Proactively educate faculty about reasonable accommodations they are required to provide in college courses
5. Widely publicize campus resources and referral procedures
6. Identify staff who can be contacted for advice regarding particular student challenges
7. Encourage faculty, academic advisors, and other staff to proactively respond when they identify students who might benefit from counseling, disability services, or other special campus services
8. Take full advantage of campus resources such as web-based courses to provide students access to learning services

In addition, campuses can keep advocacy groups for students with disabilities informed about distancelearning options and other campus resources known to promote learning to a broad range of students. Personnel in service offices for students with disabilities, student affairs offices, and others who work with students' special learning needs should be knowledgeable and able to advise students about assistive technology.

Future Issues

As colleges continue to recruit growing numbers of students with special learning needs, many outstanding issues need to be addressed, including:

• Students who had disability services in their pre-college education will come to expect and even demand them at college
• Adult students with disabilities who reached college age in the years before campuses were fully accessible will increasingly return to earn the college degrees once thought beyond their reach
• As diversity increases on campus, diverse learners with special needs will increasingly become a part of the student population
• More rural students with physical and mental disabilities will seek a college education; barriers to access for these students may include lack of adequate information about higher education opportunities, family resistance to their leaving home, and inadequate academic preparation.

Finally, the greater awareness that exists regarding disabilities, the more likely it is that campuses will meet students' needs. Steps taken by campuses to highlight the successes of upperclass students who have recognized and successfully worked with their learning needs, to develop and articulate the means of identifying other students' possible needs, and to provide widely publicized campus services can ensure that all students have the opportunity to learn.