Joseph Robles

Robert Vincent

HDF414

1 December 2018

HDF414 Research Paper: College Students with Disabilities

Abstract

After research and interviews, the project I decided to create is an Information Sheet.

Information Sheets would be sheets for professors who have students with disabilities that lists

the student’s disabilities, along with describing the disability and ways to accommodate this

student. The student would have to consent to providing the information about their disability to

the professor. It is expected that professors will accommodate students with disabilities properly.

The design of this project is to improve academic success in students with disabilities.

Introduction

Students with disabilities are increasingly enrolling in colleges and universities. Despite

the growing numbers of students with disabilities, colleges and universities seem to be

unprepared to support these students with the accommodations they need to be academically

successful. These colleges and universities need the change their ways to help these students

because according to a report by the National Council on Disability, “the number of students

with disabilities attending college has more than tripled over the last 20 years, the average time

students with disabilities took to complete their college was twice as long as their nondisabled

cohorts and more than 80% of students with disabilities in college need some type of assistance

and related services in earning their degrees.” (Hong, Barbara S. S. 2015) There are laws put into

place to help students with disabilities such as ADA Amendments Act and the 2008 Higher
Education Opportunity Act. Although these laws are put into place students with disabilities

continue to experience difficulty and face barriers that lead to poor academic performance.

According to Hong, the problem with students with disabilities is that they often lack the

academic, personal and social skills needed to integrate themselves into higher education. These

students are less likely to communicate their needs, less likely to evaluate their own

performance, less likely to develop a sense of empowerment and less likely to be aware of their

own strengths, interests and limitations. (Hong, Barbara S. S. 2015) The lack of self-advocacy

and lack of self-determination often results in passive integration into higher education, which

leads to social awkwardness, academic challenges, and psychological stress as they struggle their

way to assimilate into a new environment. (Hong, Barbara S. S. 2015) When entering college,

students with disabilities usually need the same accommodations that they required in high

school except now they are expected to take more control over their lives. Although there had

been studies conducted regarding college students with disabilities through questionnaires and

interviews, the studies have not had a personal and approach of understanding to the disability

phenomenon.

There is considerable evidence that indicates that students with disabilities have poorer

academic performance in postsecondary school than do students without disabilities. Self-

efficacy in college students has been shown to be a predictor of grade point average among

college students. (Lombardi, A., Murray 2012) Other researchers have found that students with

disabilities seem to have trouble adjusting to the increased instructional demands within

university environments. According to Lombardi, Murray and Gerdes, “higher levels of self-

efficacy are associated with higher GPAs and stronger persistence among college students

including students with disabilities.” (Lombardi, A., Murray 2012)

 A study was conducted by Barbara Hong, including sixteen college students with

disabilities. The study took place at an East Coast small suburban college. The students were

“provided with journal booklets and asked to write about their positive and not-so-positive

experiences that they would encounter over a 10-week period.” (Hong, Barbara S. S. 2015) The

study consisted of minimum guidelines for the journals they were writing because the goal was

to encourage students to freely express themselves, as if it was their own personal diary. They

were told to share only what they wanted to share and that they would not be judged on their

writing. (Hong, Barbara S. S. 2015) They were given examples to write about such as events,

persons, offices, classes, faculty, administration, assignment, friends, families, and work. This

study showed that students avoided having to confront their instructors about needing any kind

of academic adjustments because they did not want to be regarded as less capable of making it

through the class, some students perceived the accommodations letter as something is wrong

with them. Some students felt that nobody believes in them and that they deserve to be treated

better even though they didn’t know how to completely explain their learning difficulties. In one

situation one of the student’s accommodation for the class was excused absences. The student

assured the professor that she would only use the accommodation in the worst scenario, the

professor responded by saying that she would not succeed in the class if she needed to use the

accommodation. (Hong, Barbara S. S. 2015) The professor made the student feel awful and this

student felt like she was being treated like an invalid, which affected her academics negatively.

Many of the students in this study felt like they were treated differently from normal students and

they confess how much courage it took them to present an accommodation letter to the instructor

because they felt that they were looked down upon.

 As seen in the study conducted by Barbara Hong, college students with disabilities are

sometimes looked at differently when presenting their disability to their professor. These

students stress over presenting their disability to their professor, therefore sometimes holding

them from doing so. These students should not have to feel bad about requesting

accommodations and professors should not look down to these students. I believe that college

students with disabilities struggle academically because their professor lacks the knowledge of

their disabilities, causing them to not be able to accommodate them correctly. I want to create

Information Sheets provided to the instructors by the university. Information Sheets would be

sheets for professors who have students with disabilities that lists the student’s disabilities, along

with describing the disability and ways to accommodate this student. The sheet would contain a

professional head shot of the students for the professor to be able to identify the student. Having

the university provide the sheet to the professor diminishes the stress of the students having to

give it to them personally and would prevent the students from not giving the professor their

accommodation letters at all out of fear.

Method

The participants of the project will consist of all college students with disabilities. It is

anticipated that most of the participants would be students that require accommodations. Based

on the research, it is anticipated that the students that lack self-efficacy and courage will benefit

from this project. It is expected that there would be participants in classes with different levels of

difficulty and the session will have to take place more than one semester to retrieve enough data.

In order to get students to use Information Sheets, the Disabilities Services at the

university would describe Information Sheets to the student and ask them if they want to use

them. While using the Information Sheets, the student will not have to hand their professor any
accommodation sheets, preventing students from stressing over that. The university will have to

preform research on all the disabilities of the students in their university to provide a description

of each student’s disability along with ways to accommodate the student. The student would

have to consent to providing the information about their disability to the professor or select what

they want to reveal about their disability. The student would then need to provide a headshot

picture and any additional accommodations they request. Once the Information Sheet is filled

out, the university will provide them to the professors of the students that selected to use them.

At the end of the semester, a survey would be handed to each participant. The questions

asked would be: What is your age? What level classes did you take this semester? Do you feel as

if you were treated any differently than other students? Did your professors mention you using

an Information Sheet? Did you receive the accommodations you needed without asking? Would

you use Information Sheets next semester? These questions will give better insight on if these

students were accommodated correctly without having to ask for it.

Results

The results for this project are coming from the survey along with the grades of the

students before and after using Information Sheets. The survey will show if the professors were

able to accommodate the students through only the Information Sheets along with if the students

felt as if they were being treated differently in a negative way. Based on research it is believed

that students who feel uncomfortable about handing professors their accommodation letters will

participate. It is expected that all grades freshmen through senior classes will participate. There is

not a specific major and class level this project is targeted for, it is for all students with

disabilities to help them academically.

 The main goal for this project is to improve academic success in college students with

disabilities by improving their professor’s knowledge in their student’s disability and

accommodations for them. From my research, it is noticed that professors do not understand their

student’s disabilities and also sometimes immediately become prejudice to students with

disabilities believing that they can’t academically succeed in their class. Another goal for this

project is to relieve the stress of students with disabilities having the confront their teachers

about their accommodations. Based on my research, students requiring accommodations feel

extremely stressed out about confronting their professors about it sometimes resulting in them

not using the accommodations at all.

Discussion & Conclusion

For the conclusion of this project, it is expected that the results will correlate with my

original hypothesis, college students with disabilities struggle academically because their

professor lacks the knowledge of their disabilities, causing them to not be able to accommodate

them correctly. I believe that having the university provide information about student’s

disabilities along with accommodations for them, will help professors full understand these

student’s situation causing them to accommodate them correctly ultimately resulting in academic

success in these students.

Some shortcoming of this project could include professors disregarding the Information

Sheets. When issuing an Information Sheet to a professor I hope that they read through it truly

understand the disability of their student and for them to accommodate them correctly. If the

professor chooses not to accommodate the students correctly, the student might have the confront

the professor about their disability which is ultimately what is trying to be avoided.
 After the study is completed, I will be part of a change made for the academic life of

college students with disabilities. I hope to relieve academic stress from these students along

with improving their grades by the Information Sheets. I hope that professors will take the

Information Sheets seriously for the success of their students.

The next steps for this project would to take the results to the Disability Services for

Students at universities. I would show them my hypothesis along with my research of college

students with disabilities and professors of students with disabilities. Students with disabilities

need to be accommodated properly by their professors to succeed academically. This project was

created to help ease academic life for students with disabilities.

Appendix

Survey

Information Sheet Survey

1. What is your age?

2. What level classes did you take this semester?

3. Do you feel as if you were treated any differently than other students?

4. Did your professors mention you using an Information Sheet?

5. Did you receive the accommodations you needed without asking?

6. Would you use Information Sheets next semester?

Contact Cards

Name: Sean Norman

Name of Organization: National Center for College Students with Disabilities

Position in Organization: Advisory Board

Interview Q&A:
What programs are significantly important for students with disabilities?

Accommodations and support services for students with autism spectrum disorders.

Providing needed accommodations and supports has been shown to positively affect the

persistence and success of college students with autism spectrum disorders. Yet campus

disability resource offices vary widely, and there are some unique barriers experienced by

students with ASD in a college setting

How can professors help students with disabilities in the classroom?

Faculty need to be understanding of their students. There is a growing presence of

student veterans on college campuses who return from active duty and are diagnosed with

PTSD, TBI, and depression and are requiring disability based accommodations in college

settings. We suggest that universities provide training for faculty and staff. Greater

awareness of topics such as mental health and transitions from military to civilian life can

serve to enhance campus sensitivity to these issues.

What can be a reason why students with disabilities lack academic success?

Some students have been “approved” for campus accommodations and choose not to use

those accommodations. Students shared that it was important to them to be independent

and only use accommodations as a backup. Some don’t like being treated differently.

What on campus activities could we do to help students with disabilities?

Animal Assisted Therapy or Therapy dogs are very beneficial for all students including

students with disabilities. The potential benefits in reducing student stress and anxiety are

appealing given the widespread presence of anxiety and depression among college

students.

Name: Sharon Thistlewaite-Morra

Name of Organization: RI Department of Human Services Office of Rehabilitation

Services

Interview Q&A:

What are a few signs of a learning disability?

Learning disabilities range from language and reading deficits to processing, attention

and social deficits. Language and reading deficits consists of difficulty in comprehending

information orally or written and difficulty reading reverse letters, words or phrases.

Processing, attention and social deficits consists of problems organizing or sequencing

events, difficulty concentrating or focusing, and poor self-esteem and indifference to self-

defeating attitudes.

What are some tools you use for identifying a disability?

We use a learning disability screening called S.T.E.P. This is a questionnaire that asks S=

Did you ever STAY back in school? T= Do you have TROUBLE learning or

remembering new information? E= Did you receive any EXTRA help in school? P= Do

you have a PHYSICAL issue that prevents you from working?

What is a major issue for people with disabilities?

Individuals with learning disabilities have often been overlooked throughout their lives.

Experiencing "hidden disabilities", many participants have never been identified as

having a specific learning disability.

What can be a reason why students with disabilities lack academic success?

Students with disabilities sometimes feel awkward in giving their professors

accommodation letters. They feel as if they will be looked at differently. Some students

wouldn’t even give their professor accommodation letters due to this.

 Work Cited

Hong, Barbara S. S. (2015). Qualitative Analysis of the Barriers College Students with

Disabilities Experience in Higher Education. Journal of College Student Development, 56(3),

209-226.

Lombardi, A., Murray, C., & Gerdes, H. (2012). Academic Performance of First-Generation

College Students with Disabilities. Journal of College Student Development, 53(6), 811-826.