Higher Education and Students with Disabilities

By: Faith Fogelman

Published: March 18th, 2012

The college of yesteryear is not the college of today. Students with disabilities comprise the most rapidly growing student population on many campuses.

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Disability offices and officials have a responsibility to create positive institutional responses to students with disabilities. The disability office can educate faculty about the range of visible and invisible disabilities, present on disability nuance, and ensure that campus planning of any kind bears in mind the needs of students with disabilities, such as making sure that wheelchair buses are used for class trips to accommodate students with mobility disabilities. The partnership between colleges and students with disabilities is critical to student academic success. Colleges do not have the responsibility to promote motivation to study or to check on a student’s academic activities. Counselors work with students to map out strategies to fulfill assignments, but students need to keep appointments with counselors, and students with disabilities have the same responsibility to do the required homework and study assignments as those without them.

Students with disabilities may have to make additional adjustments to college life, but they can do very well if they are motivated, develop self-advocacy skills, use the accommodations available to them, and identify a feasible major. The same skills they need to develop during their college years reflect those which they will need later for employment, and indeed for life.