Speaking Out: Perceptions of Students with Disabilities Regarding Adequacy of Services and Willingness of Faculty To Make Accommodations.

This article examines the perceptions of 264 students with disabilities attending universities in Canada regarding the "adequacy" of services from the Office of Students with Disabilities (OSD) at the postsecondary settings they attend and the "'willingness" of faculty to make accommodations for their unique needs in the classroom. The majority of students rated services as good or excellent. Thirty-five percent indicated their needs were not being adequately met, with nearly one quarter of the students reporting that lack of service from the OSD had seriously impacted their ability to pursue a postsecondary education. Even though approximately two-thirds of the respondents reported that faculty were very willing to make accommodations to meet their needs, lack of accommodation from instructors had seriously impacted the ability of roughly one third of the respondents to pursue a postsecondary education. Twelve percent responded that faculty were unwilling to make accommodations and 9% reported taking some type of action as a result of lack of accommodation (e.g., lodging a complaint with the Academic Vice-President). Recommendations to improve the quality of services from the OSD and to foster willingness of faculty to accommodate students with unique learning needs are given. The purpose of the present study was to examine the perceptions of students with varying disabilities at the postsecondary level. By means of a detailed questionnaire, this study, which involved 264 students attending universities across Canada, endeavored to examine how students view the attempts by others (i.e., administrators, service providers, and faculty) to welcome them to the institution and to assimilate them into the academic milieu. The focus of this article is the perceptions of students regarding the quality of services from the Office of Students with Disabilities (OSD) and the efforts by faculty to modify their teaching in order to provide the optimal learning environment for students with disabilities. Need for Services from the OSD It has long been recognized that the provision of specialized services is vital to the success of students with special learning needs in overcoming barriers to achieving a postsecondary education (Marion & lovacchini, 1983; Stilwell & Schulker, 1973). However, as recently as 1990 concern has been raised that some postsecondary institutions "will respond to federal regulations with minimal levels [emphasis added] of compliance accomplished in the most expedient way possible" (Scott, 1990, p. 404). Most of the research to date relating to the provision of services by staff from the OSD to students with disabilities at the postsecondary level has focused on: (a) examining the types of services offered (Hill, 1992; Marion & lovacchini, 1983; Sergent, Sedlacek, Carter, & Scales, 1987); (b) attitudes held by coordinators of disabled student services (Kelly, 1984); (c) roles and functions of coordinators (Hill, 1992; Michael, Salend, Bennett, & Harris, 1988); and (d) training of personnel (Aksamit, Morris, & Leuenberger, 1987; Norlander, Shaw, & McGuire, 1990). Even though there have been numerous attempts to document the availability of specific services by OSD staff, there have been few attempts to examine, from the students' perspective, the need for and adequacy of such services. In a manner similar to that of West and his colleagues (1993) who examined the satisfaction of students in the state of Virginia, the present study attempted to examine the attitudes of students with disabilities across Canada. Specifically, the present study was designed to answer the following research questions: 1. Are students aware of the services available from the OSD? How did they learn about the availability of services? Did they learn about services prior to or after admission? Did they encounter any difficulties finding out about available services? 2. In general, how would students rate the services provided by the OSD? What would be the basis for their judgments? 3. Would certain student variables (e.g., academic standing; type of program; gender; type of disability) impact on students' overall rating of adequacy of available services? 4. Which services do students use most frequently? Are there services required that are not provided by the OSD? Are they provided by other staff? Are students satisfied with these arrangements? 5. Has lack of services ever impacted seriously on students' ability to pursue a postsecondary education? If so, in what manner? As the availability of services has been shown to differ widely on the basis of enrollment of students with disabilities (Hill, 1992), type of institution (Bursuck, Rose, Cowen, & Yahaya, 1989; West et al., 1993), and availability of funding (Gajar, Goodman, & McAfee, 1993), the effect that size of institution (i.e., small universities in which the total student population is fewer than 10,000 students vs. large universities in which the total student population is greater than 10,000 students) had on adequacy of services was also investigated. Need for Accommodations by Faculty Not only do students with disabilities need services from the OSD in order to achieve success in their postsecondary education, there must also be a willingness on the part of instructors to accommodate students in their classroom. Such a willingness undoubtedly comes from a positive attitude regarding the integration of nontraditional students into the academic setting. Fichten (1988) commented that while professors, in general, have "moderately favorable attitudes toward disabled students on campus . their attitudes are somewhat less positive about having such students in their own department" (p. 177). Nelson, Dodd, and Smith (1990) stated that willingness "is a crucial factor, since individual faculty members control whether or not students are provided instructional accommodations" (p. 186). Previous research findings have indicated that there is a "hierarchy of preference" for students (i.e., some students are more readily accepted than others) (Fichten, 1988; Leyser, 1989; Newman, 1976). While most studies have investigated the receptivity of teachers at the elementary and secondary levels (Center & Ward, 1987), faculty in institutions of higher education appear to be more accepting of students with sensory and physical needs and less receptive of those with learning disabilities, mental retardation, and social and emotional disabilities (Leyser, 1989). Similarly, there appears to be a "hierarchy of accommodations" (i.e., some modifications are more readily provided than others) that may be related directly to the acceptance of certain groups of students with disabilities or to the amount of effort required for implementation (Leyser, 1989; Nelson et al., 1990). While Nelson et al. (1990) looked at faculty willingness from the perspective of individual faculty members who have had, or will have, students with learning disabilities in their classrooms, there have been few attempts to examine faculty willingness to accommodate students with other special learning needs (e.g., blindness, hearing impairment). Nor have there been many attempts to ask students how they view the efforts of others to meet their unique needs. The present study was designed to address this void by investigating the following research questions: 1. In general, how would students rate instructors' willingness to make accommodations to meet their unique learning needs? Would certain student variables (e.g., academic standing; type of program; gender; type of disability) impact on students' overall rating? 2. From the students' perspective, in terms of instructional, assignment and test/examination accommodations, are there accommodations that faculty are more or less willing to make? 3. Has lack of accommodation by instructors ever seriously impacted students' ability to pursue a postsecondary education? What action, if any, have students taken if they felt they had been discriminated against? 4. What factors (e.g., age, gender, faculty membership), in the opinion of the students, contribute to the willingness of instructors to accommodate students with disabilities in the classroom? As it has been suggested "that more students with disabilities choose to attend smaller institutions rather than larger ones (Bursuck et al., 1989; Hill, 1992; Sergent et al., 1987), the effect that size of institution (i.e., small vs. large) had on willingness of faculty to accommodate students with special learning needs was also investigated.