Helping Adult Educators Understand Disability Disclosure

Legislation passed over the last 30 years has increased access of children and adults with disabilities to education. In addition. constantly improving medical advances enable newly disabled adults to enjoy an increasingly better quality of life including further education. The legislation and medical advances have resulted in increasing numbers of adults with disabilities enrolling in adult education programs. The majority of disabled adults have the intellectual capacity to learn at the postsecondary level and the desire to be meaningfully employed. Some of these adults are reluctant to pursue educational opportunities because of past educational experiences, low self-esteem, undiagnosed learning disabilities, social service providers' preemptive decisions about their capabilities, and a general lack of understanding in education programs that disabled adults are capable students (Gadbow & DuBois, 1998). The purpose of this paper is to help adult educators understand the process of disability disclosure starting with a brief description of 1) the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, 2) self-disclosure, 3) disability disclosure and ending with 4) suspecting an undiagnosed disability. Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 The (ADA) provides protection to disabled adults from discrimination based solely on disability status in employment, education, housing, transportation, and other areas of civic and social participation. Reasonable accommodation requires an educational institution to make the environment accessible and useable by disabled persons who are otherwise qualified for the program. The disabled adult must disclose disability status and request an accommodation. At this point the organization has an obligation to provide meaningful access in consultation with the disabled individual. The educational institution can request documentation from the disabled person to verify the disability. The ADA does not make any provisions for training disabled adults on disclosure although some community-based service providers and educational institution support services do provide advocacy training. Advocacy training might include information on disability disclosure but it more frequently involves independent life skills and other topics. Self-Disclosure Self-disclosure is the act of providing personal information to another person. Some of the purposes for self-disclosure are relationship development, image control, and social validation. Disclosure in relationships between nondisabled people is mutually transformative and reciprocal (Derlega, Metts, Petronio, & Margulis, 1993). Nondisabled students disclose personal information to instructors, administrators, advisors, other students, and partners. Such disclosures often include fear of failing because of personal inadequacies or family commitments, fear of being too old to learn and hope for the future. The way the disclosure is received, perceived, and acted on by the recipient of the disclosure can make a difference in how the adult will approach a new learning situation, and seek mentoring or other relationships (Chelune, 1979). For example, how the adult educator responds to the disclosure can determine whether the student persists and completes the program. Disability Disclosure Disability disclosure is rarely given with the expectation of a reciprocal disclosure. Disability disclosure is revealing information about a disability to another person for accommodation, for relationship development and to reduce anxiety (Rocco, 1997). If the disclosure is for an accommodation, it is made to an instructor because access is needed to the environment or to materials. Disclosure of disability status is necessary because an environment or materials are inaccessible. An individual must weigh the competing needs of obtaining benefits and avoiding the negative consequences of disclosing because much rides on unbiased acceptance of the disclosure. …