Experiences of College Students With Disabilities and the Importance of Self-Determination in Higher Education Settings

2008 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Evans Getzel ◽  
Colleen A. Thoma
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zach W. Taylor ◽  
Chelseaia Charran

Institutions of higher education have mandated COVID-19 vaccinations for students wishing to return to an on-campus, in-person learning experience. However, college students with disabilities (SWDs) may be hesitant to take a COVID-19 vaccine for a variety of reasons, possibly delaying or denying students access to higher education. Yet, an under-researched aspect of COVID-19 vaccinations and related communication is whether college students with disabilities understand that the COVID-19 vaccine is free and whether that understanding varies by intersectional identities. As a result, the research team surveyed 245 college students with disabilities to explore student knowledge of vaccine costs and whether differences exist between groups. Data suggests many college students with disabilities do not know that COVID-19 vaccinations are free: White/Caucasian SWDs were most aware of COVID-19 vaccines being free (23.6%), while Latinx students were least aware (1.3%). Moreover, women were more aware of free COVID-19 vaccines (14.8%) than men (11.4%), first generation college students were more aware (15.6%) than non-first generation college students (12.2%), and full-time students (19%) were more aware than part-time students (8.9%). Overall, less than 25% of SWDs understood that COVID-19 vaccines are free. Implications for health communication, vaccine awareness, and higher education policy are addressed.


2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 97-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen A. Myers ◽  
Christine Spudich ◽  
Dimana Spudich ◽  
Sarah E. Laux

Have I offended anyone today? Have I been insensitive? Creating welcoming inclusive environments for students with and without disabilities is a higher education imperative. The academy strives to create diverse and welcoming atmospheres for students and educators and employ social justice and face saving measures to encourage respectful communication and discourage discriminatory behaviors. With the increase of college students with disabilities, professionals need to be comfortable and confident in their communication tactics. Applying politeness and face-negotiation theories to the communication preferences and behaviors of college students with disabilities, this article offers practice-oriented applications for respectful inclusive communication.


2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Gelbar ◽  
Joseph W. Madaus ◽  
Lyman Dukes ◽  
Michael Faggella-Luby ◽  
Daniel Volk ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Pen-Chiang Chao

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a revised version of the Self-Determination Scale for College Students (SDSCS-R), a 40-item scale aimed at assessing the self-awareness, psychological empowerment, self-regulation, and autonomous functioning of students with disabilities attending universities in Taiwan. Participants were 265 students with disabilities recruited from 15 universities in northern Taiwan. Item analyses and factor analyses of data were conducted. Results show that the SDSCS-R had acceptable internal consistency, with Cronbach's alpha values ranging from .86 to .90 and test–retest reliability coefficients ranging from .70 to .82. Results of exploratory factor analysis show that the four subscales proposed could be appropriately extracted, accounting for 47.90% of the total item variance. Confirmatory factor analysis results further confirm that the four-factor model had a good fit with the sample data. In sum, the SDSCS-R has good psychometric properties and can serve as an appropriate tool to measure the self-determination skills of college students with disabilities.


2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Krebs

This paper examines the controversy surrounding American college students' use of disability accommodations, a process many find unfair or undue, in two ways: (1) by critically unpacking the processes for obtaining accommodations to highlight intersectional issues of who has—or is barred from—access to such services; and (2) by using a rhetorical lens to analyze how the term "accommodation" influences perceptions of disabled students. By combining these processual and rhetorical approaches, this work uncovers significant issues regarding how university students with disabilities are treated on college campuses. Such research is important because disabled individuals are less than half as likely as their nondisabled peers to earn college degrees. Thus, despite ADA laws and pushes for inclusivity and diversity on college campuses, the American higher education system continues to fail a significant part of the nation's population.


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