research topics for students with disabilities

160 Disabilities Topics for Research Papers & Essays

Looking for interesting disability topics for a research paper or project? This field is hot, controversial, and definitely worth studying!

🏆 Best Disability Topics for Research Papers

👍 disability essay topics, 📑 research questions about disabilities, 🎓 good research topics about disabilities.

The disability study field includes the issues of physical, mental, and learning disabilities, as well as the problem of discrimination. In this article, we’ve gathered great disability essay topics & research questions, as well as disability topics to talk about. We hope that our collection will inspire you.

• Case Study of a Child with Intellectual Disability It is crucial to integrate the input of a learning coach into the school curriculum to encourage the participation of Meagan’s parents in his educational endeavors.
• Government Grants for People With Disabilities The paper will be based on the conditions of disabled people and the federal or state grants that they could receive in order to facilitate changes in their health and work.
• Sociocultural Barriers for People With Disabilities On the other hand, stigmatization, stereotyping and prejudice have been highlighted as the barriers to social inclusion of people with disabilities in society.
• Managing Students With Disabilities Instructional issues that are encountered in education are those arising due to the inability of the students to acquire, maintain, and relate the skills that are learned in class to other settings within and outside […]
• Women, Development and Disabilities The mission of the organization is to enhance the voice of women in society and influence other organizations that advocate for women rights.
• Students With Disabilities in Higher Education Institutions Accommodations for students depend on the disability type that the student has, and whether the disability allows the student to get an accommodation in the institution.
• Children With Learning Disabilities The following research questions will be used in achieving the objectives: What is the role of learning disabilities in affecting the ability of the students to learn?
• The Problems of Children With Disabilities and Possible Ways of Solution It is very important for disabled people to be on the same level with others in the conditions that compensate the deviations in the development and constraints of the abilities in learning.
• Poems with Disabilities by Jim Ferris This is good evidence for the argument of the need to eliminate the issue of ableism. Language evolves gradually, and countering the issue of ableism is a long-term goal.
• Children With Disabilities in Education By the end of the experiment the student will demonstrate his ability to understand the information, to discuss it, and to reflect his ideas in writing.
• Lawsuits Regarding College Students With Disabilities Abuse is one of the factors considered to have discouraged physically challenged students from pursuing their academic careers.
• Learning Disabilities: Differentiating ADHD and EBD As for the most appropriate setting, it is possible to seat the child near the teacher. It is possible to provide instructions with the help of visual aids.
• The Quality of the Working Environment for Persons With Disabilities The progressive introduction of new practices more tolerant of the disabled will be carried out at every stage of the work cycle and in every segment of the corporation as a connected infrastructure.
• Living with Disabilities from an Insider’s Perspective Additionally, Armendariz was able to use a prosthetic arm to assist with her disability which she recalled as being helpful before it led to severe negativity from her peers at the time.
• Mental Disabilities: Characteristics and Causes TBIs are caused by an impact of the head against a blunt object or from its penetration by a sharp object; it often results from vehicle accidents. Autism is a developmental disorder that influences the […]
• Computer-Based Technologies That Assist People With Disabilities The visually impaired To assist the visually impaired to use computers, there are Braille computer keyboards and Braille display to enable them to enter information and read it. Most of these devices are very expensive […]
• Autism and Educational Process Owing to these adverse effects that can stem from autism and the shear prevalence of the condition in the country’s population, a lot of research effort has been dedicated to the early diagnosis and treatment […]
• Peer Buddy Programs for Students With Disabilities In the essay, the author will provide recommendations with regard to how the peer buddy program can be successfully implemented in schools in the future. The aim is to enhance the success of the peer […]
• The Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities Policy The paper outlines the proper policy and procedure of incident reporting and investigation and thus, provides how to become an agent for the Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities and satisfy individuals receiving services.
• Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) There is a commission in the US that fights for the rights of people with disabilities when it comes to employment.
• People With Disabilities in Society I think that these people are powerful and inspiring, as they prove to the world that it is possible to live life to the fullest with a disability.
• Employees With Disabilities and Their Workplace Behavior In H3, the authors found that employees with disabilities remained loyal and committed to work and were satisfied with their job.
• Recreational Activities for People with Disabilities Even the number of customized recreational equipments should be increased so as to enable the people with disabilities to choose from.
• Classroom Design for Children With Disabilities Furthermore, children with disabilities require individual attention from the teacher just like the other children, and if the classroom is congested it would be difficult for the teacher to reach such learners.
• People With Disabilities in the Frida Movie After the accident, her father bought her a canvas that she would use for painting because she loved art and was an artist, helping her cope with her disability.
• Safety Evacuation for People with Disabilities First, before a disaster occurs, the government should be aware of the number of individuals in the scenario and keep track of them to verify the figures are correct.
• Individuals with Disabilities: Social Misconceptions One of the misconceptions I noticed is the community’s attitudes to people with disability. Community views about individuals with disabilities can also be impacted by features of the person with a disability unrelated to the […]
• Individuals With Disabilities: Prejudice and Discrimination I researched that people with persistent medical or physical disorders, such as cerebral palsy or multiple sclerosis, who have speech, articulation, or communication impairments, for example, are sometimes seen as having an intellectual deficiency. Corey […]
• Special Olympics and Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities Together with partners, the Special Olympics aspires to improve the health outcomes for people with physical and mental disabilities to close the gap with the healthy population who are more advantaged in terms of access […]
• Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities’ Staff Training Specifically, the introduction of the assessment modules for the evaluation of the staff members’ compliance with the set requirements will be enacted.
• Developmental Disabilities: Best Practice and Support Family therapy and the creation of support groups seem to be an effective method for children with disabilities and their environment.
• Bronx Developmental Disabilities Council: Organization Assessment During events, council, and committee meetings, the organization provides printed materials with information on disability and the prevention of social distancing of people with disabilities.
• Assistive Technologies for Individuals with Disabilities A rehabilitation consultant will be able to recommend this equipment to people who are acutely worried about the inability to use a computer and the Internet to ensure a comfortable life.
• Smart Farms Hiring People with Disabilities Although Smart Farms is a non-profit organization and benefits from donations, the workers play their role in income generation by working on the farms and sales.
• Americans with Disabilities Act and Nursing Practice Acts such as the Americans with Disabilities Act affect not only the political and legal environment in a country but also the rights and responsibilities of nurses.
• Life of Individuals Dealing with Disabilities The child’s image hitting the t-ball also showcased a powerful issue, that disabled individuals should be treated similarly to other people and given equal opportunities to give them the chance to perform optimally.
• Partnership for People with Disabilities’ Mission The mission of this organization is to partner with stakeholders both in the intellectual and developmental disability community and other interested groups at Virginia Commonwealth University. The organization was founded in 1985 to better people’s […]
• The Experience of Parents of Children With Disabilities Enhancing support for the mental well-being of parents of children with a disability: developing a resource based on the perspectives of parents and professionals.
• Healthcare Disparities in People With Disabilities In addition to health care disparities, such as poor access to care, including preventive one, and dependency, people with disabilities also face higher morbidity and lack of insurance.
• Employment for People With Disabilities Accommodation is also considered to be a restructuring of work and the attraction of other personnel to help in adaptation – as it should have happened with Adele.
• Laws Protecting the Rights of People With Disabilities The aim of this essay is to research the law that protects the rights of people with disabilities in the context of sporting events.
• People With Disabilities and Social Work Moreover, there is a tendency towards the rise in the number of such people because of the deterioration of the situation and the growing number of environmental concerns.
• Alternate Assessments for Students With Learning Disabilities The problem is that many school districts experience difficulties with proposing adequate formative and summative assessments for those students who require special attention.
• People with Disabilities’ Problem of Employment Although truck driving can be a stressful job, it is not evident if it is true, and thus, it is important for John to experience the job-related himself and determine whether he can handle it. […]
• Living with Disabilities in the Nondisabled World A variety of laws, initiatives, and regulations are currently implemented to ensure simpler and less costly access to information resources and the functionality of a device.
• United Arab Emirates Schools: Students With Learning Disabilities The current UAE public school environment does not allow for the provision of the necessary skills due to the lack of a proper teaching strategy.
• Workplace and People With Disabilities The purpose of the research is to make coherent and accurate observations in regards to the usefulness of the given method in improving the overall attitudes of people and organizations toward people with disabilities.
• Career Counseling for People With Disabilities To sufficiently research, the issue of career counseling for individuals with disabilities in the academic press, a list of journals that offer such information was developed.
• Genetic Modification and Implicit Bias Against People With Disabilities There is also a factor of disabilities that are life-threatening to a child, or illnesses that may be able to be fatal within the first few years of life.
• Impact of Social Darwinism on the Perception of Human Disabilities In addition, connecting behavior such as the likeliness of criminality to genetics is incorrect and damaging not only to the individual but to a community and society as a whole.
• Music Therapy for Children With Learning Disabilities This review includes the evidence supporting music therapy as an effective strategy for promoting auditory, communication, and socio-emotional progression in children with ASD.
• Healthcare Professionals: Individuals With Developmental Disabilities The presentation provide an overview of relevant health related issues in individuals with developmental disabilities and how it relates to the group of professionals assigned.
• Protection for Persons With Disabilities and Their Service Animals Additionally, it must be trained to give assistance to a person with disability. Service animals that can be selected to assist persons with disability must be either a dog or a miniature horse.
• Death Penalty: Juveniles and Mental Disabilities Consequently, the Eight Amendment should dismiss the death penalty for this category and state laws must implement recommendations of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the American Psychological Association, and the American Bar Association that […]
• The Prevalence, Effects and Challenges of Developmental Disabilities While the increase in the number of people with developmental disabilities is attributed to the rising numbers of the aging population, disabilities may arise in childhood and affect the entire lives of people.
• Community Disability Awareness Program: Elderly Women With Disabilities A measurable outcome in the program’s success will be a decline in the rate of crime related to elderly women with disabilities.
• The Understanding of Needs of People With Learning Disabilities Despite several problems in the overall design of the strategy that can be used to improve the nursing services for PLD, Drozd and Clinch make a very valid point by stressing the significance of a […]
• Addressing the Needs of People With Learning Disabilities As a student aiming at becoming a Nurse Practitioner, I am currently focusing on the exploration of the options for managing the work of the nursing staff, as well as seeking the opportunities for improving […]
• Discrimination Against Customers With Disabilities The role of the law is to regulate such cases and to provide necessary tools for both sides to prove their point of view.
• Elderly Women with Disabilities: Problems and Needs Despite the economic crisis, the cost of medical care has also increased due to the rise in the number of lawsuits filed against the physicians of the state.
• Relationship Satisfaction and Psychological Well-Being Among Greek People With Physical Disabilities In the light of this lack of knowledge, the present study attempts to explore the degree of relationship satisfaction in connection with the way handicapped people deal with the challenges of romantic involvement, as well […]
• Communication and People With Disabilities The bathrooms were close to the food court; moreover, there were special handle bars which helped to transfer to the commode and, at this, the height of the commode was almost the same as the […]
• Music Therapy as a Related Service for Students With Disabilities From a neuroscientific perspective, how would music intervention improve classroom behaviors and academic outcomes of students with ADHD as a way to inform policy-makers of the importance of music therapy as a related service?
• Problem Behaviors in Intellectual Disabilities Community The proposed quality designed study will evaluate the behavior of people with intellectual disabilities over a certain period of time and consequently conclude the primary triggers that influence ID people to demonstrate behavioral issues, including […]
• Law for People With Disabilities in California The family, the immediate environment of a person with disabilities, is the main link in the system of his or her care, socialization, the satisfaction of needs, support, and career guidance.
• The Resilience Experiences of People With Disabilities The focus of the study was on the participants’ lived experiences, as well as their attitudes towards certain aspects, so the use of interviews as a data collection method is justified.
• Literature Circles for Students With Learning Disabilities On the other hand, the affected individuals contend that the categorization should be removed to pave the way for the integration of assistances where all needs are attended without classification regardless of the student’s physical […]
• Students With Disabilities: Research Analysis In the process of undertaking this research and practical alignment, there is a misalignment in the inclusion of students with disabilities in the GE class.
• School Counselors for Students With Disabilities When the goals are set out, and the professional sphere is chosen, the counselor becomes responsible for the student’s preparation and reception of essential job skills as well as for the communication with the post-school […]
• Adaptive Behavior Skills and Intellectual Disabilities Four assessment tools are important for identifying adaptive behavior and skills: the Adaptive Behavior Scale, the Scale of Independent Behavior, and the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale.
• The Specific Needs of Students With Physical Disabilities The research problem that will be the focus of the planned paper relates to the specific needs of students with physical disabilities or behavioral issues in general classrooms.
• Assistive Technology for Students with Disabilities The United Nations Convention on the Rights of people with disabilities proposes a raft of measures to be undertaken by states to promote the wellbeing of individuals with disabilities.
• Job for Individuals With Physical Disabilities For instance, when a new technology is about to be installed, it will be rational for a number of workers based on departments to be selected and taken through how to use the innovation, such […]
• Therapeutic Vests for Children With Disabilities The purpose of this review is to examine the available literature on the effectiveness of using therapeutic vests, weighted vests, and pressure vests on children with Autism spectrum disorders, Attention deficit disorder, Pervasive Development Disorder, […]
• An Audit of the Accessibility of the College of the North Atlantic-Qatar to Individuals With Physical Disabilities It should be noted that structural presentation of the paper is considered to be one of the most important elements of the paper because it allows following the logical thought of the research paper.
• Learning Disabilities and Communication Disorders The students are also being taken through research-based and special education programs and the determination of these disorders is done cooperatively between teachers and specialists like psychologists.
• Children With Disabilities: Supporting Student Behavior The comfortable atmosphere will help the children to attend the class and also provide a good way to mingle with the children with disabilities.
• Americans With Disabilities and Act Amendments Act to the ADA: The Main Issues and Comparison Moreover, the essence of the major amendments to the ADA is disclosed in the article using comparison and implications of those changes for the public use in the spheres of employment and human resources management […]
• Teaching Character Education to Students With Behavioral and Learning Disabilities The purpose of the study was to determine the effectiveness of character education programs implemented in schools on students with behavioral and learning disabilities.
• Plan of the Kickball Game That Involves the Students With the Disabilities While simulating the situation where one is in charge of the PE class, one needs to remember that disability is never inability, thus the students with the disabilities can participate in any games as well […]
• American With Disabilities Amendment Act The main intention of the Act is that civilians receiving benefits or services through the measures of local and state governments may not be differentiated on the fundamentals of the individual’s physical disabilities.
• Genetic Testing Under Americans With Disabilities Act There is nothing surprising in the fact that the genetically tested employees counted the testing as a violation of their human rights, and The Americans with Disabilities Act was adopted in 1990.
• Americans With Disabilities Act for Employers However, in practice, an employer could still legally discriminate against those with disabilities An employer is obligated to make reasonable accommodations for an employee or applicant if they are ‘otherwise qualified’ to perform the responsibilities […]
• Teaching Language to Students With Severe Disabilities The objective of this study is to find the different approaches that can be used in teaching phonics and the whole language to students with varied severe disabilities.
• Program Improvement: Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities The government has been keen to present specific resources and support systems that can support the educational and career goals of these individuals.
• Daily Living Skills Training for Individuals With Learning Disabilities Teaching individuals with physical and mental disabilities the life skills needed to compensate for their disadvantages are considered to be the key factor to ensuring a relatively safe, functional, and happy life for those individuals.
• Teaching Adaptive Behavior Skills to Children Suffering From Intellectual Disabilities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia This theoretical framework will contribute to the validation of the perspectives used by the teachers to construct their system of beliefs regarding the process of teaching ABS to students with ID.
• Life Stages of People with Learning Disabilities In order to proceed with the observation, it is necessary to identify the normal issues likely to be encountered by the representatives of both groups.
• Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities in the Workplace Intellectual disability puts a strain on an individual’s ability to have a social life and communicate with other human beings due to the fact that their capability of adapting is limited to a certain extent.
• Lifespan Development and Learning Disabilities in Childhood Parents in this situation would most likely select the authoritative parenting style to manage children because they are left to make their own choices under a guided framework.
• Natural Supports for Individuals With Disabilities Natural supports can be defined as personal connections and associations that improve the quality of a person’s life; these primarily include family relationships and friendships and constitute “the first line of supports, followed by informal […]
• Ican Bike for Individuals With Disabilities I think iCan Bike is a very good initiative that targets a vulnerable population with a plethora of special needs and relies on the community in order to deliver the results.
• Ableism: Bias Against People With Disabilities People concerned with rights advocacy ought to ensure a facilitated awareness of the distressing impacts of ableism through the inclusion of the subject in private and public discussions.
• Children With Disabilities and Parental Mistreatment The information in the article is helpful for parents of children with disabilities and other parents since it assists them in appreciating the significance of each parent’s education in lessening the incidence of child disability.
• School Counselor Job for People With Disabilities A school counselor that faces the risk of having a cardiovascular incident is challenged by the possible implications of the disease that could have an adverse impact on the overall practice and well being. Therefore, […]
• Americans With Disabilities in Criminal Justice Agencies Since the legislation is relatively new, the process of the change requires such guidelines given the lack of an appropriate number of the best practices for the time being.
• Rights of Parents of Students With Disabilities Trying to fix the problem, parents should understand that the only way they are to behave is the move in the direction of a correct education of their child.
• Strategies for Teaching Students With Mild Disabilities The good thing about having a child with a disability in the family is that it teaches everyone in the household to be patient. The greatest problem I have encountered in having a child with […]
• Learning Disabilities and Memory Disorders Large amounts of phenylalanine in the blood will result in complications of the neurons in the central nervous system referred to as myelinization of the cerebral hemispheres.
• Students With Mild and Moderate Disabilities Sometimes students with disabilities are not able to understand what they are to do if the instruction is not explicit and systematic. It is difficult for students with mild and moderate disabilities to generalize the […]
• Teaching Children With Multiple Disabilities The teacher should also assist such a child in maintaining a perceptual continuum than learners who are not handicapped. On the same note, the teacher should not give the amount of work similar to children […]
• Constructivism Theory for Adolescents with Disabilities The key component of the theory is people’s interaction with the environment. Therefore, Vygotsky’s theory is effective in developing the social and academic skills of an adolescent with learning and behavior disabilities.
• Veterans With Disabilities: Integration and Employment In this paper, the researcher looks at the main barriers to employment and integration back to the society that the veterans face, and the manner in which the existing policies can be amended to help […]
• Intellectual Disabilities and Higher Education The access to higher education for individuals with ID and the attitude of their parents towards their performance can be analyzed with the help of equity theory.
• Students With Intellectual Disabilities and Their Independence Some of these programs in the US include the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act, which provides grants for research, technology, and training for disabled individuals, as well as the Secondary Education Act of 2002, […]
• Independence of Students With Intellectual Disabilities In a humane and highly functional society, students with physical and intellectual disabilities should be allowed to function independently and enjoy their personal and academic life to the fullest.
• School Event Supporting Students With Disabilities Because of the vast opportunities for vulnerable groups to share their experiences and create a bond with the rest of the learners in a non-threatening environment, significant progress in encouraging disability awareness and the promotion […]
• Intellectual Disabilities and Limitations for Human Life The recognition of the lack of such skills can contribute to future opportunities for an independent life with effective interdependence and inclusion in the life of a society.
• Psychological Testing of Intellectual Disabilities Speaking of its psychometric properties, the PCL-5 is a valid and reliable self-report measure for the assessment and quantifying symptoms of PTSD.
• Young Adult Children With Intellectual Disabilities Like in the study, I would also use pilot testing of the questionnaire to ascertain its validity and reliability in measuring the intended variables. The descriptions of the concepts and terms in this study are […]
• Effective Teaching of Students with Disabilities To support the information that was posted in three blog entries, the author of this submission reviewed other literature on the subject to be able to support their point of view.
• Parenting Children With Learning Disabilities A number of parents also feel worthless since they get an impression that the respective learning disabilities portrayed in their children are due to their own genetic malformations.
• Caregivers’ Perceptions of People With Intellectual Disabilities The proposed study will present new approaches and practices that can be used to support the health needs of many patients with mental disabilities.
• People With Disabilities and Their Employment Issues The major similarity between the perceptions of older people and individuals with disabilities is based on the belief that they are slow and could slow down the other workers and the idea that the managers […]
• Students With Learning Disabilities and Assessment The education of students with learning disabilities poses great difficulty for the majority of parents and educators. It may not be self-evident that the learning problems of students are attributable to learning disabilities.
• Patients With Learning Disabilities: Quality Care Although the current study is not aimed at detecting the differences in the efficacy of the intervention based on the gender of the participants, the outcomes of the research may create prerequisites for a follow-up […]
• Talent-Oriented Therapy: Patients With Learning Disabilities Although the tool to be designed in the course of the research will have to experience a range of tests, it will serve as the impetus for the further development of the framework.
• Emotional and Behavioural Disabilities in Schools Furthermore, there is equal doubt about whether the professionals in the sphere of education give no significance to the term of emotional and behavioural disability itself.
• Grandparents Raising Grandchildren With Disabilities In the case of their absence, these grandparents worry about the well-being of their disabled grandchildren and the influence they have on other children.
• Employment Equity Act: Aboriginals and Disabilities Persons If the Employment Equity Act is applied appropriately, the Act will guarantee that people in the labour force are given the opportunity of the equivalent admission to job openings along with identical management in the […]
• People With Disabilities: Local and a Federal Law’ Regulation To be more exact, the current standards need to be shaped so that the policy in question should not affect the social perception of people with physical or mental disabilities.
• Students With Learning Disabilities: Needs and Problems According to Chloe, there are three aspects associated with this complex issue, and they are the problem of appropriate parents and professionals’ intervention, the problem of identifying resources, and the problem of government’s funding.
• Students With Disabilities: Characteristics and Strategies Disability Categories Example Strategy English Learner Students 1 Autism is the developmental disability which influences the aspects of social interaction and different types of communication. The child with this disability can demonstrate various restricted and stereotypic patterns of behavior. The student with autism cannot focus attention on the teacher’s words, demonstrates the unusual gestures and […]
• Instructional Plan in Writing for Learners With Disabilities The purpose of this essay is to provide an instructional plan for learners with disabilities in writing. Writing skills require learners to account for the task, the aim of writing and audience.
• People with Disabilities: The Systemic Ableism Whereas the absence of disability in the fashion world is based on the dominant view of what is considered beautiful, the absence of disabled in politics can be explained with the lack of access to […]
• Writing Disabilities Management in Children Learning disorder is among the defects, which interferes with the writing abilities of a person or a child. The first way to identify children with writing disabilities is through observation of their behaviour.
• Developmental Disabilities and Lifelong Learning Some of the common transitional programs for children with developmental disabilities would include things such as books, learning manuals, and software programs intended to assist the children in adjusting to the new programs or settings.
• Action Plan for Patrons With Disabilities For instance, the writer of the essay suggests that in terms of facility planning, it is vital for the library to invest in wiring its facilities with audio induction loop.
• Remediation in Students with Disabilities Since this strategy is essentially crucial to the curriculum, this proposal will portray the importance of conducting a profound research that seeks to determine the effectiveness of remediation in reading.
• Improving Reading Performance of Students With Learning Disabilities The purpose of the present research is to assess the efficiency of utilizing Reading Racetracks to improve the reading of words found on the K-2 list key phrases adopted in the school district.
• Americans With Disabilities Act With all due respect to the efforts of the U.S.government to come up with a framework, which would allow for a faster and a more efficient integration of the disabled into the society, the fact […]
• GM’s Committal to People With Disabilities The company aims to create awareness about PWDs by providing support and information to employees with disabilities and other PWDs outside the GM community.
• Supporting Students with Speech Impairment This assistive technology uses appropriate symbols and techniques to support the needs of different learners. These technologies will support the needs of many learners.
• Physical Disabilities and Assistive Technology For example, learners with visual impairments can use text-to-speech programs. Learners with physical disabilities can be gathered for with the help of assistive technology devices such as adaptive keyboard and screen reading software for learners […]
• Sensory Disabilities and Age of Onset This can happen, for instance, when learning the subject that call for lots of diagrams, figures and illustrations to be applied, which may also give a challenge to the visually impaired students.
• High Incidence Disabilities and Pedagogical Strategies for Learning Disabilities In the context of disability, it is important to mention that this model is beneficial to students with learning disabilities as it involves teaching them how to approach tasks and use knowledge to complete learning […]
• Families With Members Who Experience Disabilities Early childhood services which offer professionalized care services to parents help them meet the needs of the special children so that parents are able to balance their strengths, resources and challenges in the family.
• Support Inclusion and Effective Practices for Students With Disabilities The purpose of this article is positioning that the ambition towards support inclusion and effective practices for students with disabilities have to be the groundwork for inclusive postsecondary education.
• Peer Buddy Program: Students with Disabilities in High School This research paper seeks to establish the purpose, importance, and rationale of the study of peer buddy program on students with disabilities in high school, in both social and academic grounds.
• An Action Plan for Serving Individuals With Disabilities – Library and Information Science First is the total cost of the whole project, the architectural design of the library building and whether it can accommodate the new developments and the current issues affecting accessibility with regards to the disabled.
• Internal Campaign Planning for Inclusion of Persons With Disabilities The key mandate of the act was to protect the employment rights of persons with disabilities. Secondly, newsletters can be developed so as to raise awareness on the importance of diversity and inclusion.
• Human Rights of People With Intellectual Disabilities Since disability is not inability, human rights’ advocates argue that perception of people with disabilities as disabled is discriminative and therefore call for their recognition as a minority people with unique abilities that do not […]
• Adolescents with Learning and Behaviour Disabilities: Graduation and Employment Difficulties One of the causes of high school dropout of this group of students is the feeling of being out of place.
• The Problem of Reading of Children With Learning Disabilities The difference in phonological awareness and reading between groups of children with SSDs and a language matched comparison group Reading fluency is a key tool of assessment the reading disability among children.
• People With Disabilities The code consists of sixteen articles that define the terms associated with disability in Saudi Arabia, the role of the government in the welfare of disabled children, administration of the bodies concerned with disabled person, […]
• Culturally Responsive Teaching of Students With Disabilities Cultural Responsive teaching is a teaching technique used to identify and address cognitive, social, emotional, and cultural and language needs of students with developmental needs as a way of providing them with assistance in all […]
• People With Disabilities and Abuse of People With Disabilities and Criminal Justice In addition, there is need to train police, lawyers and other persons in the criminal justice system on how to interact with persons with disabilities.
• Terminology and Etiquette Discussion Regarding Persons With Disabilities The media refer to people with disability as to persons with special needs, which reveals the inappropriate use of terminologies to refer to them.
• People With Disabilities and the Hotel Industry According to this act, the needs of people with disabilities should be satisfied in relation to the fixed rules in order to provide the necessary conditions for these persons and follow the principle of the […]
• Post Education for Adults With Disabilities Recommendations for further research and practice that refer to the disability problems are presented at the end of the paper with the purpose of enabling the interaction of services.
• The Right Attitude Towards Disabled People First, it can be questioned whether any form of physical or mental disability can be referred to as something that deserves to be ‘celebrated’, as the promoters of political correctness want us to believe.
• Assistive Technology for Kids with Learning Disabilities An increasing number of educators are incorporating frame routines to the web platform, in which a constant touch with both students and parents is maintained.
• Inclusion for Students With Severe Disabilities Modification and accommodation are the methods used to manipulate education system to make it favourable for these students. Modification and Accommodation are the methods used to manipulate the system to make it favourable for students […]
• The Impact of a Fitness Intervention on People with Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities This is one of the issues that should be singled out. This is one of the issues that should be considered.
• Current Trends and Issues in Educating Students With Disabilities Following the existence of cases of racial and ethnic bias across the United States educational system, the government has seen the importance to intervene in improving education in the U.S.
• General Curriculum for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Learners The purpose of the study was to examine the extent to which learners with intellectual and developmental disabilities have access to the general education curriculum and the extent to which such access is related to […]
• US Should Ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities The UN has recognized the importance of the disabled person’s rights and freedoms and has come up with the UN convention on the Rights of People with disabilities, CRPD and has urged member states to […]
• The Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act However, the gradual increase in the number of individuals with learning disabilities led to the disapproval of this method. As a result of this separation and early identification school performances tend to improve and the […]
• Defining Disabilities in Modern World Defining disability has not been easy due to the various opinions related to the understanding of the concept. Disability has significant impact on the society due to the relationships that exists between the individual and […]
• Preschool Teachers’ Actions for Integrating Children With Disabilities Of special interest was whether the gravity of a child’s educational requirements and the teacher’s knowledge about the disability condition were linked to teacher’s responses towards incorporating such children in their classrooms.
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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• Helen Dickinson   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3852-8815 2  

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Children and young people with disability are a “vulnerable” population within a pandemic context as they face structural inequities and discrimination as a result of their impairments. In this paper, we report research that sought to examine the learning experiences of children and young people with disability during the COVID-19 pandemic. We wanted to understand how this group fared and whether different interventions impacted on these experiences. Data were collected from an online survey organized by Children and Young People with Disability Australia (CYDA) that garnered responses from more than 700 families. The study contributes empirical evidence to the growing literature about COVID-19-related impacts on learners already recognized as experiencing multiple disadvantages in schooling. We find some significant gaps in supports offered to students with disability and their families. Notwithstanding that some students did not receive any support from their schools, where supports were offered, social supports had the greatest positive impact on feelings of learner engagement. Our findings support key propositions in the social and emotional learning literature, namely that particular resourcing should be dedicated to social interaction and feelings of belonging as these are crucial to learners engaging in learning processes. There are clear implications of these findings in terms of what educational institutions might do to help engage students with disability in remote learning.

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Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the learning activities of many children and young adults with and without disability in various countries around the world. While all children and young people faced challenges during remote learning, there is good reason to suspect those with disability fare worse during this period. When schools a shut, a range of concerns continue to be raised regarding the negative repercussions for children from ‘vulnerable’ backgrounds such as children in low-income families and children with disability (Brown et al., 2020 ; Drane et al., 2021 ; Yates et al., 2021 ). Changes in routine, lack of experience with technology and digital learning, parental overwhelm and increased social isolation are examples of the issues young people with disability and their families face (Page et al., 2021 ). Even pre-pandemic, children and young people with disability faced significant inequities in accessing education and on average had poorer educational outcomes than their non-disabled counterparts (Anderson & Boyle, 2019 ).

This paper explores the experiences of children and young people with disability and their families over the first remote learning period Australia experienced in the COVID-19 pandemic. Our research aimed to explore:

How children and young people with disability and their families had their education disrupted;

What the impact of this was in terms of engagement with learning, learning supports, mental health and feelings of isolation; and,

What supports had been offered.

This paper reports findings from over 700 respondents to an online survey conducted by Children and Young People with Disability Australia (CYDA), the national peak body that represents children and young people (aged 0–25) with disability. The survey revealed that most children and young people with disability felt forgotten in the transition to remote learning. Many of their usual supports dropped away and educational institutions failed to make appropriate accommodations to engage in learning. Some did, however, receive extra or special educational materials, supervision, specific aides, online care services, and social support. This paper discusses the effectiveness of these interventions for the learning experiences of children and young adults with disability, and whether all types of support were equally helpful or some were more highly associated with better outcomes. These findings provide valuable information for reviewing the provision of effective inclusive education.

The paper finds that of all types of support offered, social supports had the greatest association with better outcomes in learner engagement. While educational interventions seemed to make some difference, social supports were more highly associated with good engagement outcomes. This finding supports a key theme in the social and emotional learning literature that socialization is a fundamental conduit to foster learning among students with disability, and that activities catering for it ought to feature prominently among the set of supports being provided by school and government.

The argument in this paper is structured as follows. After briefly reviewing the relevant literature, we present the data and the methodology applied. We then present the results and draw some concluding remarks.

In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, Australian health authorities and state and federal governments responded to the propagation of the infection by recommending people reduce their face-to-face interactions. This quickly turned into mandatory lockdowns of economic activities and school closures after the first few deaths. School shutdowns were implemented in all states by late March 2020 and remained closed in most states until May (Moloney & Moloney, 2020 ). School holidays were brought forward and extended while remote learning platforms were adopted. Although some schools remained opened for some children, including some special schools and classes for the children of workers considered ‘essential’ during the pandemic (e.g., nurses, doctors and some transport and shop workers), the disruption to schooling (and parents), was widespread. Furthermore, the transformation of schooling into a set of learning activities that predominantly took place online had dramatic consequences for households’ wellbeing: parents, often ‘temporarily suspended’ from work or even laid off due the sharp downward trend in economic activity, suddenly found themselves juggling the demands of finding or maintaining an income and those of parenting children engaged in remote learning. The OECD (2020) issued a report about remote learning experiences identifying a critical gap in communication between teachers and parents/carers across the globe and advised that effective communication between school and home is the ‘critical element’ (p. 8) in remote learning. Unsurprisingly, parents reported rapidly worsening mental health conditions as a product of these significant pressures (Cheng et al., 2021 ). Lockdowns and restricted access to on-campus learning continues to be the lived experience of many Australian young people. This paper reports on data from the first stages of the pandemic in Australia and the perceived impacts of this initial wave of policy responses.

It is well established in the literature that children and young people with disability face significant challenges with education. Besides academic challenges, these at times include teachers’ preparedness to deal with students with disability (Mason & Hedin, 2011 ; Richards et al., 2007 ), a high likelihood of being bullied (Bourke & Burgman, 2010 ; Carter & Spencer, 2006 ; Rose & Espelage, 2012 ), and experiences of exclusion and rejection (Davis & Watson, 2001 ; Krull et al., 2014 ; Russell, 2003 ). As an example, although inclusion in regular classrooms may allow students who are neuro-diverse to be involved in the social structure of their classroom, they still report loneliness, poorer friendship quality and social network status compared with their classmates (Locke et al., 2010 ).

Teachers and school personnel can help to overcome the difficulties experienced by children and young people with disability when they are enabled to provide a learning environment that is both supportive and inclusive. There is good evidence to show intensive and explicit social and social-emotional skill development can disrupt patterns of bullying (Espelage et al., 2015 ; Rose & Espelage, 2012 ); build empathy, understanding, connection for and with students with and without disability through restorative justice practices (Hulvershorn & Mulholland, 2018 ); and help students with learning disabilities as well as other students develop coping skills to counter anxiety (Khodadadi et al., 2017 ). Children with disability can and do thrive when they develop good relationships with teachers and strong bonds with the school (Murray & Greenberg, 2001 ). These interventions do not have a negative impact on children without disability, who are unaffected in their academic achievements when they learn in inclusive classrooms. This experience can also reduce prejudice towards people with disability and shape children and young people to be more accepting and supportive of people who are different from themselves (Molina Roldán et al., 2021 ). For example, the social effects of supported inclusion include reduction of fear, hostility, prejudice, and discrimination as well as increase of care, acceptance, and understanding (Kart & Kart, 2021 ).

Social activity and support are fundamentally important for learning among children and young adults with disabilities (Campbell & Gilmore, 2014 ; Gilmore et al., 2016 ), as highlighted by the educational psychology literature in studies carried out around the world (Adair et al., 2015 ; Cavioni et al., 2017 ), including in Australia (Foley et al., 2012 ; Raghavendra et al., 2015 ). Social supports are broadly categorized as meeting needs in an emotional, tangible, or informational way (Schaefer et al., 1981 ; Tandon et al., 2013 ). Young people with disability report their wellbeing relies on feeling supported, respected, and capable to make self-determining choices as individuals (Colon-Cabrera et al., 2021 ). The perception that supports are available is a strong protective factor for wellbeing (Haber et al., 2007 ; Harandi et al., 2017 ). Social support has long been evidenced as protecting against stress, and gives people the feeling of being loved, cared for and respected, as well as a sense of belonging to a network (Cobb, 1976 ). While parent relationships are seen as the strongest protective factor for wellbeing and mental health, social supports through peers provide behavioral and emotional support and supportive teacher relationships are most likely to help students remain engaged with schooling (Campbell & Gilmore, 2014 ). These relationships are not created instantly but are built and reinforced over time. These relationships are particularly important in helping teachers to understand the needs of students who are neuro-diverse or have disability (Hood, 2020 ).

The arrival of COVID-19 in Australia forced social distancing rules that included the closure of schools and the transfer of teaching and learning to an online setting. The ensuing disruption was enormous for students and their families, as not only did they have to rapidly adjust to new teaching and learning systems, but also to endure the resulting lack of direct contact with peers, teachers, and support staff. While the appropriateness of school closures as a response to the pandemic has been debated (e.g., Leask & Hooker, 2020 ), there is little doubt the closures had negative short-term effects for vulnerable students, and likely long-term effects that will manifest in future (Drane et al., 2021 ; Fitzgerald et al., 2020 ). Twitter data analysis by Gleason et al. ( 2020 ) indicates that among the barriers faced by people with disability during the COVID-19 crisis, the rapid transition to remote online learning exacerbated accessibility issues. In this paper we explore the experiences of children and young people with disability and their families and what appropriate adjustments were made for this group to guard against negative impacts.

Methodology

At the outset of the pandemic, CYDA surveyed nearly 700 families across Australia to capture the impact of the COVID-19 on children and young people with disability and their families, in order to understand the implications of the pandemic and the issues it was raising for this group (Dickinson et al., 2020 ). Uncertainty about access to education services was raised as a particular issue so a second online survey was devised to explore issues related to education specifically. We report on these data in this paper.

The online survey (hosted on Survey Monkey) was active for just under seven weeks, opening on the 28th of April 2020 and closing on the 14th of June. The survey contained a combination of questions on perceptions of educational outcomes to which respondents had to agree or disagree using a Likert score (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree), as well as free text questions focusing on the impact of COVID-19 on access to education and engagement in learning and the community.

We downloaded the results into Excel and applied regression analysis to study the possible relationships between multifaceted perceptions of learning outcomes experienced by students during the pandemic We did this to identify possible influencing factors, controlling for demographic, locational, and educational characteristics of each student with disability represented in the study (for details see the Technical Appendix). In particular, we were interested in:

whether or not the various types of support provided during the pandemic contributed to sustain student learning (at least as perceived by the family member or the student responding to the survey) as well as reducing feelings of loneliness and isolation, and

identifying which support types (if any) were most associated with better learning outcomes such as engagement in learning or reduced perceptions of students’ loneliness and isolation.

In doing so we drew on answers provided to four Likert-scaled questions posed in the survey about perceptions of learning experiences, which we refer to as ‘outcomes’—namely:

The student receives adequate support in their education

The student is made to feel part of the learning community

The student is engaged in his/her learning

The student feels more socially isolated from his/her peers

In another question we asked whether there had been any other impacts of COVID-19 felt outside of education. One option was to indicate a decline in mental health and wellbeing (e.g. anxiety, fear or stress). We used the response to this question as a factor that might influence the four possible outcomes reported above, adding it to the list of explanatory variables.

The explanatory variables also included the age, gender, cultural background, and location of the respondents as well as their educational arrangements (type of school, attendance, NDIS eligibility, existence of an Individual Education/Learning Plan [IEP]), and an index of the impact of COVID-19 on the family, based on self-reported information (e.g. loss of income or job, access to food supply).

The regression analysis performed is based an Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) applied to the statistical model:

\({y}_{i}\) is the educational outcome of interest experienced by student i . For example, in the case of whether the student receives adequate support in their education, the variable \({y}_{i}\) includes the values reported in the survey: namely, 5 if the survey respondent strongly agrees with the statement, 4 if s/he agrees, 3 for a neutral answer, 2 for disagreeing and 1 if the respondent strongly disagrees with the statement. A similar approach is used for each of the remaining outcomes summarized in 2–4 above, and run separate regressions for each of the four possible educational outcomes, generating four sets of results.

\({X}_{i}\) is a set of independent variables that control for gender, age group, support received before the pandemic, whether studying full-time, mental health status, non-English-speaking background, whether aboriginal or Torres Strait islander, if funded by NDIS, whether has individual education program in place, type of school, and location (urban and in which state);

\({Z}_{i}\) is the key explanatory variable, namely a set of answers about the support received during the pandemic. This set contains five components: namely, whether the support took the form of curriculum support and a support worker, specific aides and equipment, supervision, social support, and care services (assistance with personal care + behavioral support + access to specialist allied health).

We apply vector \({Z}_{i}\) in two alternative specifications: first, as a 3-category variable, which we label “version A”, with values of 0 if no support was received, 1 if only one type of support was received; and 2 if two or more types of support were received. In the second specification, we use the five components of vector \({Z}_{i}\) independently, as five separate indicators (“version B”).

The survey was distributed online to members of CYDA (more than 5000 people), and 719 respondents completed it: of these, 95% were family members of a child or young adult with disability, while 5% were young adults with disability. We control for the self- or proxy-reported nature of their answers with an ad hoc dummy variable in the empirical analysis finding mixed evidence about its significance in the various specifications (see Tables A1 and A2 in the Appendix).

In almost two thirds of cases, mostly in the largest urban centers, respondents indicated that students faced a shift in the learning environment from face-to-face to online, while in another 15% of cases school closures were experienced. While many students with disability received substantive support from their education facility before the onset of COVID-19, many of the supports were not carried over into the pandemic. This was particularly notable in relation to the provision of social support and education, as school learning support workers (who would usually support the student to engage in the classroom) were not permitted to enter students’ homes.

Only half of the respondents reported that schools provided extra curriculum and learning materials to their children during the pandemic and just under half (46%) indicated that contact with the education provider was regular, ensuring accessibility and continuity of learning.

Table 1 reports the mean and standard deviation of the key variables used in the analysis. As shown in the bottom row, the number of respondents reduces to 618 (from the initial total of 719) due to missing answers to questions about educational outcomes—the main dependent variables in the analysis.

Students with disability represented in the survey typically attended school or education on a full-time basis (90%) and were enrolled in Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme (74%— N  = 455), indicating a relatively high level of support needs. In 71% of cases ( N  = 441) students had an Individual Learning Plan or Individual Education Plan in place as a pathway to learning. Most respondents had an English-speaking background (95%), and few had an Indigenous background (4%), although this is proportional with the Indigenous population nationally.

Students attended predominantly government schools (68%) and, less commonly, non-government and other (e.g. religious) schools. Most of the schools were in metropolitan/urban centers but well spread around the three states supplying the bulk of responses (Victoria, NSW, and Queensland).

The responses also highlighted that not every student covered by the CYDA survey had been negatively affected by COVID-19 (2.79/5), and most had received school support before the outset of the pandemic (3.89/5). The most common form of support received during the pandemic was educational (45%), followed by care services (22%) and specific equipment, supervision, and social support (about 10% in each case).

The key results of the regression analyses using version A and B are reported in Tables 2 and 3 , respectively, while the corresponding full set of estimates obtained in each case are reported in Tables A1 and A2 in the Technical Appendix. In each Table, the outcomes are reported along the columns, while the explanatory variable(s) are reported in the rows.

Notwithstanding that a significant proportion of students with disability did not receive any form of support, the estimates reported in Table 2 suggest those who did benefited significantly from it. In particular, the support received was correlated with maintaining their learning engagement and reducing feelings of social isolation. Specifically, those who received only one type of support reported on average a 24% improvement in feeling part of their learning community relative to not receiving support, and a 35.8% improvement on the question of whether the student receives adequate support in their education. These increases are large in magnitude, and are statistically significantly different from zero at the 1% level: in other words, there is a less than 1% chance that the effect is zero. In contrast, no detectable effects were found for engagement (student is engaged in their learning: + 10% but the difference is statistically not significant), and the feeling of social isolation (− 10.5% but again not statistically significant).

In addition, those who received two or more types of support (about 30% of respondents) experienced very large and statistically significant improvements relative to no support: on average they felt an 88% improvement on the score measuring whether the student is made feel part of their learning community, and a 109% increase on the score measuring whether the student receives adequate support in their education. At the same time, relative to those receiving no support, these respondents reported a 47.5% increase on perceiving the student to be engaged in their learning, and a decline of 18.2% on whether the student feels lonely. These results suggest that support was effective relative to no support, and that it was most effective when it was more intense—i.e. when more than one type of support was provided.

When the effectiveness of each type of support was measured individually, we found that social support had the strongest association with improved educational outcomes, as it was strongly related to each of the possible outcomes across the columns of Table 3 . Other types of support were associated with some positive outcomes, but not across the full range of perceived learning outcomes. Educational support and extra aides and equipment were associated with improved perceptions that the student was adequately supported by the school, and was made to feel part of the learning community. However, this type of support had no detectable effect on whether the student was engaged in learning activities, or whether they felt more socially isolated. Additional supervision was positively associated with feeling supported and part of the learning community, as well as feeling engaged in learning, but had no association with loneliness and feeling socially isolated. Care services may be helpful but their effect was practically nil.

Overall, the estimates in Table 3 point to a single element that stands out across the various types of support that schools have provided: social support. This is a large category, but would typically help to connect children and young people to their peers in meaningful ways. Social support was significantly associated with better learning processes and reducing isolation of students with disability. The impact of social supports was much more significant than even education supports. However, social supports were among the support types (along with support workers) hit hardest, with far fewer of these being provided during the pandemic than before. Support from teachers was identified as sporadic by some of our participants in free text comments, with some reporting having no contact at all. The importance of strong relationships between students and teachers in school engagement was evident across many of the participants’ responses.

In identifying the things that worked, participants named quite different requirements, depending on the different functional needs of the young person. Many carers and young people identified that the lack of communication and connection left them feeling forgotten and isolated. When identifying what ameliorated this, the main social supports identified were consistent but not too frequent contact, the opportunity to connect with peers, having school work that was the same content as peers but modified appropriately and knowing there was somewhere to go to for help and someone who cared to check in or respond to questions and concerns.

Social support is a protective factor for mental health and wellbeing of young people with intellectual disability (Campbell & Gilmore, 2014 ) and we assert from our findings that it is a key consideration when supporting the learning of young people in remote teaching and learning. Our results suggest that social distancing, school closures and learning online have disrupted the educational lives of these students and their families. To mitigate these disruptions, social supports are the form of support that are most valued by the students with disability and families participating in this study: the coefficient for this component is both large and always significantly different from zero across the three positive and one negative learning outcomes used as dependent variables. We argue that learning and engagement that take place via social activities and with social support are most likely to have the most relevant effect on learning and engagement during this prolonged period of disruption.

Children and young people with disability, already coping with discrimination and social exclusion before the pandemic, felt and are feeling the impact of COVID-19 quite severely, especially when schools had to close and online learning activities were often the only option left to continue schooling (Page et al., 2021 ). As the crisis has continued, and chronic uncertainty, multiple disruptions, remote learning and social isolation has been the experience of many young people, the adverse effects on mental health are likely to become more prevalent (Xiong et al., 2020 ). Being cut off from peers and teachers removed a fundamental channel through which children and young adults with disability grow as students and individuals. The concerns expressed by our participants about being invisible and undervalued as members of their communities are identified more broadly in research identifying structural inequalities within many of the services and resources for people with disability (Colon-Cabrera et al., 2021 ). Attention to providing social support and opportunities for social activity with social-emotional support and instruction during synchronous online instruction can provide inclusion opportunities (following Kart & Kart, 2021 ). These supports can include developing supported social-emotional skills to seek help in coping with anxiety (following Khodadadi et al., 2017 ), addressing some of the social isolation by securing ongoing and further relationships with teachers and peers. Disruptions to the routines of social activity and support that help young people, especially young people with disability thrive (Gilmore et al., 2016 ) can be further addressed with social supports. They promote self-efficacy and self-determining choices (Colon-Cabrera et al., 2021 ) reinforcing the communication of support needs for academic support and improving feedback loops between educators and students (Campbell & Gilmore, 2014 ; Hood, 2020 ).

The result that social support was the single most important form of support positively associated with all aspects of perceived learning outcomes covered in the CYDA survey, while reducing feelings of isolation, is a clear indication of what schools could do to engage children and young adults with disability in remote learning, and where to direct financial resources. Drawing on the strategies identified in our textual data and the literature on social supports for disability, scaffolds and supports for peer relationships between all students will benefit all students. Interactive activities, such as collaborative learning activities online, opportunities to participate in social-emotional learning in group communication and collaboration were among those strategies identified as effective. Explicit attention to skills in building and maintaining relationships are likely to support and maintain social networks (Page et al., 2021 ; Drane et al., 2021 ) can help to develop coping skills and opportunities for peer to peer and teacher to student understanding (Cavioni et al., 2017 ). Connecting the experiences of learning to home and taking time to assess the challenges and strategies that students used to cope and engage with their learning in different environments will assist in skill and empathy building (following Espelage et al., 2015 ; Hulvershorn & Mulholland, 2018 ; Khodadadi et al., 2017 ; Masi et al., 2021 ). Connecting with young people and their families to inform schools and teachers about what works, what might work better, and what has been learned from the experiences of remote learning, particularly around social support, will further allow this work to be done with dignity, informed by the knowledge and understanding of the young person’s experience (Children and Young People with Disability [CYDA], 2020 ; Colon-Cabrera et al., 2021 ).

The importance of social support may be also at the core of why non-government schools seem to have been more effective in their support relative to government schools, in that they may cater for a more homogeneous group of students, whose needs were easier to organize. It is also possible that non-government schools have more resources to support students with disability, or, alternatively, that families of students with disability attending non-government schools are richer or better resourced to support their children’s education (Vaz et al., 2015 ).

Turning to the insights from families and young people in the data, building skills in the use of technology and computers including how to log in, manage apps and practice communication in different digital mediums for young people needs more attention, as does the communication around support strategies between school and home (Long et al., 2021 ). Importantly, attention to professional development for teachers preparing them to support and inform the learning of young people with disability in digital and in-person teaching, drawing on the experiences of isolation reported during remote learning, would further support progress in providing inclusive learning experiences.

Finally, this survey was not without its limitations. As we have noted, the vast majority of responses came from family members so one of the gaps in this dataset is the voices of the children and young people with disability. The survey was distributed and promoted by CYDA and social media and may not therefore be a representative sample. The survey was only open for a limited amount of time and was restricted to an online platform so those lacking access to the internet would not have been able to participate.

Concluding Remarks

The results suggest that receiving support during COVID-19 made a substantive and positive contribution to maintaining learning engagement with classmates and school, and reducing feelings of isolation. When the type of intervention is disaggregated, the component that overwhelmingly emerges as being most significant in generating these results is social supports. Maintaining contact with the student has been the most valuable type of intervention for those affected by school lockdowns, ahead of receiving equipment, supervision, and other care services. This is perhaps not surprising, as COVID-19 most directly hit children and young adults with disability via the social separation imposed by social distancing.

Notwithstanding that a substantial proportion of students with disability did not receive any support, the results suggests a wide range of potential changes that might be made to better protect children and young people and their families from experiencing similar sorts of issues in the face of another wave of infection or other disaster scenarios. It is evident that receiving some support has an impact on engagement in learning communities, learning itself, and reduction in social isolation. Further, two or more supports had a significant and substantial positive association with good outcomes, over and above one intervention. This suggests that where children received careful and planned responses, this mitigated against negative impacts and improved learning engagement. It is an important observation as it suggests that actions by schools do have valuable impacts for children and their families. Within support types, social support provisions seem to have the greatest positive association. This intuitively makes sense, as for those who are already socially isolated and have fewer opportunities to engage with their peers, school is an essential link to the community.

To conclude, these undertakings do not require enormous resource allocation to begin with.

Now and on the return to in-person learning, social supports are likely to make an important contribution to the learning of all students, but particularly those with disability.

Data Availability

Data are propriety of Children and Young People with Disability Australia.

Code Availability

Data analyzed using Stata software. Code available from the corresponding author upon request.

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We acknowledge the support and partnership of Children and Young People with Disability Australia, and particularly the support of Mary Sayers, Maeve Kennedy and Sue Tape. We would also like to thank all those families who took the time to share their experiences with us.

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What federal education data shows about students with disabilities in the u.s..

Public K-12 schools in the United States educate about 7.3 million students with disabilities – a number that has grown over the last few decades. Disabled students ages 3 to 21 are served under the federal  Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) , which guarantees them the right to free public education and appropriate special education services.

For Disability Pride Month , here are some key facts about public school students with disabilities, based on the latest data from the  National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) .

July is both Disability Pride Month and the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. To mark these occasions, Pew Research Center used federal education data from  the National Center for Education Statistics  to learn more about students who receive special education services in U.S. public schools.

In this analysis, students with disabilities include those ages 3 to 21 who are served under the federal  Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) . Through IDEA, children with disabilities are guaranteed a “free appropriate public education,” including special education and related services.

The 7.3 million disabled students in the U.S. made up 15% of national public school enrollment during the 2021-22 school year. The population of students in prekindergarten through 12th grade who are served under IDEA has grown in both number and share over the last few decades. During the 2010-11 school year, for instance, there were 6.4 million students with disabilities in U.S. public schools, accounting for 13% of enrollment.

The number of students receiving special education services temporarily dropped during the coronavirus pandemic – the first decline in a decade. Between the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years, the number of students receiving special education services decreased by 1%, from 7.3 million to 7.2 million. This was the first year-over-year drop in special education enrollment since 2011-12.

The decline in students receiving special education services was part of a 3% decline in the overall number of students enrolled in public schools between 2019-20 and 2020-21. While special education enrollment bounced back to pre-pandemic levels in the 2021-22 school year, overall public school enrollment remained flat.

These enrollment trends may reflect some of the learning difficulties and health concerns students with disabilities and their families faced during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic , which limited or paused special education services in many school districts.

Many school districts struggle to hire special education professionals. During the 2020-21 school year, 40% of public schools that had a special education teaching vacancy reported that they either found it very difficult to fill the position or were not able to do so.

Foreign languages (43%) and physical sciences (37%) were the only subjects with similarly large shares of hard-to-fill teaching vacancies at public schools that were looking to hire in those fields.

While the COVID-19 pandemic called attention to a nationwide teacher shortage , special education positions have long been among the most difficult for school districts to fill .

The most common type of disability for students in prekindergarten through 12th grade involves “specific learning disabilities,” such as dyslexia.  In 2021-22, about a third of students (32%) receiving services under IDEA had a specific learning disability. Some 19% had a speech or language impairment, while 15% had a chronic or acute health problem that adversely affected their educational performance. Chronic or acute health problems include ailments such as heart conditions, asthma, sickle cell anemia, epilepsy, leukemia and diabetes.

Students with autism made up 12% of the nation’s schoolchildren with disabilities in 2021-22, compared with 1.5% in 2000-01.  During those two decades, the share of disabled students with a specific learning disability, such as dyslexia, declined from 45% to 32%.

The percentage of students receiving special education services varies widely across states. New York serves the largest share of disabled students in the country at 20.5% of its overall public school enrollment. Pennsylvania (20.2%), Maine (20.1%) and Massachusetts (19.3%) serve the next-largest shares. The states serving the lowest shares of disabled students include Texas and Idaho (both 11.7%) and Hawaii (11.3%).

Between the 2000-01 and 2021-22 school years, all but 12 states experienced growth in their disabled student populations. The biggest increase occurred in Utah, where the disabled student population rose by 65%. Rhode Island saw the largest decline of 22%.

These differences by state are likely the result of inconsistencies in how states determine which students are eligible for special education services and challenges in identifying disabled children.

The racial and ethnic makeup of the nation’s special education students is similar to public school students overall, but there are differences by sex.  About two-thirds of disabled students (65%) are male, while 34% are female, according to data from the 2021-22 school year. Overall student enrollment is about evenly split between boys and girls.

Research has shown that decisions about whether to recommend a student for special education may be influenced by their school’s socioeconomic makeup, as well as by the school’s test scores and other academic markers.

Note: This is an update of a post originally published April 23, 2020.

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Understanding, Educating, and Supporting Children with Specific Learning Disabilities: 50 Years of Science and Practice

Elena l. grigorenko.

1 University of Houston, Houston, USA

2 Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, USA

Donald Compton

3 Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA

4 Vanderbilt University, Nashville, USA

Richard Wagner

Erik willcutt.

5 University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, USA

Jack M. Fletcher

Specific learning disabilities (SLD) are highly relevant to the science and practice of psychology, both historically and currently, exemplifying the integration of interdisciplinary approaches to human conditions. They can be manifested as primary conditions—as difficulties in acquiring specific academic skills—or as secondary conditions, comorbid to other developmental disorders such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. In this synthesis of historical and contemporary trends in research and practice, we mark the 50th anniversary of the recognition of SLD as a disability in the US. Specifically, we address the manifestations, occurrence, identification, comorbidity, etiology, and treatment of SLD, emphasizing the integration of information from the interdisciplinary fields of psychology, education, psychiatry, genetics, and cognitive neuroscience. SLD, exemplified here by Specific Word Reading, Reading Comprehension, Mathematics, and Written Expression Disabilities, represent spectrum disorders each occurring in approximately 5–15% of the school-aged population. In addition to risk for academic deficiencies and related functional social, emotional, and behavioral difficulties, those with SLD often have poorer long-term social and vocational outcomes. Given the high rate of occurrence of SLD and their lifelong negative impact on functioning if not treated, it is important to establish and maintain effective prevention, surveillance, and treatment systems involving professionals from various disciplines trained to minimize the risk and maximize the protective factors for SLD.

Fifty years ago, the US federal government, following an advisory committee recommendation ( United States Office of Education, 1968 ), first recognized specific learning disabilities (SLD) as a potentially disabling condition that interferes with adaptation at school and in society. Over these 50 years, a significant research base has emerged on the identification and treatment of SLD, with greater understanding of the cognitive, neurobiological, and environmental causes of these disorders. The original 1968 definition of SLD remains statutory through different reauthorizations of the 1975 special education legislation that provided free and appropriate public education for all children with disabilities, now referred to as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2004). SLD are recognized worldwide as a heterogeneous set of academic skill disorders represented in all major diagnostic nomenclatures, including the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual-5 (DSM-5, American Psychiatric Association, 2013) and the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-11, World Health Organization, 2018).

In the US, the SLD category is the largest for individuals who receive federally legislated support through special education. Children are identified as SLD through IDEA when a child does not meet state-approved age- or grade-level standards in one or more of the following areas: oral expression, listening comprehension, written expression, basic reading skills, reading fluency, reading comprehension, mathematics calculation, and mathematics problem solving. Although children with SLD historically represented about 50% of the children aged 3–21 served under IDEA, percentages have fluctuated across reauthorizations of the special education law, with some decline over the past 10 years ( Figure 1 ).

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), enacted in 1975 as Public Law 94–142, mandates that children and youth ages 3–21 with disabilities be provided a free and appropriate public school education in the least restricted environment. The percentage of children served by federally mandated special education programs, out of total public school enrollment, increased from 8.3 percent to 13.8 percent between 1976–77 and 2004–05. Much of this overall increase can be attributed to a rise in the percentage of students identified as having SLD from 1976–77 (1.8 percent) to 2004–05 (5.7 percent). The overall percentage of students being served in programs for those with disabilities decreased between 2004–05 (13.8 percent) and 2013–14 (12.9 percent). However, there were different patterns of change in the percentages served with some specific conditions between 2004–05 and 2013–14. The percentage of children identified with SLD declined from 5.7 percent to 4.5 percent of the total public school enrollment during this period. This number is highly variable by state: for example, in 2011 it ranged from 2.3% in Kentucky to 13.8% in Puerto Rico, as there is much variability in the procedures used to identify SLD, and disproportional demographic representation. Figure by Janet Croog.

This review is a consensus statement developed by researchers currently leading the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) supported Consortia of Learning Disabilities Research Centers and Innovation Hubs. This consensus is based on the primary studies we cite, as well as the meta-analytic reviews (*), systematic reviews (**), and first-authored books (***) that provide an overview of the science underlying research and practice in SLD (see references). The hope is that this succinct overview of the current state of knowledge on SLD will help guide an agenda of future research by identifying knowledge gaps, especially as the NICHD embarks on a new strategic plan. The research programs on SLD from which this review is derived represent the integration of diverse, interdisciplinary approaches to behavioral science and human conditions. We start with a brief description of the historical roots of the current view of SLD, then provide definitions as well as prevalence and incidence rates, discuss comorbidity between SLD themselves and SLD and other developmental disorders, comment on methods for SLD identification, present current knowledge on the etiology of SLD, and conclude with evidence-based principles for SLD intervention.

Three Historical Strands of Inquiry that Shaped the Current Field of SLD

Three strands of phenomenological inquiry culminated in the 1968 definition and have continued to shape current terminology and conventions in the field of SLD ( Figure 2 ). The first, a medical strand, originated in 1676, when Johannes Schmidt described an adult who had lost his ability to read (but with preserved ability to write and spell) because of a stroke. Interest in this strand reemerged in the 1870s with the publication of a string of adult cases who had lived through a stroke or traumatic brain injury. Subsequent cases involved children who were unable to learn to read despite success in mathematics and an absence of brain injury, which was termed “word blindness” ( W. P. Morgan, 1896 ). These case studies laid the foundation for targeted investigations into the presentation of specific unexpected difficulties related to reading printed words despite typical intelligence, motivation, and opportunity to learn.

A schematic timeline of the three stands of science and practice in the field of SLD. The colors represent the strands (blue—first, yellow—second, and green—third). Blue: provided phenomenological descriptions and generated hypotheses about the gene-brain bases of SLD (specifically, dyslexia or SRD); it also provided the first evidence that the most effective treatment approaches are skill-based and reflect cognitive models of the conditions. Yellow: differentiated SLD from other comorbid conditions. Green: stressed the importance of focusing on SLD in academic settings and developing both preventive and remediational evidence-based approaches to managing these conditions. Due to space constraints, the names of many highly influential scientists (e.g., Marilyn Adams, Joseph Torgesen, Isabelle Liberman, Keith Stanovich, among others) who shaped the field of SLD have been omitted. Figure by Janet Croog.

The second strand is directly related to the formalization of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). Rooted in the work of biologically oriented physicians, the 1952 first edition (DSM-I) referenced a category of chronic brain syndromes of unknown cause that focused largely on behavioral presentations we now recognize as hyperkinesis and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The 1968 DSM-II defined “mild brain damage” in children as a chronic brain syndrome manifested by hyperactive and impulsive behavior with reference to a new category, “hyperkinetic reaction of childhood” if the origin is not considered “organic.” As these categories evolved, they expanded to encompass the academic difficulties experienced by many of these children.

After almost 30 years of research into this general category of “minimal brain dysfunction,” representing “... children of near average, average, or above average general intelligence with certain learning or behavioral disabilities ... associated with deviations of function of the central nervous system.” ( Clements, 1966 , pp. 9–10), the field acknowledged the heterogeneity of these children and the failure of general “one size fits all” interventions. As a result, the 1980 DSM-III formally separated academic skill disorders from ADHD. The 1994 DSM-IV differentiated reading, mathematics, and written expression SLD. The DSM-5 reversed that, merging these categories into one overarching category of SLD (nosologically distinct from although comorbid with ADHD), keeping the notion of specificity by stating that SLD can manifest in three major academic domains (reading, mathematics, and writing).

The third strand originated from the development of effective interventions based on cognitive and linguistic models of observed academic difficulties. This strand, endorsed in the 1960s by Samuel Kirk and associates, viewed SLD as an overarching category of spoken and written language difficulties that manifested as disabilities in reading (dyslexia), mathematics (dyscalculia), and writing (dysgraphia). Advances have been made in understanding the psychological and cognitive texture of SLD, developing interventions aimed at overcoming or managing them, and differentiating these disorders from each other, from other developmental disorders, and from other forms of disadvantage. This work became the foundation of the 1968 advisory committee definition of SLD, which linked this definition with that of minimal brain dysfunction via the same “unexpected” exclusionary criteria (i.e., not attributable primarily to intellectual difficulties, sensory disorders, emotional disturbance, or economic/cultural diversity).

Although its exclusionary criteria were well specified, the definition of SLD did not provide clear inclusionary criteria. Thus, the US Department of Education’s 1977 regulatory definition of SLD included a cognitive discrepancy between higher IQ and lower achievement as an inclusionary criterion. This discrepancy was viewed as a marker for unexpected underachievement and penetrated the policy and practice of SLD in the US and abroad. In many settings, the measurement of such a discrepancy is still considered key to identification. Yet, IDEA 2004 and the DSM-5 moved away from this requirement due to a lack of evidence that SLD varies with IQ and numerous philosophical and technical challenges to the notion of discrepancy (Fletcher, Lyon, Fuchs, & Barnes, 2019). IDEA 2004 also permitted an alternative inclusion criterion based on Response-to-Intervention (RTI), in which SLD reflects inadequate response to effective instruction, while the DSM-5 focuses on evidence of persistence of learning difficulties despite treatment efforts.

These three stands of inquiry into SLD use a variety of concepts (e.g., word blindness, strephosymbolia, dyslexia and alexia, dyscalculia and acalculia, dysgraphia and agraphia), which are sometimes differentiated and sometimes used synonymously, generating confusion in the literature. Given the heterogeneity of their manifestation and these diverse historical influences, it has been difficult to agree on the best way to identify SLD, although there is consensus that their core is unexpected underachievement. A source of active research and controversy is whether “unexpectedness” is best identified by applying solely exclusionary criteria (i.e., simple low achievement), inclusionary criteria based on uneven cognitive development (e.g., academic skills lower than IQ or another aptitude measure, such as listening comprehension), or evidence of persisting difficulties (DSM-5) despite effective instruction (IDEA 2004).

Manifestation, Definition, and Etiology

That the academic deficits in SLD relate to other cognitive skills has always been recognized, but the diagnostic and treatment relevance of this connection has remained unclear. A rich literature on cognitive models of SLD ( Elliott & Grigorenko, 2014 ; Fletcher et al., 2019) provides the basis for five central ideas. First, SLD are componential ( Melby-Lervåg, Lyster, & Hulme, 2012 ; Peng & Fuchs, 2016 ): Their academic manifestations arise on a landscape of peaks, valleys, and canyons in various cognitive processes, such that individuals with SLD have weaknesses in specific processes, rather than global intellectual disability ( Morris et al., 1998 ). Second, the cognitive components associated with SLD, just like academic skills and instructional response, are dimensional and normally distributed in the general population ( Ellis, 1984 ), such that understanding typical acquisition should provide insight into SLD and vice versa ( Rayner, Foorman, Perfetti, Pesetsky, & Seidenberg, 2001 ). Third, each academic and cognitive component may have a distinct signature in the brain ( Figure 3 ) and genome ( Figure 4 ). These signatures and etiologies likely overlap because they are correlated, but are not interchangeable, as their unique features substantiate the distinctness of various SLD ( Vandermosten, Hoeft, & Norton, 2016 ). Fourth, the overlap at least partially explains their rates of comorbidity ( Berninger & Abbott, 2010 ; Szucs, 2016 ; Willcutt et al., 2013 ). Fifth, deficiencies in these cognitive and academic processes appear to last throughout the lifespan, especially in the absence of intervention ( Klassen, Tze, & Hannok, 2013 ).

Results of meta-analyses of functional neuroimaging studies that exemplify the distribution of activation patterns in different reading- ( A ) and mathematics- ( B ) related networks, corresponding to componential models of the skills. A (Left panel, light blue): A lexical network in the basal occipito-temporal regions and in the left inferior parietal cortex. A (Middle panel, dark blue): A sublexical network, primarily involving regions of the left temporo-parietal lobe extending from the left anterior fusiform region. A (Right panel): Activation likelihood estimation map of foci from the word>pseudowords (light blue) and pseudowords>words (dark blue) contrasts. The semantic processing cluster is shown in green. B (Left panel): A number-processing network, primarily involving a region of the parietal lobe. B (Middle panel): An arithmetic-processing network, primarily involving regions of the frontal and parietal lobes. B (Right panel): Children (red) and adult (pink) meta-analyses of brain areas associated with numbers and calculations. Figure by Janet Croog.

A schematic representation of the genetic regions and gene-candidates linked to or associated with SRD and reading-related processes (shown in blue), and SMD and mathematics-related processes (shown in red). Dark blue signifies more studied loci and genes. Blue highlighted in red indicate the genes implicated in both SRD and SMD. Figure by Janet Croog.

The DSM-5 and IDEA 2004 reflect agreement that SLD can occur in word reading and spelling (Specific Word Reading Disability; SWRD) and in specific reading comprehension disability (SRCD). SWRD represents difficulties with beginning reading skills due at least in part to phonological processing deficits, while other language indicators (e.g., vocabulary) may be preserved ( Pennington, 2009 ). In contrast, SRCD ( Cutting et al., 2013 ), which is more apparent later in development, is associated with non-phonological language weaknesses ( Scarborough, 2005 ). The magnitude of SRCD is greater than that of vocabulary or language comprehension difficulties, suggesting that other problems, such as weaknesses in executive function or background knowledge, also contribute to SRCD ( Spencer, Wagner, & Petscher, 2018 ).

Math SLDs are differentiated as calculations (SMD) versus problem solving (word problems) SLD, which are associated with distinct cognitive deficits ( L. S. Fuchs et al., 2010 ) and require different forms of intervention ( L. S. Fuchs et al., 2014 ). Calculation is more linked to attention and phonological processing, while problem solving is more linked to language comprehension and reasoning; working memory has been associated with both. Specific written expression disability, SWED ( Berninger, 2004 ; Graham, Collins, & Rigby-Wills, 2017 ) occurs in the mechanical act of writing (i.e., handwriting, keyboarding, spelling), associated with fine motor-perceptual skills, or in composing text (i.e., planning and revising, understanding genre), associated with oral language skills, executive functions, and the automaticity of transcription skills. Although each domain varies in its cognitive correlates, treatment, and neurobiology, there is overlap. By carefully specifying the domain of academic impairment, considerable progress has been made in the treatment and understanding of the factors that lead to SLD.

Identification methods have searched for other markers of unexpected underachievement beyond low achievement, but always include exclusionary factors. Diagnosis solely by exclusion has been criticized due to the heterogeneity of the resultant groups ( Rutter, 1982 ); thus, the introduction of a discrepancy paradigm. One approach relies on the aptitude-achievement discrepancy, commonly operationalized as a discrepancy between measures of IQ and achievement in a specific academic domain. IQ-discrepancy was the central feature of federal regulations for identification from 1977 until 2004, although the approaches used to qualify and quantify the discrepancy varied in the 50 states. Lack of validity evidence ( Stuebing et al., 2015 ; Stuebing et al., 2002 ) resulted in its de-emphasis in IDEA 2004 and elimination from DSM-5.

A second approach focuses on identifying uneven patterns of strengths and weaknesses (PSW) profiles of cognitive functioning to explain observed unevenness in achievement across academic domains ( Flanagan, Alfonso, & Mascolo, 2011 ; Hale et al., 2008 ; Naglieri & Das, 1997 ). According to these methods, a student with SLD demonstrates a weakness in achievement (e.g., word reading), which correlates with an uneven profile of cognitive weaknesses and strengths (e.g., phonological processing deficits with advanced visual-spatial skills). Proponents suggest that understanding these patterns is informative for individualizing interventions that capitalize on student strengths (i.e., maintain and enhance academic motivation) and compensate for weaknesses (i.e., enhance the phonological processing needed for the acquisition and automatization of reading), but little supporting empirical evidence is available ( Miciak, Fletcher, Stuebing, Vaughn, & Tolar, 2014 ; Taylor, Miciak, Fletcher, & Francis, 2017 ). Meta-analytic research suggests an absence of cognitive aptitude by treatment interactions ( Burns et al., 2016 ), and limited improvement in academic skills based on training cognitive deficits such as working memory ( Melby-Lervåg, Redick, & Hulme, 2016 ).

Newer methods of SLD identification are linked to the development of the third historical strand, based on RTI. With RTI, schools screen for early indicators of academic and behavior problems and then progress monitor potentially at-risk children using brief, frequent probes of academic performance. When data indicate inadequate progress in response to adequate classroom instruction (Tier 1), the school delivers supplemental intervention (Tier 2), usually in the form of small-group instruction.

A child who continues to struggle requires more intensive, individualized intervention (Tier 3), which may include special education. An advantage of RTI is that intervention is provided prior to the determination of eligibility for special education placement. RTI juxtaposes the core concept of underachievement with the concept of inadequate response to instruction, that is, intractability to intervention. It prioritizes the presence of functional difficulty and only then considers SLD as a possible source of this difficulty ( Grigorenko, 2009 ). Still, concerns about the RTI approach to identification remain. One concern is that RTI approaches may not identify “high-potential” children who struggle to develop appropriate academic skills ( Reynolds & Shaywitz, 2009 ). Other concerns involve low agreement across different methods for defining inadequate RTI ( D. Fuchs, Compton, Fuchs, Bryant, & Davis, 2008 ; L. S. Fuchs, 2003 ) and challenges schools face in adequately implementing RTI frameworks ( Balu et al., 2015 ; D. Fuchs & Fuchs, 2017 ; Schatschneider, Wagner, Hart, & Tighe, 2016 ).

Prevalence and Incidence

Because the attributes of SLD are dimensional and depend on the thresholds used to subdivide normal distributions ( Hulme & Snowling, 2013 ), estimates of prevalence and incidence vary. SWRD’s prevalence estimates range from 5 to 17% ( Katusic, Colligan, Barbaresi, Schaid, & Jacobsen, 2001 ; Moll, Kunze, Neuhoff, Bruder, & Schulte-Körne, 2014 ). SRCD is less frequent ( Etmanskie, Partanen, & Siegel, 2016 ), but still represents about 42% of all children ever identified with SLD in reading at any grade ( Catts, Compton, Tomblin, & Bridges, 2012 ). Estimates of incidence and prevalence of SMD vary as well: from 4 to 8% ( Moll et al., 2014 ). Cumulative incidence rates by the age of 19 years range from 5.9% to 13.8%. Similar to SWRD, SMD can be differentiated in terms of lower- and higher-order skills and by time of onset. Computation-based SMD manifests earlier; problem-solving SMD later, sometimes in the absence of computation-based SMD ( L. S. Fuchs, D. Fuchs, C. L. Hamlett, et al., 2008 ). SWED is the least studied SLD. Its prevalence estimates range from 6% to 22% ( P. L. Morgan, Farkas, Hillemeier, & Maczuga, 2016 ) and cumulative incidence ranges from 6.9% to 14.7% ( Katusic, Colligan, Weaver, & Barbaresi, 2009 ).

Comorbidity and Co-Occurrence

One reason SLD can be difficult to define and identify is that different SLDs often co-occur in the same child. Comorbidity involving SWRD ranges from 30% ( National Center for Learning Disabilities, 2014 ) to 60% ( Willcutt et al., 2007 ). The most frequently observed co-occurrences are between (1) SWRD and SMD ( Moll et al., 2014 ; Willcutt et al., 2013 ), with 30–50% of children who experience a deficit in one academic domain demonstrating a deficit in the other ( Moll et al., 2014 ); (2) SWRD and early language impairments ( Dickinson, Golinkoff, & Hirsh-Pasek, 2010 ; Hulme & Snowling, 2013 ; Pennington, 2009 ) with 55% of individuals with SWRD exhibiting significant speech and language impairment ( McArthur, Hogben, Edwards, Heath, & Mengler, 2000 ); and (3) SWRD and internalizing and externalizing behavior problems, with 25–50% of children with SWRD meeting criteria for ADHD ( Pennington, 2009 ) and for generalized anxiety disorder and specific test anxiety, depression, and conduct problems ( Cederlof, Maughan, Larsson, D’Onofrio, & Plomin, 2017 ), although comorbid conduct problems are largely restricted to the subset of individuals with both SWRD and ADHD ( Willcutt et al., 2007 ).

The co-occurrence of SMD is less studied, but there are some consistently replicated observations: (1) individuals with SMD exhibit higher rates of ADHD, and math difficulties are observed in individuals with ADHD more frequently than in the general population ( Willcutt et al., 2013 ); (2) math difficulties are associated with elevated anxiety and depression even after reading difficulties are controlled ( Willcutt et al., 2013 ); and (3) SMD are associated with other developmental conditions such as epilepsy ( Fastenau, Shen, Dunn, & Austin, 2008 ) and schizophrenia ( Crow, Done, & Sacker, 1995 ).

SLD is clearly associated with difficulties in adaptation, in school and in larger spheres of life associated with work and overall adjustment. Longitudinal research reports poorer vocational outcomes, lower graduation rates, higher rates of psychiatric difficulties, and more involvement with the justice system for individuals with SWRD ( Willcutt et al., 2007 ). Importantly, there is evidence of increased comorbidity across forms of SLD with age, with accumulated cognitive burden ( Costa, Edwards, & Hooper, 2016 ). Individuals with comorbid SLDs have poorer emotional adjustment and school functioning than those identified with a single impairment ( Martinez & Semrud-Clikeman, 2004 ).

Identification (Diagnosis)

Comorbidity indicates that approaches to assessment should be broad and comprehensive. For SLD, the choice of a classification model directly influences the selection of assessments for diagnostic purposes. Although all three models are used, the literature (Fletcher et al., 2019) demonstrates that a single indicator model, based either on cut-off scores, other formulae, or assessment of instructional response, does not lead to reliable identification regardless of the method employed. SLD can be identified reliably only in the context of multiple indicators. A step in this direction is a hybrid method that includes three sets of criteria, two inclusionary and one exclusionary, recommended by a consensus group of researchers (Bradley, Danielson, & Hallahan, 2002). The two inclusionary criteria are evidence of low achievement (captured by standardized tests of academic achievement) and evidence of inadequate RTI (captured by curriculum-based progress-monitoring measures or other education records). The exclusionary criterion should demonstrate that the documented low achievement is not primarily attributable to “other” (than SLD) putative causes such as (a) other disorders (e.g., intellectual disability, sensory or motor disorders) or (b) contextual factors (e.g., disadvantaged social, religious, economic, linguistic, or family environment). In the future, it is likely that multi-indicator methods will be extended, with improved identification accuracy, by the addition of other indicators, neurobiological, genetic, or behavioral. It is also possible that assessment of specific cognitive processes beyond academic achievement will improve identification, but presently there is little evidence that such testing adds value to identification ( Elliott & Grigorenko, 2014 ; Fletcher et al., 2019). All identification methods for SLD assume that children referred for assessment are in good health or are being treated and that their physical health, including hearing and vision, is monitored. Currently, there are no laboratory tests (i.e., DNA or brain structure/activity) for SLD. There are also no tests that can be administered by an optometrist, audiologist, or physical therapist to diagnose or treat SLD.

Etiological Factors

Neural structure and function.

Since the earliest reports of reading difficulties, it has been assumed that the loss of function (i.e., acquired reading disability) or challenges in the acquisition of function (i.e., congenital reading disability) are associated with the brain. Functional patterns of activation in response to cognitive stimuli show reliable differences in degrees of activation between typically developing children and those identified with SWRD, and reveal different spatial distributions in relation to children identified with SMD and ADHD ( Dehaene, 2009 ; Seidenberg, 2017 ). In SWRD, there are reduced gray matter volumes, reduced integrity of white matter pathways, and atypical sulcal patterns/curvatures in the left-hemispheric frontal, occipito-temporal, and temporo-parietal regions that overlap with areas of reduced brain activation during reading.

These findings together indicate the presence of atypicalities in the structures (i.e., grey matter) that form the neural system for reading and their connecting pathways (i.e., white matter). These structural atypicalities challenge the emergence of the cognitive—phonological, orthographic, and semantic—representations required for the assembly and automatization of the reading system. Although some have interpreted the atypicalities as a product of reading instruction ( Krafnick, Flowers, Luetje, Napoliello, & Eden, 2014 ), there is also evidence that atypicalities can be observed in pre-reading children at risk for SWRD due to family history or speech and language difficulties ( Raschle et al., 2015 ), sometimes as early as a few days after birth with electrophysiological measures ( Molfese, 2000 ). What emerges in a beginning reader, if not properly instructed at developmentally important periods, is a suboptimal brain system that is inefficient in acquiring and practicing reading. This system is complex, representing multiple networks aligned with different reading-related processes ( Figure 3 ). The system engages cooperative and competitive brain mechanisms at the sublexical (phonological) and lexical levels, in which the phonological, orthographic, and semantic representations are utilized to rapidly form representations of a written stimulus. Proficient readers process words on sight with immediate access to meaning ( Dehaene, 2009 ). In addition to malleability in development, there is strong evidence of malleability through instruction in SWRD, such that the neural processes largely normalize if the intervention is successful ( Barquero, Davis, & Cutting, 2014 ).

The functional neural networks for SMD also vary depending on the mathematical operation being performed, just as the neural correlates of SWRD and SRCD do ( Cutting et al., 2013 ). Neuroimaging studies on the a(typical) acquisition of numeracy posit SMD ( Arsalidou, Pawliw-Levac, Sadeghi, & Pascual-Leone, 2017 ) as a brain disorder engaging multiple functional systems that together substantiate numeracy and its componential processes ( Figure 3 ). First, the intraparietal sulcus, the posterior parietal cortex, and regions in the prefrontal cortex are important for representing and processing quantitative information. Second, mnemonic regions anchored in the medial temporal lobe and hippocampus are involved in the retrieval of math facts. Third, additional relevant regions include visual areas implicated in visual form judgement and symbolic processing. Fourth, prefrontal areas are involved in higher-level processes such as error monitoring, and maintaining and manipulating information. As mathematical processes become more automatic, reliance on the parietal network decreases and reliance on the frontal network increases. All these networks, assembled in a complex functional brain system, appear necessary for the acquisition and maintenance of numeracy, and various aberrations in the functional interactions between networks have been described. Thus, SMD can arise as a result of disturbances in one or multiple relevant networks, or interactions among them ( Arsalidou et al., 2017 ; Ashkenazi, Black, Abrams, Hoeft, & Menon, 2013 ). There is also evidence of malleability and the normalization of neural networks with successful intervention in SMD ( Iuculano et al., 2015 ).

Genetic and environmental factors

Early case studies of reading difficulties identified their familial nature, which has been confirmed in numerous studies utilizing genetically-sensitive designs with various combinations of relatives—identical and fraternal twins, non-twin siblings, parent-offspring pairs and trios, and nuclear and extended families. The relative risk of having SWRD if at least one family member has SWRD is higher for relatives of individuals with the condition, compared to the risk to unrelated individuals; higher for children in families where at least one relative has SWRD; even higher for families where a first-degree relative (i.e., a parent or a sibling) has SWRD; and higher still for children in families where both parents have SWRD ( Snowling & Melby-Lervåg, 2016 ). Quantitative-genetic studies estimate that 30–80% of the variance in reading, math or spelling outcomes is explained by heritable factors ( Willcutt et al., 2010 ).

Since the 1980s, there have been systematic efforts to identify the sources of structural variation in the genome, i.e., genetic susceptibility loci that can account for the strong heritability and familiality of SWRD ( Figure 4 ). These efforts have yielded the identification of nine regions of the genome thought to harbor genes, or other genetic material, whose variation is associated with the presence of SWRD and individual differences in reading-related processes. Within these regions, a number of candidate genes have been tapped, but no single candidate has been unequivocally replicated as a causal gene for SWRD, and observed effects are small. In addition, multiple other genes located outside of the nine linked regions have been observed to be relevant to the manifestation of SWRD and related difficulties. Currently there are ongoing efforts to interrogate candidate genes for SWRD and connect their structural variation to individual differences in the brain system underlying the acquisition and practice of reading.

There are only a few molecular-genetic studies of SMD and its related processes ( Figure 4 ). Unlike SWRD, no “regions of interest” have been identified. Only one study investigated the associations between known single-nuclear polymorphisms (SNP) and a composite measure of mathematics performance derived from various assessments of SMD-related componential processes and teacher ratings. The study generated a set of SNPs that, when combined, accounted for 2.9% of the phenotypic variance ( Figure 4 shows the genes in which the three most statistically significant SNPs from this set are located). Importantly, when this SNP set was used to study whether the association between the 10-SNP set and mathematical ability differs as a function of characteristics of the home and school, the association was stronger for indicators of mathematical performance in chaotic homes and in the context of negative parenting.

Finally, studies have investigated the pleiotropic (i.e., impacting multiple phenotypes) effects of SWRD candidate genes on SMD, ADHD, and related processes. These effects are seemingly in line with the “generalist genes” hypothesis, asserting the pleiotropic influences of some genes to multiple SLD ( Plomin & Kovas, 2005 ).

Environmental factors are strong predictors of SLD. These factors penetrate all levels of a child’s ecosystem: culture, demonstrated in different literacy and numeracy rates around the world; social strata, captured by social-economic indicators across different cultures; characteristics of schooling, reflected by pedagogies and instructional practices; family literacy environments through the availability of printed materials and the importance ascribed to reading at home; and neighborhood and peer influences. Interactive effects suggest that reading difficulties are magnified when certain genetic and environmental factors co-occur, but there is evidence of neural malleability even in SWDE ( Overvelde & Hulstijn, 2011 ). Neural and genetic factors are best understood as risk factors that variably manifest depending on the home and school environment and child attributes like motivation.

Intervention

Although the content of instruction varies depending on whether reading, math, and/or writing are impaired, general principles of effective intervention apply across SLD i . First, intervention for SLD is explicit ( Seidenberg, 2017 ): Teachers formally present new knowledge and concepts with clear explanations, model skills and strategies, and teach to mastery with cumulative practice with ongoing guidance and feedback. Second, intervention is individualized: Instruction is formatively adjusted in response to systematic progress-monitoring data ( Stecker, Fuchs, & Fuchs, 2005 ). Third, intervention is comprehensive and differentiated, addressing the multiple components underlying proficient skill as well as comorbidity. Comprehensive approaches address the multifaceted nature of SLD and provide more complex interventions that are generally more effective than isolated skills training in reading ( Mathes et al., 2005 ) and math ( L. S. Fuchs et al., 2014 ). For example, children with SLD and ADHD may need educational and pharmacological interventions ( Tamm et al., 2017 ). Anxiety can develop early in children who struggle in school, and internalizing problems must be treated ( Grills, Fletcher, Vaughn, Denton, & Taylor, 2013 ). Differentiation through individualization in the context of a comprehensive intervention also permits adjustments of the focus of an intervention on specific weaknesses.

Fourth, intervention adjusts intensity as needed to ensure success, by increasing instructional time, decreasing group size, and increasing individualization ( L. S. Fuchs, Fuchs, & Malone, 2017 ). Such specialized intervention is typically necessary for students with SLD ( L. S. Fuchs et al., 2015 ). Yet, effective instruction for SLD begins with differentiated general education classroom instruction ( Connor & Morrison, 2016 ), in which intervention is coordinated with rather than supplanting core instruction ( L. S. Fuchs, D. Fuchs, C. Craddock, et al., 2008 ).

In addition, intervention is more effective when provided early in development. For example, intervention for SWRD was twice as effective if delivered in grades 1 or 2 than if started in grade 3 ( Lovett et al., 2017 ). This is underscored by neuroimaging research ( Barquero et al., 2014 ) showing that experience with words and numbers is needed to develop the neural systems that mediate reading and math proficiency. A child with or at risk for SWRD who cannot access print because of a phonological processing problem will not get the reading experience needed to develop the lexical system for whole word processing and immediate access to word meanings. This may be why remedial programs are less effective after second grade; with early intervention, the child at risk for SLD develops automaticity because they have gained the experience with print or numbers essential for fluency. Even with high quality intensive intervention, some children with SLD do not respond adequately, and students with persistent SLD may profit from assistive technology (e.g., computer programs that convert text-to-speech; Wood, Moxley, Tighe, & Wagner, 2018 ).

Finally, interventions for SLD must occur in the context of the academic skill itself. Cognitive interventions that do not involve print or numbers, such as isolated phonological awareness training or working memory training without application to mathematical operations do not improve reading or math skill ( Melby-Lervåg et al., 2016 ). Physical exercises (e.g., cerebellar training), optometric training, special lenses or overlays, and other proposed interventions that do not involve teaching reading or math are ineffective ( Pennington, 2009 ). Pharmacological interventions are effective largely due to their impact on comorbid symptoms, with little evidence of a direct effect on the academic skill ( Tamm et al., 2017 ).

No evaluations of recovery rate from SLD have been performed. Intervention success has been evaluated as closing the age-grade discrepancy, placing children with SLD at an age-appropriate grade level, and maintaining their progress at a rate commensurate with typical development. Meta-analytic studies estimate effect sizes of academic interventions at 0.49 for reading ( Scammacca, Roberts, Vaughn, & Stuebing, 2015 ), 0.53 for math ( Dennis et al., 2016 ), and 0.74 for writing ( Gillespie & Graham, 2014 ).

Implications for Practice and Research

Practitioners should recognize that the psychological and educational scientific evidence base supports specific approaches to the identification and treatment of SLD. In designing SLD evaluations, assessments must be timely to avoid delays in intervention; they must consider comorbidities as well as contextual factors, and data collected in the context of previous efforts to instruct the child. Practitioners should use the resulting assessment data to ensure that intervention programs are evidence-based and reflect explicitness, comprehensiveness, individualization, and intensity. There is little evidence that children with SLD benefit from discovery, exposure, or constructivist instructional approaches.

With respect to research, the most pressing issue is understanding individual differences in development and intervention from neurological, genetic, cognitive, and environmental perspectives. This research will ultimately lead to earlier and more precise identification of children with SLD, and to better interventions and long-term accommodations for the 2–6% of the general population who receive but do not respond to early prevention efforts. More generally, other human conditions may benefit from the examples of progress exemplified by the integrated, interdisciplinary approaches that underlie the progress of the past 50 years in the scientific understanding of SLD.

Acknowledgments

The authors are the Principal Investigators of the currently funded Learning Disabilities Research Centers ( https://www.nichd.nih.gov/research/supported/ldrc ) and Innovation Hubs ( https://www.nichd.nih.gov/research/supported/ldhubs ), the two key NICHD programs supporting research on Specific Learning Disabilities. The preparation of this articles was supported by P20 HD090103 (PI: Compton), P50 HD052117 (PI: Fletcher), P20 HD075443 (PI: Fuchs), P20 HD091005 (PI: Grigorenko), P50 HD052120 (PI: Wagner), and P50 HD27802 (PI: Willcutt). Grantees undertaking such projects are encouraged to express their professional judgment. Therefore, this article does not necessarily reflect the position or policies of the abovementioned agencies, and no official endorsement should be inferred.

i For examples of effective evidence-based interventions see www.evidenceforessa.org , intensiveintervention.org , What Works Clearinghouse, www.meadowscenter.org , www.FCRR.org/literacyroadmap , www.understood.org/en/about/our.../national-center-for-learning-disabilities , https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/infographics/pdf/REL_SE_Implementing_evidencebased_literacy_practices_roadmap.pdf , among others.

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Students with Disabilities in Life Science Undergraduate Research Experiences: Challenges and Opportunities

• Logan E. Gin
• Danielle Pais
• Katelyn M. Cooper
• Sara E. Brownell

Research for Inclusive STEM Education Center, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281

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*Address correspondence to: Sara E. Brownell ( E-mail Address: [email protected] ).

Individuals with disabilities are underrepresented in postsecondary science education and in science careers, yet few studies have explored why this may be. A primary predictor of student persistence in science is participating in undergraduate research. However, it is unclear to what extent students with disabilities are participating in research and what the experiences of these students in research are. To address this gap in the literature, in study 1, we conducted a national survey of more than 1200 undergraduate researchers to determine the percent of students with disabilities participating in undergraduate research in the life sciences. We found that 12% of undergraduate researchers we surveyed self-identified as having a disability, which indicates that students with disabilities are likely underrepresented in undergraduate research. In study 2, we conducted semistructured interviews with 20 undergraduate researchers with disabilities. We identified unique challenges experienced by students with disabilities in undergraduate research, as well as some possible solutions to these challenges. Further, we found that students with disabilities perceived that they provide unique contributions to the research community. This work provides a foundation for creating undergraduate research experiences that are more accessible and inclusive for students with disabilities.

INTRODUCTION

Individuals with disabilities 1 are underrepresented in postsecondary science education; while they are estimated to make up about 26% of the U.S. population, individuals with disabilities comprise 18% of those who pursue an undergraduate degree in the life sciences and only about 10% of those who graduate college with a life sciences degree ( National Science Foundation [NSF], 2016 ; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2018 ). It is becoming increasingly clear that students with disabilities experience unique challenges in undergraduate science, including facing discrimination and enduring inaccessible classroom learning environments, which are thought to contribute to their attrition from science degree programs ( Fayer et al. , 2017 ; Zablotsky et al. , 2017 ). However, there is a growing recognition that there are specific high-impact practices, often not part of the standard college science curriculum, that can greatly influence a student’s persistence in science. It is not well known to what extent students with disabilities participate in and thrive in high-impact practices such as undergraduate research, which are known to increase student persistence in undergraduate science programs ( Nagda et al. , 1998 ; Hathaway et al. , 2002 ; Jones et al. , 2010 ; Hernandez et al. , 2018 ) and their chances of going to graduate school ( Bauer and Bennett, 2003 ; Seymour et al. , 2004 ; Russell et al. , 2007 ; Carter et al. , 2009 ; Hernandez et al. , 2018 ). In this article, we examine the representation of students with disabilities in undergraduate research and explore the unique experiences of students with disabilities engaging in research to further understand how colleges and universities might leverage this high-impact practice to improve the persistence of students with disabilities in science.

Increasing the representation of individuals with disabilities in science has become a priority for national funding agencies ( NSF, 2021 ). Having individuals from diverse backgrounds engaging in science is integral to national success, because it can lead to a stronger, more talented U.S. workforce that can meet the demands of a 21st-century economy ( Olson and Riordan, 2012 ) and increase the objectivity of science by including individuals with unique perspectives that can influence scientific questioning and interpretation ( Intemann, 2009 ). However, societal norms, attitudes, and ableist structures have contributed to the historic underrepresentation of individuals with disabilities in science ( Oliver, 2013 ; Sins Invalid, 2019 ). Undergraduate courses are often taught in ways that are inaccessible to students with disabilities, and these ableist course design structures can discriminate against individuals with disabilities, often in ways that may not be apparent to an instructor ( Hehir, 2002 ; Goodley, 2014 ). For example, teaching practices in science courses (e.g., asking students to work together or asking students to speak out in front of the whole class), content delivery (e.g., in-person vs. remote vs. hybrid), and course and university policies (e.g., required attendance in a course, required wet lab course for a science major) can create unique challenges for students with disabilities ( Hutcheon and Wolbring, 2012 ; Gin et al. , 2020 , 2021a ). As such, students with disabilities often require accommodations, defined as auxiliary aids and services, to facilitate their participation in university courses ( Meeks and Jain, 2015 ). Even though adequate accommodations for college course work are legally mandated, students with disabilities often need to self-advocate, or actively assert their needs and rights, to secure what they need ( Martin and Marshall, 1995 ; Test et al. , 2005 ). The process of self-advocating has been shown to be a critical, yet challenging, part of navigating undergraduate education in general ( Hadley, 2007 ), as well as in science-specific learning contexts ( Pfeifer et al. , 2020 , 2021 ; Gin et al. , 2021a ). In fact, science disciplines have been reported to be particularly exclusionary for students with disabilities. For example, science majors with disabilities often receive fewer accommodations in their courses compared with non-science majors with disabilities ( Lee, 2011 ). Additionally, one study found that college science instructors doubt the abilities of students with disabilities and also lack the knowledge and experience required to provide proper accommodations for science course work ( Dunn et al. , 2012 ). As such, it may be particularly difficult for students to self-advocate in the context of college science courses ( Pfeifer et al. , 2020 , 2021 ).

Previous research has established that students with disabilities can experience challenges in navigating different science learning environments, because individuals involved in a student’s education (e.g., instructors) are unfamiliar with available resources for students with disabilities ( Baker et al. , 2012 ; Cole and Cawthon, 2015 ; Roth et al. , 2018 ). For example, students with disabilities are traditionally supported by a university’s disability resource center (DRC). 2 DRCs are offices that provide services to students with disabilities and other diagnosed medical conditions to ensure compliance with both educational and civil rights laws that mandate that students with disabilities be reasonably accommodated ( Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, 1973 ; Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, 1990 ). While support services for students with disabilities are available on nearly every college and university campus ( Madaus, 2011 ), some students are unaware of the existence of the DRC or are unsure of the types of accommodations that may be available to them through the DRC ( Dowrick et al. , 2005 ; Marshak et al. , 2010 ; Gin et al. , 2021a ). Most DRCs are well equipped to support students with disabilities in traditional learning environments (e.g., traditional lecture courses); however, emerging research suggests that DRCs are not as prepared to serve students in innovative learning environments, such as active-learning classrooms ( Meeks and Jain, 2015 ; Gin et al. , 2020 ) or online courses ( Gin et al. , 2021a ). Further, it is unclear to what extent DRCs help students navigate challenges in college learning environments outside the formal classroom; for example, many students enroll in academic credit for research in a faculty member’s research lab, thereby making it a course that appears on their transcript, but the involvement of the DRC in providing accommodations for students with disabilities in undergraduate research is not well established ( Gehret et al. , 2017 ).

The primary approach to improving attrition among college students with disabilities in science has been to reduce barriers to success in undergraduate education broadly, often by providing accommodations in courses or offering replacement courses if students cannot fully participate in a particular course (e.g., taking a lecture course instead of a lab course if they have a physical disability; Dunn et al. , 2012 ). However, many of these accommodations are designed so that students can achieve equivalent knowledge or grades in a course; this approach takes a narrow view of what higher education entails and assumes that formal course work is the most important factor influencing a student’s decision to engage in science. In contrast, many educators view higher education as a holistic experience and believe the engagement of students in high-impact practices, many of which may not take place in formal courses, is critical to one’s persistence and success in college ( Kuh, 2008 ). High-impact practices are defined as teaching practices that have been shown to be beneficial for college students by increasing student engagement and retention ( Russell et al. , 2007 ; Kuh, 2008 ; Graham et al. , 2013 ). The Association for American Colleges and Universities defines 11 high-impact practices for undergraduates: first-year seminars and experiences, common intellectual experiences, learning communities, writing-intensive courses, collaborative assignments and projects, diversity/global learning, ePortfolios, service learning/community-based learning, internships, capstone courses and projects, and undergraduate research ( Kuh, 2008 ). Thus, we argue that the approach to retaining undergraduates with disabilities in science should be multifaceted and extend beyond merely providing the minimal accommodations appropriate for course work. Another strategy to help increase the persistence of students with disabilities could be to increase the participation of students with disabilities in high-impact practices.

Undergraduate research is a high-impact practice that national science agencies and science educators recommend all students engage in, owing to the wide array of skills and benefits that it can provide ( Kuh, 2008 ; National Research Council, 2012 ; National Academies of Sciences and Medicine [NASEM], 2017 ). Specifically, engaging in undergraduate research experiences (UREs) can lead to increased perceived understanding of how to conduct scientific research ( Russell et al. , 2007 ), as well as elevated student confidence in their ability to think critically ( Bauer and Bennett, 2003 ; Brownell et al. , 2015 ). Further, participation in undergraduate research has been shown to enhance student learning ( Rauckhorst et al. , 2001 ; Brownell et al. , 2015 ) and bolster student confidence in their ability to conduct research ( Bauer and Bennett, 2003 ; Seymour et al. , 2004 ). Undergraduate research can prime students’ career goals and aspirations to become scientists ( Eagan et al ., 2013 ) and is a robust predictor of student persistence and completion of undergraduate science degrees ( Graham et al. , 2013 ; Hernandez et al. , 2018 ). For example, a 10-year longitudinal study showed that students who completed at least 10 hours per week of faculty-mentored research across two academic terms were more likely to graduate with a science-related bachelor’s degree and be accepted into a science-related graduate program compared with students who did not engage in research ( Hernandez et al. , 2018 ). Further, undergraduate research has been shown to be a positive predictor of who excels in science-related graduate programs ( Bauer and Bennett, 2003 ; Carter et al. , 2009 ; Jones et al. , 2010 ; Hernandez et al. , 2018 ). In sum, engaging in undergraduate research has tremendous potential to positively impact a student’s persistence and experience in the sciences.

Participating in undergraduate research has been thought to be an especially important activity for individuals who are underrepresented in science ( NASEM, 2017 ). Specifically, a study of students who participated in a minority training program that included undergraduate research found that participants had higher scientific-related career aspirations compared with students who did not participate in research ( Schultz et al. , 2011 ). Another study of graduate students who identify as persons excluded based on their ethnicity or race (PEERs) found that students highlighted their experiences in undergraduate research as a key factor that influenced their decisions to pursue a PhD and stay in science ( Villarejo et al. , 2008 ). Additionally, PEER students, particularly from Latinx backgrounds, seem to experience unique gains in knowledge and skills from participating in undergraduate research ( Daniels et al. , 2016 ). Encouragingly, studies have shown that PEER undergraduates engage in research to the same extent as white students ( Lopatto, 2004 , 2007 ; Russell et al. , 2007 ). However, despite the evidence suggesting that research is beneficial to individuals who are underrepresented in science because of their ethnicity or race, there is much less known about the experiences of students with disabilities in research and how such students may uniquely benefit from these experiences.

The majority of extant literature on undergraduate research and individuals with disabilities probes the experiences of deaf and hard of hearing students in scientific research environments where they are surrounded by hearing peers and mentors ( Pagano et al. , 2015 ; Gehret et al. , 2017 ; Braun et al. , 2018 ). There are concerns that deaf and hard of hearing students are not able to easily communicate and connect with others in the lab, so they end up working in more isolated situations, which can result in negative research experiences ( Thiry and Laursen, 2011 ; Gehret et al. , 2017 , 2021 ; Majocha et al. , 2018 ). Group discussions with multiple people talking over one another can be hard for these students to follow, and students acknowledged that, without an interpreter standing by at all times, they often missed learning opportunities in the research lab. Notably, support services for interpreters are costly and priority often goes to classrooms, not research labs; even when interpreters are present in the research lab, they often are unsure of their role and may not have signs for some of technical jargon, making them less effective than in other learning situations ( Ott et al. , 2020 ). Additionally, research mentors can be unaware of how they may marginalize deaf students and make them feel as though they do not belong by both their explicit statements and implicit behaviors, often inadvertently promoting ableism ( Braun et al. , 2018 ; Lynn et al. , 2020 ).

Other studies on students with disabilities in undergraduate research have explored the experiences of students with depression, some of whom consider their depression as a disability. These studies found that specific aspects of research, such as failing and lack of guidance, can exacerbate students’ depressive symptoms ( Cooper et al. , 2020a ; Gin et al. , 2021b ). Further, many students with depression are uncomfortable sharing this identity with their peers and mentors, which would limit their ability to get support and accommodations ( Cooper et al ., 2020b ). However, we know of no other literature on the experiences of students with other disabilities in research, which indicates a need for additional research.

Current Study

To address the current gaps in the literature, we conducted two studies to understand 1) how common it is for students with disabilities to do undergraduate research and 2) what their experiences are like once they are in undergraduate research. Our studies were guided by the following research questions:

To what extent are students with disabilities participating in undergraduate research experiences?

What are the unique challenges that students with disabilities experience in undergraduate research?

How do students with disabilities navigate challenges in undergraduate research?

What are the unique benefits that students with disabilities experience in undergraduate research?

Are there unique ways in which students with disabilities contribute to undergraduate research?

Theoretical Models Informing This Work

Medical model perspective: We use the students’ experiences of living with different physical, sensory, cognitive, or affective functions than the majority of the population to understand how they perceive their disabilities interfere with or prevent them from engaging in undergraduate research.

Social model perspective: We use the students’ experiences of facing attitudes, structures, bias, stigma, and discrimination based on their different physical, sensory, cognitive, or affective functions to understand how the students perceive that societal structures or attitudes interfere with or prevent them from engaging in research.

In addition, we examine what unique perspectives students with disabilities perceive they bring to undergraduate research. Using an asset-based approach, we consider the ways in which students with disabilities may possess unique strengths and skill sets that they bring to their research experiences ( López, 2017 ). This is in contrast to a deficit-based approach, which focuses on the perceived weaknesses or shortcomings of an individual ( Dinishak, 2016 ). We also consider the unique benefits that students with disabilities may receive from participating in undergraduate research.

This study was approved by Arizona State University’s Institutional Review Board STUDY00007247.

Study 1 Methods

Survey development..

In Fall 2018 and Fall 2019, we conducted a national survey of undergraduate researchers in the life sciences at research-intensive (R1) public institutions, research-intensive (R1) private institutions, master’s-granting institutions, and primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs). The survey generally asked students about their overall experiences in undergraduate research. In addition, students were asked specifics about their UREs, such as the position of their primary mentors (e.g., graduate student, faculty member) and how many hours they spent in research per week. Students also answered general demographic questions, including a question about their disability status. The question specifically asking about disability status was developed by reviewing the literature on different ways that disability status has been collected (e.g., Livermore et al. , 2011 ; Cappa et al. , 2015 ; Verbrugge, 2016 ) as well as how organizations and agencies (e.g., NSF, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, CDC) define disability. We drew from these existing surveys to create an inclusive question to determine disability status. Specifically, students were invited to select whether they identified as having a disability, which included a learning disability (e.g., dyslexia), a mental health/psychological disability (e.g., anxiety, depression, PTSD), a physical disability (e.g., cerebral palsy, spina bifida, dwarfism), a chronic health condition (e.g., cancer, diabetes, multiple sclerosis), visual loss (e.g., blind), hearing loss (e.g., deaf), or another disability, which they were asked to describe. Students were invited to select which type(s) of disability/disabilities applied to them and could select more than one that applied. Notably, this question did not require students to be diagnosed in order to identify as having a disability, because access to healthcare can vary based on student demographics such as gender, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status ( Adler and Rehkopf, 2008 ; Thompson et al. , 2016 ; Sommers et al. , 2017 ; Baeten et al. , 2018 ), and we did not want to bias our sample in ways that privilege those who have access to mental healthcare. Cognitive think-aloud interviews were performed with two undergraduate researchers with disabilities to test the validity of the questions on the survey based on verbal reports of their thought processes ( Trenor et al. , 2011 ). The survey was iteratively revised based on each think-aloud interview. The survey was then piloted with undergraduate researchers at a large public research-intensive (R1) institution in the Southwest. A copy of the questions analyzed in this study are provided in the Supplemental Material.

Student Recruitment.

In Fall 2018, we used the Carnegie classifications to identify all public R1 institutions in the United States. We used the university websites to identify individuals in life sciences departments who would be able to send an email to all undergraduate students via a Listserv or mailing list (e.g., undergraduate program manager). We then contacted all 81 public R1 institutions with a personalized email to request that they forward our survey announcement to their students. Twenty-five (31%) public R1 institutions agreed to send the survey out to students in their respective life sciences departments. In Fall 2019, we expanded our survey recruitment to other institution types. We repeated a similar process of using Carnegie classifications to identify private R1 institutions, master’s-granting institutions, and PUIs as well as points of contact in life sciences departments to forward our survey. We contacted a total of 37 private R1 institutions, 12 of which agreed to send the same survey out to students in their department (32%), 350 master’s-granting institutions, of which 30 (9%) agreed to send out the survey, and 241 PUIs, of which 20 (8%) agreed to send the survey out to students in their life sciences department. In total, we recruited from 87 institutions. Students were incentivized to complete the survey by being entered into a drawing to win one of four $50 gift cards each term. Our recruitment method was intentionally not done through DRCs, because we wanted to be able to capture the experiences of students with disabilities who may not be registered with a DRC or who may not have had the health insurance or finances required to be formally diagnosed with their disabilities. Further, we intentionally did not recruit from a specific program (e.g., NSF REU program), because these programs often have greater levels of support and mentorship through a cohort model than traditional independent research experiences, and we wanted to be able to have representation from undergraduates who are not necessarily in these types of programs.

Survey Data Analysis.

We used descriptive statistics to calculate and report the general demographics and research characteristics of the students who reported having a disability. To contextualize our findings, we compared them with results from national surveys assessing the representation of individuals with disabilities in the general U.S. population ( CDC, 2018 ) and life sciences majors ( NSF, 2016 ). To compare the representation of individuals with disabilities among different populations, it is important to distinguish how the term “disability” is defined and measured in each survey. We found that the definition and measurement of disability varied based on the organization that collected the data, which can affect conclusions that are drawn from these data. For example, the percent of the U.S. population with a disability is calculated by the CDC, which classifies disability as a condition that affects mobility, cognition, independent living, hearing loss, vision loss, and self-care; it is unclear, for instance, how or if mental health disabilities would be categorized within this organizational schema ( CDC, 2018 ). The NSF collects data on disability status for undergraduate enrollment data; they consider disability as “blindness, deafness, severe vision or hearing impairment, substantial limitation of mobility, or any other physical, mental, or emotional condition,” but restrict this to a time frame of having the condition within the last 6 months ( NSF, 2016 ). By not explicitly including mental health disabilities and requiring a particular time frame that an individual has been affected by a disability, the CDC and the NSF may be underestimating the number of individuals with disabilities.

Study 2 Methods

Interview recruitment..

At the end of the survey described in study 1, we asked whether students would be interested in participating in follow-up interviews about their experiences in research. In Summer 2020, we contacted all students with disabilities who participated in the 2018/2019 surveys and asked them if they would be interested in participating in an interview about their UREs as an individual with a disability. A copy of the recruitment email can be found in the Supplemental Material. Students were offered a $15 gift card as an incentive to participate in the interview. Of the 152 students with disabilities who completed the study 1 survey, 20 undergraduate researchers with disabilities (13%) from eight institutions agreed to participate in the interviews.

Interview Protocol.

The interview script was developed to explore the overall experiences of students with disabilities in undergraduate research and align with our research questions. Specifically, the interview questions asked students about 1) the extent to which they encountered challenges with conducting their undergraduate research; 2) what solutions or accommodations, if any, were helpful in navigating challenges in their UREs; 3) whether they perceived they uniquely benefited from conducting undergraduate research as a researcher with a disability; and 4) whether they perceived there were any unique contributions they brought to the undergraduate research context given their experiences as an individual with a disability. To ensure that each question would be interpreted correctly by our interviewees, we completed two think-aloud interviews with students with disabilities who had previously conducted undergraduate research ( Trenor et al. , 2011 ). The interview protocol was revised upon conducting the two think-aloud interviews. These students in our study had engaged in undergraduate research before COVID-19, although the interviews were conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, we specifically asked students to consider their time in undergraduate research before the pandemic. A complete copy of the interview protocol can be found in the Supplemental Material.

Interviews and Post Survey.

All interviews took place during Summer 2020. The interviews were semistructured, meaning that all students were asked the same set of questions, but additional follow-up questions were asked to allow students to elaborate on interesting ideas ( McIntosh and Morse, 2015 ). It is also important to be attentive to the needs of individuals with disabilities who participate in research studies, particularly qualitative research ( Kroll et al. , 2007 ). As such, our recruitment email and reminder asked students if they needed any accommodations for participating in the interview to maximize the accessibility of the interview process (e.g., live transcriptions or an interpreter). The interviews were conducted via Zoom, audio-recorded, and ranged from 45 to 60 minutes in length. The interview audio files were transcribed for qualitative analysis. To protect the identities of the participants, we assigned each person a pseudonym. The quotes from students were lightly edited for clarity, consistency, and anonymity. After the interviews were complete, students were given a brief follow-up survey asking about demographic information. The follow-up survey also included questions that were specific to a student’s disability, such as whether they were formally diagnosed and whether they were registered with the university’s DRC. A copy of the post survey can be found in the Supplemental Material.

Interview Analysis.

We used inductive coding methods to identify themes from the interview data ( Fereday and Muir-Cochrane, 2006 ). First, two authors (L.E.G. and D.P.) reviewed the same five randomly selected interviews independently and took detailed analytic notes to identify initial themes in the data. The researchers then came together to use their notes from these interviews to draft an initial codebook. Once the initial codebook was developed, the same two researchers reviewed a different subset of five interviews independently to determine whether the themes in the existing codebook were present and whether additional themes emerged. Afterward, the researchers met again to compare their notes from these additional interviews and revise the codebook accordingly. The revision of the codebook ensured that each code was distinct and independent of other codes; that is, the researchers checked that each portion (or unit) of a student’s thought would be captured by a single code. Any overlapping themes were revised to make sure that units remained independent and that themes were distinct enough to remain separate or similar enough to be combined. Additionally, the researchers used constant comparison methods to determine that quotes within the same theme were not too different from one another to merit creating an additional theme ( Glaser, 1965 ; Glesne and Peshkin, 1992 ). Once the final codebook was agreed upon, the two researchers independently coded a new subset of five interviews (25%) to establish interrater reliability (Cohen’s κ  =  0.89, which is considered acceptable; Landis and Koch, 1977 ). After interrater reliability was established, one researcher (L.E.G.) coded the remaining 15 interviews. Because inferences about the importance of these themes cannot be drawn from counts, they are not included in the results of the paper ( Maxwell, 2010 ), but are provided in the Supplemental Material along with the final coding rubric describing each theme. However, we caution readers against making generalizations based on the frequency of reported themes because of the nature of our qualitative methodology. Namely, because some types of disabilities are represented in our sample more than others, drawing conclusions about challenges, solutions, and benefits for students with different types of disabilities may be inappropriate.

Student Demographics and Disability Information

All students in this study self-identified as having at least one disability. We used a previously developed organizational schema to categorize students’ disabilities throughout the paper ( Gin et al. , 2020 ). Students’ disabilities were categorized as learning disabilities (e.g., autism, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder [ADHD], dyslexia), physical disabilities (e.g., cerebral palsy, spina bifida), chronic health conditions (e.g., cancer, diabetes), vision loss, hearing loss, and mental health and psychological disabilities (e.g., anxiety, depression). There is some disagreement in terms of how to categorize certain types of disabilities (e.g., autism and ADHD as learning disabilities), as well as the overlapping nature of certain disabilities and categories ( Mayes et al. , 2000 ; Budd et al. , 2016 ). Additionally, the personal experiences of individuals are unique; even if two people have the same type of disability, the severity of the condition may differ or their personal or environmental situations may be different ( Brown, 2002 ; Shakespeare, 2006 ). However, we chose to categorize students’ disabilities in this way to preserve the confidentiality of students’ specific disabilities or combination of disabilities, which may make a particular student identifiable, especially in the context of UREs. We report each of the disabilities next to the student’s pseudonym and respective quote but encourage readers not to make conclusions about any particular type of disability due to the small number of students with a given disability who were interviewed. A list of the types of disabilities reported by students and their pseudonyms can be found in the Supplemental Material.

Researcher Positionalities

The first author (L.E.G.) has a physical disability and conducted all of the interviews for this study. He disclosed his disability to all students who participated in interviews in an attempt to establish rapport and create a welcoming environment for the students to discuss their experiences ( Kvale, 1996 ). This author also developed the rubric and coded the interviews. Another author (D.P.) who helped develop the coding rubric has a close family member with a developmental disability. These two researchers used their personal experiences with disability to inform the coding rubric and analysis while also attempting to counteract any potential biases that they may hold ( Chenail, 2011 ). Additionally, members of the research team have personal experiences of struggling with depression and anxiety, either their own or that of close family members, which has influenced this work. The researchers used the interviews as an opportunity to learn from the lived experiences of those with a range of disabilities ( Toombs, 1995 ). All members of the research team have currently or previously conducted either undergraduate or graduate research in life sciences as well as science education research, so there is an understanding of the dynamics of research experiences.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

For both studies, we chose to present our results and discussion together to contextualize the findings in the literature.

Finding 1: Students with Disabilities Are Likely Underrepresented in Undergraduate Research.

In our national survey of 1262 life sciences students engaged in undergraduate research across 25 public R1s, 12 private R1s, 30 master’s-granting institutions, and 20 PUIs, 12.0% of respondents ( n = 152) reported having a disability. This percentage indicates that individuals with disabilities are underrepresented in undergraduate research compared with the approximately 18% of students with disabilities who are pursuing undergraduate degrees in the life sciences ( NSF, 2016 ) and the 26.0% of the U.S. population of individuals who identify with having disabilities ( Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2018 ; Figure 1 ). Despite the differences in how each agency that collects data on individuals with disabilities defines having a disability (see Survey Data Analysis section for details), we feel confident in concluding that individuals with disabilities are underrepresented in undergraduate research in the life sciences given the data collected in this study. The primary difference between our definition of disability and those used by the CDC and NSF is that our definition explicitly included students with mental health disabilities to be as comprehensive as possible. If we were to remove individuals who report mental health disabilities from our data, we would have even greater underrepresentation of students with disabilities (5.0%, n = 63) in undergraduate research.

FIGURE 1. Representation of individuals with disabilities in the U.S. population, life sciences majors, and undergraduate research and classification of disability used in respective data collection. CDC (2018 ): mobility (serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs), cognition (serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions), independent living (difficulty doing errands alone), hearing loss (deafness or serious hearing difficulty), vision loss (blindness or serious difficulty seeing), and self-care (difficult dressing or bathing). NSF (2016) : Blindness, deafness, severe vision or hearing impairment, substantial limitation of mobility, or any other physical, mental, or emotional condition within the last 6 months. Data from study 1 on life sciences undergraduate researchers: learning disability (e.g., dyslexia), mental health/psychological disability (e.g., anxiety, depression, PTSD), physical disability (e.g., cerebral palsy, spina bifida, dwarfism), chronic health condition (e.g., cancer, diabetes, multiple sclerosis), visual loss (e.g., blind), hearing loss (e.g., deaf), and other (please describe).

Who Are the Students with Disabilities Participating in Undergraduate Research?

The undergraduate researchers who were surveyed reported a variety of different types of disabilities, with mental health (58.6%) and learning disabilities (24.3%) being the most prevalent. For students who participated in interviews, 55.0% of students reported a mental health condition and 50.0% of students reported a learning disability. The majority of students who were surveyed and who were interviewed were women (78.9% and 70.0%, respectively), white (67.1% and 55.0%, respectively), and continuing-generation college students (75.7% and 80.0%, respectively). Students varied in their year in school, with fourth-year students being most represented for both the survey respondents and interviewees (44.1% and 45.0%, respectively). The average grade point average (GPA) was 3.54 for students who completed the survey compared with 3.37 for students who agreed to participate in the interviews. Additional demographic information can be found in the Supplemental Material.

Regarding students’ research experiences, the most common response for time spent doing research was 6–10 hours per week (47.4% of the survey respondents; 40.0% of the interviewees); 41.4% of students in the survey had engaged in research for 1–2 years, while 35% of students who were interviewed had engaged in research for 2–3 years. Students in both samples were primarily mentored by a principal investigator (PI) (44.1% and 30.0%, respectively) or a graduate student (28.9% and 25.0%, respectively) and had received course credit (69.7% and 65.0%, respectively) for participating in research. Most students who completed either the survey or interview were attending research-intensive public institutions (53.9% and 55.0%, respectively). Table 1 summarizes the student demographics, research demographics, and disability-specific demographics for the national sample of student researchers with disabilities.

a Students had the option to report more than one disability, so percentages add up to >100%.

b Students had the option to report multiple forms of compensation, so percentages add up to >100%.

Finding 1: Students with Disabilities Experienced Unique Challenges in Undergraduate Research

Students reported challenges related to their disabilities that can make it difficult for them to carry out specific research-related tasks..

Nearly all students in this study referenced personal challenges related to their disabilities that prevented them from fully participating in their UREs. Specifically, students described that the symptoms or effects of their disabilities impeded their ability to do research-related tasks. For instance, Michael and Albert described how their disabilities may make it difficult to complete tasks that require reacting quickly or are tedious.

Michael (mental health disability): “It’s harder to think quickly on your feet when you’re battling an anxiety disorder plus trying to make the quickest informed decision.”

Albert (learning disability): “Tedious [tasks] as in counting the [model organism] I guess would be the only place where my ADHD affected me. It’s a pretty tedious task and requires a lot of focus, and in that case, I’d say ADHD might have affected me in my ability to do that.”

Further, Amy and Judith described how their disabilities can impact their overall productivity in research.

Amy (chronic health condition, mental health disability): “During a flare up [an instance where symptoms related to the disability/disabilities are exacerbated], I have zero productivity. But when I don’t have a flare up, then I can be at like 100% productivity. I wouldn’t say it’s like this overwhelming negative effect, but there still is that disadvantage.”

Judith (mental health disability): “Some days [in research] were just way less productive than others because I was depressed or because I was anxious or because I couldn’t sit still. There’s been a couple of times where I’ve been doing an [animal behavior] observation session, and I’ll just completely space out because my heart rate is so high, for literally no apparent reason.”

Students with disabilities also highlighted that when their disabilities negatively affected their ability to do research, they needed to repeat or make up missed work, which often increased the total amount of time that they had to spend on research. For example, Judith explained how she had to repeat observations when her disability interfered with her attention span.

Judith (mental health disability): “I’d have to restart the observation session. I was there doing the observation longer.”

Amy highlighted that when her disability negatively affects her productivity in research, she often feels pressure to catch up by working without breaks, which can lead to additional stress that affects her disability.

Amy (chronic health condition, mental health disability): “If I have like a day or two where I have a flare up and I can’t physically work, then it’s like the next day I have to compensate and sit there for six hours instead of taking a break. (…) I think just stress in general, like if you have a research deadline, you’re stressed. And then stress is one of my triggers for a flare up.”

Michael described how his disability causes him to spend more time doing research than his peers.

Michael (mental health disability): “I think I spend a lot more time than my colleagues [in research], double, triple checking and whether that’s just because I’m trying to conduct very proper research versus anxiety, that line gets blurred every once in a while. But I definitely noticed myself doing things more often and just a lot more double and triple checking, a lot of worrying.”

Several students with disabilities indicated a need to compensate for their disabilities by working for extended times or feeling the pressure to make sure their disabilities have not affected their research productivity. The need to work for extended time periods and working without breaks can lead to burnout, defined as a work-related chronic stress syndrome involving feelings of cynicism, emotional exhaustion, and reduced personal accomplishment ( Maslach et al. , 2001 ; Bianchi et al. , 2014 ; Koutsimani et al. , 2019 ). In fact, studies have shown that individuals who experience burnout are likely to later report a disability ( Ahola et al. , 2009 ), and burnout has been shown to be significantly associated with some mental health disabilities, namely anxiety and depression ( Koutsimani et al. , 2019 ). However, the students’ experiences in our study indicate that undergraduate researchers with disabilities could be at risk for experiencing burnout if they feel they need to compensate for delayed or disrupted research related to their disabilities ( Toppinen-Tanner et al. , 2005 ), which could lead to a recurring cycle of nonproductivity and heightened mental stress ( Abramson et al. , 1989 ; Murphy et al. , 2007 ).

Based on our interviews, it is evident that students often resort to adopting the medical model of disability perspective when conceptualizing the relationship between their disabilities and research productivity. Specifically, they often describe their disabilities as functional limitations resulting in impairment, preventing them from completing a certain task ( Brisenden, 1986 ). For example, Caroline, Judith, Amy, Michael, and Albert all described how their disabilities prevented them from engaging in research. During the interviews, students rarely described their challenges from the social model perspective. Considering the social model would identify societal norms, attitudes, or structures that are barriers for students given their disabilities ( Siebers, 2008 ; Oliver, 2013 ; Sins Invalid, 2019 ). However, some students did recognize how the societal norms of science, such as expecting everyone to read dense research papers quickly, may exclude individuals with disabilities from fully engaging in science. For example, Rebecca highlights that providing her with a summary of a paper would significantly shorten the time she needs to spend reading.

Rebecca (learning disability): “Well, the sad part for me about science research is that everything you do, you have to read. (…) For me that’s probably the toughest part about research. It has taken me so long to get caught up to where I need to for a level of understanding that it’s been a disadvantage. [People] you work with get angry, but they get frustrated because they’re like, ‘Why haven’t you read this paper? You need to understand this going forward.’ I’m like, ‘If you could literally just summarize it for me, we would be so good.’ I read slower. Something that would take the average person 20 minutes to read—I’m there an hour and a half later being like, ‘I’m still halfway through.’”

Encouraging both students with disabilities and members of research labs, including PIs, to view the experiences of students with disabilities through a social model perspective is an important step toward creating a more accessible scientific community. For example, had Rebecca’s research mentor known about her disability, they could have showed her text-to-speech technologies and programs that would allow her to listen to a scientific paper read aloud (e.g., Inclusive Docs or NaturalReader) or to first try to interpret the figures, which may have created a more positive experience for her. Identifying ways that the traditional process of doing science can change, as opposed to how students with disabilities should mold into the traditional process of science, would be important moving forward ( Brown and Leigh, 2018 ; Peterson, 2021 ).

Undergraduate Researchers with Concealable Disabilities Experienced Unique Challenges Related to Whether They Revealed Their Disabilities in Undergraduate Research.

Some disabilities are apparent or visible, while others are not apparent or invisible ( Kranke et al. , 2013 ). There is general stigma around having a disability ( Fine and Asch, 1988 ), and as such, students who have nonapparent or invisible disabilities have what could be considered concealable stigmatized identities, or CSIs ( Joachim and Acorn, 2000 ; Quinn and Earnshaw, 2011 ; Quinn et al. , 2014 ). CSIs are identities that can be kept hidden from others and that have negative stereotypes attached to them that can result in a loss of status and/or discrimination in society ( Link and Phelan, 2001 ; Quinn and Earnshaw, 2011 ). Students who had disabilities that they described as nonapparent reported experiencing unique challenges related to their disabilities and whether they choose to reveal them in the context of undergraduate research.

Students discussed how they often chose not to disclose or discuss their disabilities with members of their research groups. Some students, such as Wanda, experienced instances where a stigma about disability was mentioned in conversations with other members of their research groups, which discouraged them from revealing their disabilities.

Wanda (learning disability, mental health disability): “I was working on the countertop and my mentor was talking with somebody else. They were talking about people with ADHD and how [people with ADHD] have to rely on their parents and [people with ADHD] don’t know how to do anything and [people with ADHD] can’t work. I’m thinking like, ‘I can work, I’m working for you.’ I didn’t say anything, but I was shocked that he said that about the whole population and he didn’t know what I had.”

In addition to students feeling that disclosing a disability could result in others doubting their abilities, some students, such as Cornelius, mentioned that they did not disclose or discuss their disabilities because they did not want the disclosure to result in any questioning about their abilities to perform specific research-related tasks, such as writing, analyzing data, or problem solving.

Cornelius (chronic health condition, learning disability, mental health disability): “If people talk about disabilities [in the lab], I don’t usually say that I ever had an IEP [Individualized Education Plan, a document that lays out education instruction, supports, and services for K–12 students with disabilities; Pretti-Frontczak and Bricker, 2000 ] or anything. And I probably don’t feel comfortable telling my PI because she’s a little scary. (…) I know a lot of research involves writing and they always say strong writing is highly required. And I’m like, ‘Oh [expletive].’ The ability to communicate is really important because I know those are the parts more affected by my disability.”

The experiences of Wanda and Cornelius echo studies suggesting that individuals with CSIs often assess the beliefs of those around them before revealing their identities ( Jones and King, 2014 ). If there is an indication that someone in one’s research group may not be accepting of one’s identity, then individuals are unlikely to reveal their own identities ( Barnes et al. , 2020 , 2021 ; Cooper et al ., 2020b ). Additionally, Cornelius’s experience is further supported by studies that have shown that both undergraduate and graduate students with depression often choose to conceal their depression from their PIs, because they fear that revealing this aspect of themselves would result in research responsibilities being restricted, even though students who do reveal their depression to their PIs do not report any loss of responsibilities ( Cooper et al ., 2020b ). However, one student in the current study, Michele, did reveal her CSI and highlighted how she perceived that she was left out of experiments and collaborations once others knew of her disability and that others would make negative remarks about how she was unable to do something.

Michele (chronic health condition, mental health disability): “Even when I’m getting [doctor’s excuses] from my neurologist, [people in my lab] just treat me like, ‘Well everybody has headaches. Why can’t you do this?’ I would just say that I feel like sometimes I’m treated like I can’t do things as well as other people or like I’m just not reliable instead of actually having problems. I’m not being picked for certain experiments and certain people don’t want to collaborate and work with me because [they know about my disability].”

Some students who had self-described more apparent disabilities discussed how they sometimes downplayed their disabilities. They explained that if they concealed their disabilities, at least at first, others would be more likely to believe it did not affect their research performance. For example, Gabriella describes hiding her hearing aids and monitoring her speech so that others in her lab did not notice her disability.

Gabriella (hearing loss): “I wear my hair down [to hide my hearing aid]. [I also try to be mindful of] my voice. My mom says I talk like a deaf person. I think it does give it away a little bit, but only to people who know, like doctors.”

Feeling the need to conceal one’s disability in research can be detrimental to students for multiple reasons. First, concealing an identity can lead to psychological distress and take an emotional toll on students ( Mak et al. , 2007 ; Goffman, 2009 ; Quinn and Chaudoir, 2009 ; Quinn et al. , 2014 ). Specifically, individuals who conceal an identity may worry about 1) someone revealing their identity when they do not want it to be revealed, 2) when they may need to reveal that identity, and 3) what may happen when others learn about the given identity, all of which can lead to further internalized distress ( Link and Phelan, 2001 ; Quinn and Chaudoir, 2009 ; Quinn and Earnshaw, 2011 ). Additionally, experts on mentorship assert that effective mentorship requires an understanding of identity-related challenges students face, so that mentors can help meet the needs of their mentees ( NASEM, 2019 ). As such, we encourage lab mentors to be mindful about what they say about student identities, including disabilities, and to work to create an inclusive environment where students can feel comfortable revealing their disabilities if they choose ( Cooper et al ., 2020b ). Students feeling comfortable discussing their disabilities with lab members is likely necessary to make the research environment more inclusive ( Chaudoir and Fisher, 2010 ).

Finding 2: Students with Disabilities Navigate Undergraduate Research Experiences by Finding Unique Solutions to the Challenges They Experience

Few students reported that they have received formal accommodations in undergraduate research through the university’s drc..

Traditionally, when students with disabilities are enrolled in university courses, they work with DRCs to receive accommodations to make learning environments more accessible ( Feldblum, 1996 ; Madaus, 2011 ). If a student is enrolled in undergraduate research for course credit, as is the case for 65.0% of the students who were interviewed in this study, then technically the student should have the same access to the DRC and accommodations as for any other course at the university. However, most students who were interviewed, like Skylar and Anita, did not think that they could ask about accommodations for their UREs through their universities’ DRCs.

Interviewer: “Are you aware that if you are enrolled in research for credit, you may be eligible for accommodations through the Disability Resource Center?”

Skylar (learning disability): “No, I didn’t know that. And I didn’t even think about it.”

Anita (learning disability, mental health disability): “I haven’t [sought accommodations in research], just because I didn’t think that was a thing.”

Recent research has unveiled that DRCs typically do not have blanket accommodations for modified learning environments, such as active-learning or online courses ( Meeks and Jain, 2015 ; Gin et al. , 2020 , 2021a). As such, many DRCs may not be equipped to provide accommodations for students in UREs, and students may be unaware of the potential role of the DRC in providing accommodations for undergraduate research. Interview participants, such as Albert, also expressed doubt that the DRC would be able to accommodate their needs in this unique context.

Albert (learning disability): “Honestly, I don’t know what kind of accommodations would even be available for people with ADHD in research. And so, if I had thought that my DRC had accommodations I could use, I guess I might have looked into it.”

It is not clear to what extent DRCs are aware that students with disabilities in undergraduate research need accommodations. However, some standard classroom accommodations could be used or adapted to an undergraduate research setting. For example, students with a disability that typically requires a note-taker in a lecture classroom may need one-on-one research meetings or lab meetings to be recorded and transcribed. This could be particularly helpful if a mentor is describing how to do a complicated step-by-step procedure that students with disabilities would need to do on their own in the future. An alternative accommodation may be to have another undergraduate researcher work closely with the student on a project and help take notes. For common lab techniques, the lab could be asked to create detailed written protocols available for everyone in the lab. Another common standard classroom accommodation is extended time for testing or assignments. For students who need extra time to complete assignments, an accommodation in the research lab may be longer time frames to complete tasks or more advanced notice about an experiment or task. While this may slow the pace of the research, not feeling rushed will likely result in better research products and may help students avoid making mistakes. Finally, excused absences are often provided to students whose disabilities are interfering with their ability to come to class; this accommodation can be administered in a research environment by allowing for flexible work hours or lab members to work from home if the task allows it. While students and mentors could likely arrive at some of these solutions on their own, having the DRC facilitate these accommodations relieves students from the burden of self-advocacy and likely would decrease the time lapse for students to receive the accommodation ( Meeks and Jain, 2015 ; Gin et al. , 2020 , 2021a; Pfeifer et al. , 2020 , 2021 ). Additionally, students who are participating in paid UREs may be eligible for workplace accommodations through human resources and other employee support services. However, students who are participating in undergraduate research as volunteers would likely be ineligible for services through the DRC and human resources, making it important that students and research mentors work together in reaching solutions to make a research space more accessible.

Undergraduate Research Experiences Require That Students with Disabilities Self-Advocate to Maximize Their Experiences in Research and Most Accommodations Are Developed on an Individualized Basis between the Students and Their Research Mentors.

No student who was interviewed reported using the DRC to receive accommodations in research, although nearly all students who dealt with disability-related challenges in their UREs needed to self-advocate to mitigate their challenges. Self-advocacy involves voicing needs and concerns to identify potential solutions and having a “knowledge of self,” defined as one’s own understanding of one’s strengths and weaknesses, rights, and policies related to the accommodation process as well as the communication skills to be able to discuss accommodations ( Eckes and Ochoa, 2005 ; Test et al. , 2005 ). Pfeifer and colleagues have further described a model of self-advocacy for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students with ADHD and/or specific learning disabilities (SLD), which also includes the knowledge of the STEM learning context (e.g., laboratory courses), the knowledge of available accommodations, and the knowledge of the process to successfully obtain these accommodations. Studies have shown that undergraduate students with disabilities may find it challenging to self-advocate, particularly in science, as they navigate interactions with instructors, peers, and DRC support staff ( Pfeifer et al. , 2020 ). For some students, like Hugh, self-advocacy comes in the form of communicating with mentors to help them become aware of his disability. These explicit conversations to personally inform his mentors about his disability can help ensure his safety in the lab and explain how his disability may affect his overall experience in undergraduate research.

Hugh (chronic health condition, hearing loss, learning disability, mental health disability, physical disability): “I have to advocate a bit more than anyone would normally have to personally advocate for themselves to make sure that they’re just getting what they want out of the experience and making sure that they have a positive experience. I need to make sure that I can go to [medical] appointments when need be and I need to advocate for myself and say that if I’m working in a BSL-2 [Biosafety Level 2] space to be really safe about it so I don’t get too sick with it or get too sick while doing the research.”

Other students used self-advocacy to foresee potential issues that may arise in their research experiences. Students like Temple described that being upfront about their disabilities and what they need can help prevent misunderstandings, because a research mentor may misunderstand a certain situation for a student with a disability in research.

Temple (learning disability): “I try to always actively talk about what I need [in research]. If I think it’s going to be an issue, I try to never assume that [my mentor] is going to know not to put me in a situation or not to ask me to do something when I can’t do that. I try to be clear to avoid problems later. I do feel like I always need to personally advocate because otherwise somebody is not just going to get it.”

Students who self-advocated often found solutions through working with their mentors. For example, Anita, Tia, and Rebecca did not use the DRC for accommodations, but did work directly with their mentors to acquire accommodations for their research experiences. It is worth noting that many of the solutions that students and mentors agreed upon can be relatively simple to implement, such as being flexible with a student’s schedule or providing written instructions or pictures to students. However, this requires that a mentor knows about the student’s disability and how it impacts the student. Students like Anita and Tia have disclosed their disabilities to their research mentors, which has benefited them through accommodations such as additional notes, instructions, or figures.

Anita (learning disability, mental health disability): “My grad student does his version of accommodations where he basically gives me notes for what he needs me to do. And then he’ll also give me a list of instructions and stuff that he says to lay it out for me. Just to make it a little bit easier for me to remember things.”

Tia (hearing loss, mental health disability): “I started asking for pictures and figures instead of things being written out, which was a huge help. It led to me making a lot of [concept] maps that were interesting but also equally useful that I don’t think we would have even thought about using for communication before.”

Further, even if research mentors are unaware that a student has a disability, inclusive mentoring strategies can help provide a level of accommodation. For example, the accommodation that Rebecca described, which was rescheduling a meeting to a later date, is a general strategy that mentors could use with all students, independent of having a disability.

Rebecca (learning disability): “The level of patience [my research mentors] have had is one of the best accommodations that I could have. They understand what takes [another undergrad] like a week to do, it’s going to take me two weeks. When we come to like, ‘Do we need to push the meeting?’ I’m like, ‘We need to push the meeting.’ Having that level of patience and saying like, ‘It’s okay, it happens.’ That’s been really nice.”

In addition to self-advocating with mentors, student researchers with disabilities also described self-advocating with their lab mates. Lab mates knowing about students’ disabilities and their needs may help facilitate efforts to maximize students’ experiences in undergraduate research ( Quinn and Earnshaw, 2011 ; Quinn et al. , 2014 ). For example, students like Naomi discussed that other members of her lab were able to check in with her to see how she was doing and if she needed anything after she had talked to them about her disability.

Naomi (physical disability): “I needed to take a break during fieldwork, [the people in my lab would] be like, ‘Okay, do you want me to take over what you’re doing or you want to just go take a break together?’ They were very supportive and just, ‘Hey, if you need help, just let me know.’ It created a family-type situation.”

Studies have shown that individuals with depression have also noted that once they disclose this CSI, their lab mates are more likely to support and check in on them ( Cooper et al ., 2020b ). Studies have also shown that students who disclose identities are more likely to come in contact with similar others, because disclosing one’s CSI can lead to others disclosing a CSI if they have one ( Quinn et al. , 2014 ). Additionally, the ways in which one views one’s own disability can have an influence on one’s ability to self-advocate effectively ( Pfeifer et al. , 2020 ). For example, if students have a more positive views of their disabilities, they may be better at self-advocating. As such, self-advocacy can be a powerful, albeit sometimes draining, way for students to access accommodations and the resulting benefits ( Lynch and Gussel, 1996 ; Test et al. , 2005 ; Hong, 2015 ; Pfeifer et al. , 2021 ).

Students Also Relied on Their Own Creative Solutions to Maximize Their Research Experiences.

In addition to working directly with their mentors and lab mates to maximize their research experiences, some students discussed creating their own solutions to challenges that they encountered in their research experiences. This is aligned with Pfeifer and colleagues’ framework of self-advocacy for ADHD/SLD in STEM through the component of “filling gaps,” which is when the individual student takes action to mitigate a perceived limitation in a given accommodation ( Pfeifer et al. , 2020 ). This is illustrated by Naomi and Katie, who both developed unique ways to adapt to challenges and barriers that their research environments posed, such as using sunglasses for bright computer screens or positioning themselves toward their mentors when having conversation.

Naomi (physical disability): “I’d have to make sure that if I could, I would have to work with a darker screen or a tinted screen or sunglasses or something. So, I would have to adjust what I’m doing.”

Katie (hearing loss): “I would try and position myself like on [my mentor’s] left side so I could hear her. I would take lots of notes when she was trying to explain some sort of process so I could make sure I didn’t miss anything.”

As Naomi and Katie describe, they are often having to adjust to societal standards and structures that may not be suitable for those with disabilities, which can be both physically and emotionally taxing. Such standards and structures, which were built on a history of ableism, were not created with individuals with disabilities in mind ( Goodley, 2014 ; Peterson, 2021 ). The juxtaposition between students with disabilities working with mentors to change something about the structure of a lab or the behavior of people within a lab and students with disabilities changing their own behaviors to maximize their experiences as someone with a disability in research reflect the social and medical approaches to disability, respectively ( Brisenden, 1986 ; Shakespeare, 2006 ). Considering the social model of disability, the mentor or lab mate recognizes that the way research is being conducted is excluding the student from participating. In contrast, students with disabilities who change their own behavior reflect an assumption (perhaps of their mentors or lab mates) that their disabilities limit what they can do in research. This has also been illustrated with students who are deaf or hard of hearing in undergraduate research, where some individuals created their own communication strategies with hearing mentors, including writing on laboratory whiteboards or texting to communicate (medical model), whereas others had hearing mentors who were willing to learn basic American Sign Language as a way to establish a deaf-friendly research environment (social model; Braun et al. , 2018 ; Majocha et al. , 2018 ). Previously, our research group has argued that developing accommodations on an individual basis will meet the unique needs of the student, but that it often takes longer to secure the accommodations and requires the student to encounter a problem before an accommodation is offered ( Gin et al. , 2020 ). The wasted time spent encountering the problem and responding to the problem may be sufficient to derail that student from persisting; in some cases, the problem may never be addressed. Thus, we urge future research to explore what, if any, accommodations are available and scalable in hopes of identifying standardized accommodations that would allow students to be supported in undergraduate research before they encounter a challenge. Some of these solutions may be difficult for individual mentors to provide for students, because a lab may not have the funding or resources available to assist a student (e.g., adaptive equipment, software, or technologies). Therefore, it would be increasingly important to have assistance from outside sources, such as the department, the university’s DRC, or national funding agencies, to better accommodate students with disabilities in research. As universities are required to accommodate students ( Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, 1973 ; Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, 1990 ; ADA Amendments Act of 2008, 2008 ), policies need to be in place so that a lab mentor can know who to go to for funds for these accommodations.

Finding 3: Students with Disabilities Reported Distinctive Benefits from Participating in Undergraduate Research.

Studies have shown that, on average, students benefit from engaging in undergraduate research ( Seymour et al. , 2004 ; Russell et al. , 2007 ; Thiry et al. , 2012 ; NASEM, 2019 ), but we wanted to examine whether students perceived that they reap unique benefits from research, given their disabilities.

Undergraduate Research Can Counteract the Narrative That Students with Disabilities Cannot Do Science or Enter Scientific Careers.

Systemic ableism has resulted in few examples of scientists who identify as having a disability, so students with disabilities often lack role models in science who may be able to provide them with navigational capital and advice for how to pursue a career in science ( Listman and Dingus-Eason, 2018 ; Cooper et al ., 2020b ). Further, the absence of role models, coupled with the often hostile environment in science for individuals with disabilities ( Dunn et al. , 2012 ), can erroneously present a narrative that individuals with disabilities cannot pursue careers in science. This perceived identity incompatibility has been shown to be a factor in the attrition of science students ( Rosenthal et al. , 2011 , 2013 ; Good et al. , 2012 ). As such, bolstering the confidence of students with disabilities to counteract that narrative of their ability to do science may be integral to promoting retention among these students ( Adedokun et al. , 2014 ; Daniels et al. , 2016 ). When students in this study were asked about their confidence in their ability to do science, they often described that their confidence before they started research was low, because it was based on their sometimes poor performance in traditional lecture courses. Yet studies have shown that these undergraduate courses are often inaccessible for students with disabilities and may not accurately reflect their ability to do science ( Mason and Hedin, 2011 ; Harshman et al. , 2013 ; McMahon et al. , 2016 ; Braun et al. , 2018 ). After conducting undergraduate research, some of these students felt for the first time that they could be a scientist. For example, Odette and Tia highlight how their experiences conducting undergraduate research disrupted their initial impressions of their abilities to do science.

Odette (learning disability, mental health disability): “My grades were not always that great (…) I would just flunk a test because I didn’t understand what they were asking or I studied a graph that was different and then they laid it out differently. And I was like, I don’t know how to read this, things like that. So, when all that would happen [in class], I would still be doing posters, writing papers, participating in this research that I thought was really worthwhile and impactful [in undergraduate research]. And it just made me feel like I can be a scientist.”

Tia (hearing loss, mental health disability): “Because of the anxiety and the very bad situations with my math courses, I really thought that I wasn’t going to be able to do any amount of research. [My PI] really helped me realize that as soon as I could put data in a table or in a graph, I could understand it better. I didn’t even think [doing research] was a possibility and honestly is the reason that I want to do science now.”

Overall, the reflections from Odette and Tia demonstrate that their experiences in undergraduate research changed their confidence in their ability to do science, because their experiences demonstrated that they can be successful as researchers. Doing undergraduate research allowed them to feel like they were actually “doing science,” showed them that they could be scientists, and helped them in adopting a science identity ( Hazari et al. , 2013 ).

There is ample evidence that UREs can be career defining for students; for example, UREs are one of the best predictors for continuing on in research careers ( Bauer and Bennett, 2003 ; Seymour et al. , 2004 ; Russell et al. , 2007 ; Carter et al. , 2009 ; Estrada et al. , 2016 ). However, for these students with disabilities who do not often see role models in science, UREs allowed them to disrupt their assumptions that they could not pursue careers in science and see themselves as future researchers. For students like Tia, the URE allowed her to recognize the value of doing research and showed her that it is a possible career path, although she initially doubted her ability to succeed in research.

Tia (hearing loss, mental health disability): “I definitely like to work with research and data collection, but also particularly fieldwork. I didn’t even realize how important [undergraduate research] was to me until I got into research because I didn’t think that I’d be able to do research. That seemed too academic and too, I don’t want to say hardcore, but I thought that it was going to be too hard for me to deal with, and it turns out that it wasn’t and that I actually flourished and I continue to want to seek it out [as a career].”

One of the students in the study, Jesse, described working in a research lab that studied autism. Based on his experience as someone who identifies as autistic, he developed an understanding of some of the limitations of this research if it is not done by someone whose community is directly affected by the work. Additionally, as someone with a chronic health condition, he noted that having the opportunity to conduct research has given him better insights into what he needs for an accessible work environment, such as having comfortable seating or having the option to leave the lab space as needed.

Jesse (chronic health condition, learning disability): “I mean, [my undergraduate research] has definitely influenced what I want to do. I definitely want to continue to research autism, especially because I find that most of the research that’s done on autism and autism spectrum disorders is research done on children predominantly and then people who are assigned male at birth, as opposed to people that are assigned female at birth, when it presents itself differently in every person. Wherever I work has to be accessible, otherwise I can’t work there. (…) I have to make sure there is a chair to sit, leave the lab from sensory overload… and the building has an elevator.”

While students with disabilities often enter undergraduate programs with the same level of interest in science as students without disabilities ( Thurston et al. , 2017 ), their completion rates and matriculation rates into advanced degree programs and science professions remain lower ( U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2020 ). As such, this finding highlights the important potential for UREs to have a positive impact on career choices for students with disabilities. In this case, undergraduate research can serve as work-based learning experiences that can be influential for individuals with disabilities ( Lave and Wenger, 1991 ; Bellman et al. , 2014 ). The ability to explore career options before joining the workforce can be particularly helpful for individuals with disabilities who may inaccurately assume that they cannot pursue a career in scientific research ( Hershenson, 2005 ).

Students with Disabilities Discussed That Undergraduate Research Provides Them with a Unique Context to Build Resiliency and Overcome Obstacles.

Failure, particularly student response to failure and fear of failure, has been proposed to have implications for student attrition and retention to science programs ( Harsh et al. , 2011 ; Simpson and Maltese, 2017 ; Henry et al. , 2019 , 2021 ). The use of maladaptive coping, or not being able to cope properly, has been shown to negatively affect an individual’s well-being and also prevent the individual from making progress, finding a resolution, or moving beyond the initial failure ( Carver et al. , 1989 ; Struthers et al. , 2000 ; Skinner et al. , 2003 ; Henry et al. , 2019 ). Conversely, students who experience “productive failure,” defined as engaging students in unstructured, complex problem solving and challenging tasks that students know they may be unable to complete ( Kapur, 2008 ; Kapur and Bielaczyc, 2012 ), can develop resiliency and behaviors that may help them successfully navigate future challenges in science ( Skinner et al. , 2003 ; Gin et al. , 2018 ; Henry et al. , 2019 , 2021 ). Undergraduate research has been described as a potentially impactful way to teach students to deal with obstacles, setbacks, and failure ( Auchincloss et al. , 2014 ; Firestein, 2015 ; Gin et al. , 2018 ; Henry et al. , 2019 ). However, the failure inherent in research has been shown to be particularly difficult for some students, including students who have disabilities like depression ( Cooper et al ., 2020b ; Gin et al. , 2021b ), although we know of no studies that have examined how students with disabilities broadly navigate failure in the context of research.

Many individuals with disabilities face challenges in their everyday lives ( Campbell et al. , 1999 ; Koon et al. , 2020 ). Studies have shown that, while resilience is important for individuals with disabilities, it can be a challenging skill to build ( Alschuler et al. , 2016 ). However, individuals with disabilities who build resilience and overcome obstacles can experience a better quality of life, more overall satisfaction, and improved health benefits ( Alriksson-Schmidt et al. , 2007 ; Silverman et al. , 2015 ). Thus, providing students with an opportunity to build resiliency to obstacles and overcome challenges in a context such as undergraduate research may have a positive broader effect on students with disabilities. Indeed, as Skylar and Naomi point out, their perseverance in undergraduate research has helped them overcome obstacles in other aspects of their life and made them proud of what they have accomplished.

Skylar (learning disability): “It takes me longer to process information a lot of the time (…) I think it will mean more for me than for other people just because the person with the learning disability is the only one who knows how hard it is. (…) And to overcome that adversity [can help me] overcome other things as well.”

Naomi (physical disability): “I have obstacles [related to completing certain physical tasks] in my path, including with research. They’re just there. I come with obstacles. So, I’ve just got to figure out how to get over them and always just a, ‘Hey, that’s just how it is.’ [Doing research] makes me feel pretty proud, pretty happy. Of all the students that my professor could have asked, she knew I had a disability. She still asked me. So, it makes me feel pretty happy and pretty proud.”

Temple also highlighted how her experience in research altered the way she perceives failure, as well as how she reacts when others experience failure.

Temple (learning disability): “[Having a disability] does make me very determined. I think that aspect of motivation is obviously important because in research you need perseverance. Things rarely work out the first time the way you expect them to. But I’ve learned that achieving that end goal is something that I can push myself toward. I think a big thing is sort of altering my perspective toward mistakes and failure. I’ve learned how to be more accommodating to myself and more accepting to myself. And that also comes out in my interactions with other people. If somebody else makes a mistake, I am also accommodating to them because I know that I am struggling with something, regardless of whether or not they are. A mistake is not enough to be angry at somebody.”

Because these students experienced challenges and failure in the context of undergraduate research, they have been able to gain new perspectives on how obstacles should be approached and have become more understanding of others who may encounter difficulties in their research experiences. Although we present these examples because the students highlighted overcoming challenges and failure as a benefit of participating in research, there has been critique of asking students to persist through difficulties, which has been termed “grit” ( Duckworth et al. , 2007 ), and other research has shown that failure can be detrimental to students ( Brunstein and Gollwitzer, 1996 ; Smith et al. , 2006 ). As such, we want to acknowledge that we are not advocating for putting the burden on the student to persist and overcome the failure; mentors can provide students with projects with a lower likelihood of failure, and sufficient guidance from a mentor can help students identify a mistake earlier in the process, help make sense of confusing patterns in the data, and even recognize when to give up on a project. In sum, we do not feel as though students, including students with disabilities need to experience failure to become a scientist, but we do want to highlight how “productive failure” may be beneficial for some students ( Kapur, 2008 ; Kapur and Bielaczyc, 2012 ).

Finding 4: Students with Disabilities Recognize Unique Contributions They Can Make to Undergraduate Research, Owing to Their Unique Perspectives

Students with disabilities described bringing a unique perspective to research..

In our interviews, we also aimed to examine the ways in which students with disabilities bring particular assets or strengths to their research experiences based on their own unique traits, thoughts, and experiences as individuals with disabilities ( López, 2017 ). Students described that they felt as though their disabilities gave them unique viewpoints and perspectives that influenced the ways in which they approached their research. In particular, some students described that they were able to provide a unique lens for solving problems in science that they would not have if not for their own lived experiences as individuals with disabilities. For example, Hugh described how his understanding of the patient perspective, given his own disability and breadth of experience with medical doctors, can help him with formulating research questions and his approach to problem-solving in research.

Hugh (chronic health condition, hearing loss, learning disability, mental health disability, physical disability): “I think being able to use my own experiences with doctors or in the hospital, I think it gives me ways to look at problems differently and to ask different questions. (…) I think that with the asking different questions, sometimes that comes from just knowing the patient side of the experience. (…) Maybe seeing how my rheumatologist talks about it versus how a cardiologist or anyone else talks about it and trying to use some of those different ways of thought [in research].”

Moreover, Odette describes that her disabilities contribute to research because of the overall diversity she brings to the scientific research community and the unique perspectives that she has as someone with mental health and learning disabilities. She describes that she is able to “think outside the box” and has had other researchers tell her that they have not considered research problems or research questions in the same ways in which she considers them. This is consistent with other arguments that position individuals with disabilities to be some of our society’s best forward thinkers and problem solvers, because they encounter problems, obstacles, and challenges that require solutions at a greater frequency than those without disabilities ( Emery, 2018 ).

Odette (learning disability, mental health disability): “I think [having a disability] gives me an advantage in that it brings more diversity to the table and it brings kind of a unique perspective I guess because I’m not always used to seeing what some people see inside the box, I just kind of like to think outside the box pretty freely. And so people have told me, I guess that … like some of the research ideas that I think about are things that they’d never really considered.”

Additionally, some students mentioned that traits and characteristics related to their disabilities can provide an advantage in conducting certain research-related tasks, although students also described how this can be challenging for their overall productivity in research. For example, as Tia described, she felt as though her anxiety gave her better attention to detail, which helped her avoid mistakes in the research process, even though it led to spending additional time working to get her tasks done. Another common example, illustrated by Skylar, is that students with attention deficit disorder (ADD) may be able to hyperfocus on certain tasks, such as data entry or data collection, whereas they may be unable to focus on completing tasks at all at other times.

Tia (hearing loss, mental health disability): “I definitely feel that my anxiety gives me better attention to detail. (…) The worry that I’m going to screw up so badly, it’s helpful towards the research, it is detrimental towards myself in the way of making sure that I got everything done or that I would put in late hours to make sure that the work that was asked of me got done, but it makes the research better.”

Skylar (learning disability): “But a part of like ADD is that you can really focus on stuff, as well as not being able to focus on stuff. You can hyper-focus on certain tasks. (…) I’m able to hyper-focus on some things for long periods of time and then other times I just can’t focus on anything.”

These students’ perceptions support the notion that including individuals with disabilities and their perspectives has the potential to diversify the scientific community, could increase the objectivity of science, and may reduce the amount of bias that may exist in scientific reasoning ( Anderson, 2006 ; Solomon, 2006 ; Intemann, 2009 ). For example, scientific researchers get to select the research questions that are asked and answered, defining what is important for their disciplines ( Hrdy and Bleier, 1986 ; Wylie and Nelson, 2007 ). In addition, individuals with disabilities may also leverage their unique perspectives to identify limitations of existing models and propose new ones, incorporate a fuller range of alternative hypotheses and interpretations of data, and open up new lines of evidence ( Intemann, 2009 ; Braun et al. , 2018 ).

Some Students Reported a Greater Sense of Empathy and Understanding for the Process of Research because of Their Experiences with Their Disabilities.

In addition to feeling as though they bring unique perspectives and experiences to undergraduate research, several students noted that they specifically felt as though they brought a greater sense of empathy and understanding to the research process, participants in research studies, and fellow researchers. This was often particularly true for students whose research experiences involved working directly with human research subjects. Jesse, who conducts autism research, describes that his own motivation for wanting to do research is because he feels as though he has insights into the disabled experience that shapes how he approaches his research. For example, he notes that he has his own personal experience with autism.

Jesse (chronic health condition, learning disability): “I wanted to do research [on autism] because I am disabled, and I know other people have different experiences, and I know that just because I experience something doesn’t mean that everyone else with the same disorder does. But there’s a lot of similarities and a lot of things that two people with the same disorder might both experience.”

Additionally, some students, such as Michael, noted that they feel more empathetic for their peers and other researchers within their research groups who may have disabilities.

Michael (mental health disability): “I’ve tried to be more empathetic when working with other volunteers [researchers]. We have a volunteer who has autism in our lab. And I try to be more empathetic. It’s awesome and really great that we have him.”

There has been a broad critique of able-bodied individuals not understanding the challenges of students with disabilities ( Dunn et al. , 2012 ; Moon et al. , 2012 ). One concrete benefit that could result from engaging more students with disabilities in UREs is the potential for them to serve as more culturally competent research mentors for students with disabilities, as future upper-level undergraduates, as graduate students, as postdocs, and as faculty ( Eddey and Robey, 2005 ; Balcazar et al. , 2009 ).

Recommendations for Research Mentors Looking to Make Undergraduate Research More Inclusive and Accessible for Students with Disabilities

Recommendation 1. Provide students with flexibility in deadlines, meetings, and schedules. This could include having students work remotely or set their own work hours or providing options for students to attend a meeting via Zoom.

Recommendation 2. Get to know students and understand their accessibility needs. One way to do this is to conduct check-ins for group access needs during lab meetings ( Reinholz and Ridgway, 2021 ) or anonymously survey students on the overall accessibility of the lab.

Recommendation 3. Self-assessment of the accessibility of research space. This could include consulting with DRC staff to determine how one could make current practices and research spaces more inclusive for individuals with disabilities.

Recommendation 4. Advocate on behalf of students with disabilities. This may include communicating with DRC staff to see what is available for students with disabilities in research or serving as an additional voice for students seeking certain accommodations from the university. The onus of the responsibility for providing accommodations does not have to be solely on the mentor.

Recommendation 5. Professional development on how to better support individuals with disabilities. One option is that mentors can encourage their research groups to participate in workplace trainings that raise awareness about the needs of students with disabilities (e.g., AccessZone).

Limitations

The students in both studies were recruited from life sciences undergraduate programs, and as such, there may be discipline-specific differences in student research experiences in the sciences. Future work should explore UREs in other science disciplines, as each discipline may present unique challenges for students. For example, some students in our study discussed experiences with fieldwork or computation that may be unique to the life sciences. Additionally, our studies primarily included students who reported learning disabilities, mental health disabilities, and chronic health conditions and did not include any students who identified as having vision loss. Future research could take a targeted approach to recruit students who have specific disabilities who were underrepresented in this study. However, in general, our interview sample was relatively representative of our survey sample, indicating that studies examining what prevents students with particular disabilities from engaging in research may be a needed first step.

Similar to any interview study, it is possible that students in this study experienced social desirability bias so that students may have given socially desirable responses to interview questions rather than responding with what was reflective of their true feelings ( Bergen and Labonte, 2020 ). This could be particularly concerning, given that individuals with disabilities are a historically marginalized group who may be reluctant to identify their challenges or weaknesses ( Logan et al. , 2008 ; Merrill et al. , 1997 ). While we tried to limit this by anonymizing their experience, individuals in our study may actually be underreporting and underestimating some of the challenges they have experienced in undergraduate research because of the hierarchical nature of research and concerns about anonymity. In addition, our conclusions are limited to students’ perspectives. As such, we did not identify an exhaustive list of the ways that students are challenged in, benefit from, or contribute to research. Additional interviews with stakeholders such as peers, research mentors, and DRC support staff would be needed to fully answer these questions.

Together, our data suggest that students with disabilities are underrepresented in life sciences UREs, and students with disabilities who do participate in research report that they experience challenges specific to their disabilities. According to the students interviewed, these challenges seem to only be mitigated if students reveal their disabilities and self-advocate for accommodations or identify solutions themselves. However, in addition to the array of benefits that all students can gain from engaging in research ( Bauer and Bennett, 2003 ; Thiry et al. , 2012 ; Adedokun et al. , 2014 ; Daniels et al. , 2016 ; Olimpo et al. , 2016 ), this work also suggests that students with disabilities may garner unique benefits by using UREs to counteract the narrative that they cannot pursue careers in research. Importantly, undergraduate researchers with disabilities highlighted ways in which they brought assets to undergraduate research, namely, providing unique insights and being empathetic toward others. This work emphasizes the need to recruit undergraduate researchers with disabilities and retain them by providing more inclusive research environments.

1 In this article, we primarily use person-first language when describing students with disabilities generally, which has been promoted as a way to indicate that the individual is a person first, who happens to have a disability ( National Center on Disability and Journalism, 2018 ; American Psychological Association, 2020 ). However, there are specific communities that have advocated for identity-first language (e.g., autistic community, deaf community, blind community) ( Vaughan, 2009 ; Lum, 2010 ; Kenny et al ., 2016 ). There is not widespread agreement on what type of language is most preferred among those in the disability community ( Ferrigon and Tucker, 2019 ).

2 We use the broad term “disability resource center” to describe offices on college campuses that are designed to support students with disabilities. Some institutions have other names to describe these offices, such as disability support services, accessibility services, student access centers, and accommodation resource offices.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank the 20 undergraduate researchers with disabilities who interviewed with us and shared their thoughts and experiences. We also thank the ASU Research for Inclusive STEM Education (RISE) Center for feedback on earlier versions of this work. L.E.G. was supported by an NSF Graduate Fellowship (DGE-1311230) and an NSF S-STEM Grant (1644236). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF.

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Submitted: 2 August 2021 Revised: 22 February 2022 Accepted: 7 March 2022

© 2022 L. E. Gin et al. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2022 The American Society for Cell Biology. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). It is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 4.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0).

220 Disabilities Education Research Topics & Essay Examples

📝 disabilities education research papers examples, 🎓 simple research topics about disabilities education, 👍 good disabilities education essay topics to write about, ⭐ interesting topics to write about disabilities education, ✅ easy disabilities education topics for an essay.

• 🏆 Best Disabilities Education Essay Titles

❓ Disabilities Education Research Questions

• Learning Disabilities and Communication Disorders This report illustrates that teaching children with a learning disability is a collaborative task, which needs the active participation of teachers, parents, and other support workers.
• Teaching Strategies for Children With Disabilities The learning experiences of persons with special needs and disabilities can be so challenging, especially if appropriate teaching strategies are not applied on them.
• How Inclusion Impacts Autistic Children? Autism is a neural disorder identified through the problems in socialization, communication and typecasting characters. Autism poses threats and challenges to the learning of children.
• Special Education Disability Categories The present study aimed to analyze how special education impacts development in children born with different categories of disability.
• Alternate Assessments for Learning Disabled Students Alternate assessment methods are actively proposed for evaluating the progress of different student populations, including students with disabilities.
• Theory of the Inclusive Education The interventional and educational programs for the individuals with special needs only started to be developed and implemented during the 1960s.
• Inclusive Education: Disadvantages and Challenges For many years, many schools in Western Australia have been facing a lot of problems concerned about the quality of education offered to students with special needs.
• New Brookhaven School and Disabled Students This paper looks into how New Brookhaven School’s English language learners with disabilities can be handled and how they can cope with the institution’s education environment.
• Special Education Teachers and Parents: Collaboration The study will explore how the use of technologies can enhance collaboration between special education teachers and parents of children requiring special education services in early childhood.
• Special Education Contributions and Experience Special education refers to explicit instructions that are drawn to equip children who have any form of disability whereas their parents incur little or no charges.
• Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) IDEA is a federal law in the United States that governs the way states and public agencies provide special education related services to children with disabilities.
• Special Education and Teacher Burnout Questions like whether there are any factors that help special education teachers deal with the realities of their profession are high on the agenda of educational circles.
• Co-Teaching for Children with Disabilities This paper focuses on evaluating co-teaching as a means for the successful inclusion of students with disabilities in a rural district, by reviewing articles.
• Exceptional Children: Introduction to Special Education The collaboration between home and school has several benefits. It helps in the delivery of proper services to the disabled child.
• Special Education: Parent–Professional Collaboration Collaboration between parents of children with special educational needs and professionals is the process aimed at delivering education to children to achieve better outcomes.
• The Requirements of Students with Disabilities The purpose of the current paper is to identify how the requirements of students with disabilities are met within an educational context.
• American Special Education and Early Intervention Early remedial intervention might be used to address speech problems resulting from a hearing loss. Early special education interventions have many salient features.
• Assistive Technology Plan for a Disabled Learner This paper presents a creating an assistive technology plan for a learner with a physical impairment, reading, and learning disability.
• Civil Rights for Disabled Students The following journal looks at the roles played by schools and higher education institutions in ensuring that students with disabilities are taken care of as per legal requirements.
• Teaching Foreign Languages to Autistic Students This essay discusses the specifics of teaching foreign languages to children on the autism spectrum with the use of the humanistic approach and modern technology.
• Legislation in Education of Students with Disabilities In the earlier history of the United States, many children with disabilities were isolated from the so-called normal children.
• Merits of a Specialist Autism Unit in a Mainstream School The approach for discussion is by outlining the learning strategies for autistic teachers, schools and learners.
• Speech and Language Disorders of American Children There are different types of speech and language disorders, and for most of them, there is a special treatment that needs to be done to help the person.
• Effects of Service Interruption on ADA Students with Learning Disabilities The education system is among the key areas where systems must be designed with a particular focus on ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) learners' needs.
• Field Experience Report and Reflection: Special Education Throughout this field experience, the author has learned more about the current practical approaches to education for children with special needs.
• Special Education for Children of Kindergarten and Third-Grade Levels Special education is designed to address the needs of students with specific disabilities in a very individual manner.
• Suspending a Student with Disabilities The process of suspending a student with disabilities may turn out to be quite controversial and result in the rights of the said student being neglected.
• Teaching Strategies for Pupils With Special Educational Needs The authors of the article claim that mainstream teachers show little concern for learners with disabilities who are integrated into their classrooms.
• The Inclusion of Learners With Special Educational Needs Many societies and countries lack a proper model for empowering pupils with special needs and taking them through the learning process.
• E-Learning Based on Gamification for Autism The present paper aims at analyzing the current approaches to gamification in e-learning with a special focus on autism spectrum disorder students.
• Head Start and Special Needs Teachers The two professions deal with learners who are delicate and need special attention and care. A head start teacher supervises and organizes pre-K students in classrooms.
• Learning Disability: Special Education Strategies The aim of this project implies examining special education and learning disabilities through the lenses of social science and humanities to analyze the problem from two perspectives.
• Societal Impact of Learning Disabilities In the articles by Cortella & Horowitz and Bizier, Marshall, & Fawcell, they provide an overview of the prevalence rates of learning disabilities in the US. and Canada.
• How a Principal Can Improve the Quality of Special Education As a school principal, one can introduce instructions for teachers to adhere to when assisting children with special needs in the process of acquiring vital knowledge and skills.
• Students With Disabilities: Strategies and Teaching Methods Students with disabilities require significantly different educational practices, and applying these unique conditions can be challenging for a teacher.
• Early Interventions in Rocking Behaviours of Children With Autism This paper provides an insight of the available behavioral interventions of improving learning outcomes of children with rocking behaviors.
• Learning Disabilities in Canadian Context: British Columbia and Ontario The policies of BC and Ontario identify students with LD as those who have one or several disorders that affect their learning, resulting from impairment to perceive information.
• Mainstreaming and Inclusion of Students With Special Needs Mainstreaming is the appointment of special students who may be students with special needs or in relation to gender.
• Case Study of Learning Disabilities: Autism It can be articulated from the report that Autism is a problem that needs to be focused on especially in the educational system.
• Inclusion of a Business Class This paper will examine the need for business and business-related disciplines in a biology curriculum. A business-related class may benefit future biology graduates.
• Inclusive Teaching Strategies in a General Classroom Inclusive learning is a form of the organization of the learning process, in which all students regardless of their features are included in mainstream education.
• Special Needs Students' Transition from School to Work People spend most of their life working than doing any other activity in life. We often place more emphasis on the type of work we do.
• Technology Integration in Special Education The Fairfax County Public Schools recommend alternative methods of instruction for students with an impaired ability to comprehend and process information.
• The Effect of Training Employees to Work With Special Education Children The paper assesses the effect of training employees to work with special education children and test their improvement in knowledge after completing a training program.
• Incorporating Children With Autism in the General Education Classrooms The purpose of this study is to develop a system of determining the effectiveness of incorporating children with autism in general education classrooms.
• Learning Disabilities: The Role of an Slp The paper states that the role of an SLP cannot be overlooked or underestimated because of the need to address the speech-language disorder promptly.
• Children With Exceptionalities: Intellectual Disability TED Institute offers Emilie Weight’s presentation about living with a son who has an intellectual disability. This short talk was impressive because and caused several reactions.
• Individualized Education Program Meeting Analysis The given paper will present the overview of an individualized education program meeting for a third-grade male student of Chinese origin.
• Technological Advances and Teaching in Special Education Consistent improvements in the data and correspondence advances (ICT) had its offer in the instructional innovations.
• Interventions Dealing with Special Need Children This paper discusses the role of the knowledge of child development in assisting professionals in providing effective learning interventions.
• Diversity and Inclusion in Australia: Report Diversity and inclusion are essential elements of a contemporary Australian classroom. In Australian classroom, diversity means teaching a unique set of children with different cultural and social backgrounds.
• Services for Students With Intellectual Disabilities Inclusive education is beneficial not only for students with disabilities but also for learners who do not require special educational needs.
• Inclusion of Students With Intellectual Disabilities Limitations and delays in mental functioning characterize ID in terms of skills lagging. Children may have difficulties in adjusting to social rules, as well.
• Adaptive Assessments of Intellectual Disabilities Adaptive assessments evaluate the so-called “life skills,” falling under the three categories: conceptual, social, and practical.
• Characteristic of Intellectual Disability Intellectual disabilities are often the result of a person’s genetics or the conditions surrounding their birth. As such, they can develop before the person is even born.
• Assessment Tools in Special Needs Education Among the listed assessment tools, my school system primarily uses standardized tests, dynamic assessments, and criterion referenced tools.
• Instructional Techniques for Students With Intellectual Disabilities Explicit instruction and scaffolding are more advanced techniques and present a next step to the direct instruction.
• The Definition and Needs of Special Education The term of SPED traditionally includes travel training, vocational education, and speech-language pathology services.
• Disproportionality in Special Education In the United States, minority students with learning disabilities form the highest percentage in comparison with those from other ethnicities.
• Social Inclusion Policy in Early Years Education It is crucial to promote the quality of the inclusion policy and increase coordination between families, communities, and schools.
• Education for Visually Impaired Students The purpose of this work is to analyze why assisting students with visual impairments is important and what measures a school can implement.
• Critical Incident in Education Experience This paper aims to analyze a critical incident involving a pupil with autism and discuss lessons and policy recommendations garnered from experience.
• Inclusive Learning Environments The inclusive educational environment provides a wide range of benefits for not only disabled students but also the educational experiences of non-disabled children.
• Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder The main challenges of the Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder include inattention, inability to concentrate, memory deficits, time management, and emotional control.
• Individual Education Plan in Case of Disabilities The paper discusses an individual educational plan. It is necessary when working with children with disabilities or developmental delays.
• Supporting Children with Specific Needs: Approaches and Interventions Teachers are in direct contact with children with special needs. They are expected to give special training to the children depending on the understanding level of each child.
• Teaching Children With ADHD The teaching method used by an instructor should cater to the student's needs. It is essential to understand what works for them and then model one’s teaching to suit this.
• Cerebral Palsy Disorder: How CP Appears in the Classroom This paper discusses cerebral palsy disorder, how CP appears in the classroom, how a teacher can support a child with CP, and paraprofessional goals with a student with CP.
• Inclusive Education and Effective Practices The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the most effective practices for educating students in inclusive classes.
• Sean’s Story: Special Needs Students in Regular Classrooms Sean was a young boy who had Down syndrome. Sean's mother fought hard to ensure that inclusion was observed in the school as she joined other parents of disabled children.
• Accessibility for Students With Autism in Education in K-12 The general picture of accessibility for students with autism in education in K-12 appears to be somewhat optimistic.
• Strategies for Including Children with Special Needs in Early Childhood Settings This book seems to be a useful guide to understand not only the approach to Exceptional Student Education but also adapting children’s daily activities and working in a team.
• Special Educational Needs in Europe This paper shall address the issue of modern language in special education. A literature review shall be conducted on modern foreign languages and special education inclusion.
• Children with Disabilities: Educational Programs Children with disabilities need a special approach to learning that requires equipped classes, teachers who will take into account the physical characteristics of the disabled.
• Accommodating Students With Disabilities in the Classroom The individualized approach may be better at accommodating specific students in the classroom, though they may be uncomfortable with disclosing their conditions in detail.
• Pupils with Special Education Needs and Disabilities Effective support is possible through interactions and collaboration between teachers and the parents of students with special education needs and disabilities.
• Examination of Elementary Teachers' Perceived Barriers Regarding the Inclusive Setting The research examines New Jersey elementary school teachers' preparedness for and perceived barriers to meeting the academic needs of SWDs in the inclusion setting.
• Students' Language Disorder The language disorder problem is a complex phenomenon that necessitates an extraordinary approach. Its definition, main characteristics, and causing factors were discussed.
• Creating a Collaborative Service Delivery Transition for Children With Disabilities This paper discusses what is to be done during the child change from one age to the next and specifically from in-house-based care to school-based care.
• Preparing Early Special Education Teachers to Partner With Families The research investigated the types of experiences that teachers of Early Childhood Special Education students had in their training programs related to partnering with families.
• Education for the Disabled: The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act The paper focuses on assessing how education environments have been made suitable for students with any form of disability.
• The Challenging Cases Faced by Teachers It is proven to be effective in encouraging a student to displace problematic behavior and aggression with favorable actions and respect for others.
• "A Comparison of Saudi and Canadian Children’s Knowledge..." by Felimban With a qualitative approach, this comparative research analyzed the beliefs of students from Canada and Saudi Arabia regarding the factors associated with learning disabilities.
• Designing a Classroom with Built-In Inclusive Practices This paper’s purpose is to create an effective classroom environment for all children to be able to learn from the perspective of a special education teacher.
• Supporting Children with Disabilities Through Embedded Learning Opportunities Infants and toddlers require specialized trained professionals or extremely experienced individuals to understand their learning process.
• Distance Learning for Students with High Behavioral Needs Tomaino et al.'s study on "assessing the feasibility and effectiveness of distance learning for students with DDBN” is framed around the theme of online learning.
• The IDEA Act and 504 Plan Implementation at School The Individuals with Disability Education Act of 1990 outlines provisions that a school must use to ensure children with disabilities are well catered for to compete with others.
• Georgia’s Segregation of Students With Disabilities The paper describes what might be the state of Georgia’s rationale for the practice of segregation of students with disabilities.
• Teaching Play Skills for Children with Disabilities This article delves into teaching play to enhance learning outcomes and improve the quality of life of children with disabilities.
• Big Ideas in Special Education This article discusses specialized approaches implemented in the educational system to demonstrate their beneficial applications to the learning process.
• Special Education for Children with Mental Disorders Problems of learning and school adaptation of children and adolescents with mental disorders are most urgent in modern social psychiatry.
• Ethics in Special Education The authors of the article in question concern themselves with reviewing and discussing some of the existing research on ethics in special education.
• Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Teaching Special Needs This paper explores Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) in teaching special needs. Through the paper, the reader will find how they can use PCK ideas provided in the sources.
• Teacher Leadership in Special Education Special education requires particular care and attention when it comes to selecting teaching strategies and especially the style of leadership to be applied in the target context.
• Teacher Leadership Practices in Special Education It is paramount for teachers in special education to utilize the most advanced strategies in supporting learners and encouraging them to build the required skill set.
• Literacy and Inter-Disciplinary Lesson for Special Education This paper aims to prepare a class activity that teaches literacy and interdisciplinary for special education at the grade five level.
• Educational Law: Individuals With Disabilities Education Act Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) prepares disabled children not solely for further education but for employment and living separately as well.
• Inclusion Perspectives in the USA and Finland The paper examines the differences in education and social welfare policies that support inclusivity between the United States and Finland.
• Students' Study Goals in Inclusive Education One of the goals for future development is concerned with expanding knowledge of children's disabilities to have an improved understanding of students' needs.
• Inclusive Classes vs. Special Education The education of children with special needs is one of the primary responsibilities. It is a necessary condition for creating an equal society where everyone can feel needed.
• Addressing Diversity in Inclusive Classroom When discussing different cultures, races, and religions, it is crucial to clarify that everyone shares a lot in common with each other regardless of differences.
• Learners With Mild Intellectual Disabilities One of the strategies in helping children with mild intellectual disabilities is a focus on greater home based methods of learning and teaching.
• Analysis of Individualized Education Program Individualized Education Program is one of the most effective ways to adjust the lessons according to the needs of the child and the expectations of parents and teachers.
• Strategies to Reach Children With Disabilities The paper talks about strategies that can use to reach children of all disability levels and describes the system in detail, where the plan came from, and how it is effective.
• Special Education Curriculum Issues and Their Solutions in the USA There are many potential improvements that can transform the special education programs across the US to become more efficient, inclusive, and appropriate for the stakeholders.
• Leadership and Policy on Autism Spectrum Disorders Leadership and Policy fulfill the Commission on Education and Communication standards by introducing an important aspect of education provided to people with autism.
• Approaches to Teach Children With Developmental or Intellectual Disabilities The activity-based approach is a method of teaching in which children do not receive knowledge in a ready-made form.
• Autism Spectrum Disorder and Special Education Issues It is typical for a child with an Autism Spectrum Disorder to struggle with social interactions and to have difficulties communicating with teachers and other students.
• Leadership Preparation for Special Education and Inclusive Schools The educational process is one of the fundamental and inalienable conditions for special students' successful socialization.
• Helping the Hard of Hearing Students Hard of hearing, often abbreviated as HoH is one of the disabilities that a section of students faces in their normal daily lives.
• Integrating Inclusive Classrooms for Children With Disabilities This paper investigates factors that promote the successful integration of inclusive classrooms and equal rights among preschool children.
• Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation of Teachers in Special Education Secondary School The system for evaluating the curriculums is used as a measure of success and achievement, and an effective tool for improving the quality of education.
• Special Education Services and Intervention Intensity Special education services are essential to children with disabilities and also to those that have slow learning skills.
• Attendance and Performance in Non- and Disabled Secondary Students This literature review paper identifies what is known about the effect of poor attendance on academic performance in disabled secondary students and their non-disabled peers.
• Government Policies on Educating People With Disabilities Only with the right policy from the government, the people would understand the importance of teaching people with disabilities.
• Special Populations Paper: Students With an IEP The issue of helping students from IEP reach their dreams and get into college is extremely important to me. In my future career as a school counselor.
• Technologies for the Students With Disabilities Apple iPad comes with built-in accessibility apps related to vision, hearing, mobility, and learning disabilities.
• Students With Special Needs and Educational Processes The paper states that is vital to cater to student's needs and find the right approach to establish productive communication with them in classes.
• Special Education Teacher Interview The article analyzes the interview is how the unique needs of students with disabilities affect their prospects beyond education.
• Supporting Diverse Learners with Autism by Bateman This paper analyzes the study “Supporting diverse learners with Autism through a culturally responsive visual communication intervention”.
• Aspects of Special Education Final Exam Under IDEA, states determine and qualifications for developmental delay, at which point the child eligible to special education after being assessed with proper tools.
• Students With Hearing Disabilities: Educational Plan Due to the success of educational services provided to individuals with hearing disabilities, integration classes concerned with providing services at all levels have spread.
• How to Create an Inclusive Environment for Students with Language Disabilities The teacher should create an inclusive environment in class to ensure that all the students are active participants in the education process.
• Response to Intervention and Registering Progress in Learning Response to Intervention (RTI) is a multi-tier system of support (MTSS) that aims at supporting all children to register progress in their learning.
• The Retention Rates of Twice-Exceptional Students With Autism In the middle of the twentieth century, the idea of twice-exceptionality was further operationalized and became a topic of detailed inquiry.
• Inclusive Education for Children With Autism The paper determines the evolution of the development of inclusive education, the terminology, and the characteristics of what makes a system inclusive.
• Teaching Disabled Students in College This paper was written with the aim of exploring the correct approach to teaching disabled students in educational institutions.
• Special Education Teachers and Their Roles Special education teachers can be educational evaluators, and advocate and protect students from unfair treatment by peers and some teachers.
• History of Inclusion in Early Childhood Education Creating schools with special needs was the first step to their inclusion into society, followed by integration: allowing them to visit a regular school.
• Pedagogy of Play and Inclusivity Introducing the notion of inclusivity along with the pedagogy of play is vital for bolstering intellectual curiosity in students and creating a comfortable environment.
• Play in Early Childhood Special Education Although children with disabilities might need additional educators’ guidance, they should not be excluded from playing, as it provides them with developmental opportunities.
• Life After High School: Autism in Post-Secondary Schools The paper studies the impact of a transition process on post-secondary students with autism and discovers supporting institutional practices.
• The Needs of Students With Disabilities The paper states that the situation must be changed to address the needs of students with disabilities and represent them in the specified legislation.
• Disability in Education: A Juridical Perspective The purpose of this essay is to consider the problem of teaching children with disabilities in educational institutions of various levels.
• Inclusive Education: The Individuals with Disabilities Act The Individuals with Disabilities Act provides good opportunities for inclusive education in theory, however there are problems in practice.
• Social Interaction Interventions for Students with Autism in School Autism spectrum disorders represent a whole spectrum of developmental disorders characterized by various manifestations of the uniqueness of the various spheres.
• Inclusive Classes and Their Key Issues Inclusive classes are an organization of the learning process in which all children, regardless of their characteristics, are included in the general education system.
• Special Education Teacher and Their Main Role The role of the special education teacher is to ensure the effective inclusion of students with special needs into the classroom environment.
• Dyslexia in Young Children: Developmental Language Disorder ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, depression, anorexia, Tourette's, and bipolar are among those conditions that have various symptoms.
• The Oppositional Defiant Disorder in a Child The case study features a ten-year-old boy whose parents complain of his constant anger and irritability, accompanied by outbreaks of psychomotor activities.
• Bullying of Disabled Children in School The purpose of this study is to evaluate the level of bullying of students with disabilities and special education needs.
• Creation of an Inclusive Multicultural Classroom The essay analyzes the ideas likely to foster a multicultural education environment while correlating this aspect to real-life situations.
• Educational Practices for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder This paper aims to analyze Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and find ways to change educational practices to meet the needs of students with ADHD.
• Educational Challenges of Students with Autism Individuals with Autistic Spectrum Disorders face different challenges that can affect their learning abilities and motivation in education.
• Creating Inclusive Environment The article argues educators' role expands from solely providing useful information and guiding to ensuring that the learning environment is comfortable for all people.
• Learning in Special Education Needs School This paper will explore four important areas of development in SEN and the importance of inclusion, diversity, and accessibility in SEN schools.
• Education Program Delivery for Disabled Learners Assessment is a critical component of special education program delivery. Disabled learners are complicated students with specific requirements.
• Disciplinary Actions in Children with Disability There are several disagreements on how to punish children appropriately. Parents are usually perplexed when it comes to setting limits and educating their kids' self-control.
• TNA, Individual Learning Plan, and Reflective Account An individual learning plan is aimed at identifying the current needs of dyslexic learners and defining the goals of the learning process.
• Disorder in Language Development Children with DLD have equivalent language skills to their peers their age, even though they tend to be more innovative.
• Language Development in Autistic Children Many children with autism are capable of developing some speech and language abilities. However, compared to healthy children, their language progress is slower.
• Inclusive Classroom Case Study The transition from preschool to primary school is a difficult process that can be taxing on any child, not only on those with special needs.
• "New Directions in Special Education" by T. Hehir The book "New Directions in Special Education" by T. Hehir, examines the discrimination problems of students with disabilities through the prism of the need for special education.
• Individualized Education Program in Special Education Making an Individualized Education Programme for an individual with special needs is one of the most critical processes to enhance success in the special education sector.
• Accommodations and Modifications: Kids With Special Needs This paper explores the distinctions between accommodations and modifications in a classroom context to improve the learning of kids with special needs.
• School Support for Families With Disabled Children School support services are crucial for assisting families with disabled children. Support should be encouraged to ensure each individual has access to education.
• Diversity and Inclusion of Students with Disabilities Students with disabilities (SWDs) require special education treatments since various societal factors affect their routine behaviors.
• Classroom With Disabled Students Joint education of preschool children with different starting abilities is acceptable if special conditions for upbringing and education are created.
• Special Education Teacher Aspects Analysis The paper argues special education teachers need to be allowed greater flexibility for instruction differentiation through blended learning opportunities.
• Teaching Reading in Special Education Reading is an essential skill for people in the contemporary world as it helps gain information. Many states are advocating for special needs pupils to join mainstream schools.
• Sensory Processing Disorder & Learning Approaches The paper argues understanding the role of sensory processing and associated disorders is crucial in childhood education.
• Research Project Design: Students With Special Needs The general population for this study is the community of paraeducators and general education teachers who interact directly with paraeducators in their work practices.
• Students with Learning Disabilities Students having learning disabilities have a hard time in school. With every day passing by, it only gets more challenging, especially when no interventions are incorporated.
• Inclusivity of an Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Student Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is an illness characterized by insufficient attention in a child, and the child tends to be more active than normal.
• The Exceptional Student Education The process of a student becoming eligible for special education is called Exceptional Student Education. It includes ten steps.
• Educational Assistant: Roles and Responsibilities Educational assistants monitor and record learners' needs, strengths, behavior, and achievements during their time in school and report crucial incidents.
• Special Education Secondary School Collaboration Teachers collaborating in teams can divide tasks, while a better understanding of these peculiarities might contribute to achieving positive goals.

🏆 Best Disabilities Education Essay Title

• Exploring the Historical and Cultural Contexts of Early Childhood Education for Children With Disabilities in Malawi
• Special Education Provision for Children With Disabilities
• African American Education Disabilities Students
• Goal-Directed Physical Education for Learners With Disabilities
• Children With Disabilities and Their Shot at Education
• Students With Disabilities Within the Public Education System
• Teachers Attitude Towards Children With Disabilities Education
• Early Education and Developmental Disabilities The most vital component of this paper is the promotion of tools that allow parents and educators to better recognize signs of early developmental disabilities.
• Special Education and Focused on Learning Disabilities
• Inclusive Education for Refugee Children With Disabilities in Berlin
• Disabilities: Incorporating the Learning and Physically Disabled Into Mainstream Education
• Court Cases and Students With Disabilities
• Study Into Education and People With Disabilities
• The Purpose and Goal of the Formation of the Individuals Disabilities Education Act
• Formal Education for Children With Disabilities
• Students With Emotional Disabilities and General Education Classroom Adaptations
• African Americans and ELL Disproportion in Special Education The paper focuses on the overrepresentation of African Americans and English language learners in special education and analyzes some litigations that emerged from this problem.
• Higher Education and People With Physical Disabilities
• Providing Education for Children With Disabilities
• Individualized Education Program for Students With Disabilities
• Distance Education for Students With Disabilities
• Early Childhood Education Children With Disabilities
• Inclusion Education for Children With Disabilities
• Special Education Program for Students With Disabilities
• Physical Disabilities and Education Equality
• Children With Learning Disabilities Into Mainstream Education
• Disability Services Australia and Education Industry This paper will provide a short report on one of the Australian companies, a description of its industry, and their analysis with recommendations.
• The Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act
• Students With Disabilities and Their Education
• The United States and Education for Children With Disabilities
• Emotional and Behavioral Impairments Affecting the Education of Persons With Disabilities
• Education Transitions for Children With Disabilities
• The Reasoning Behind the Enactment of the Disabilities Education Act in 1975
• Why Is It Harder for Students With Disabilities To Complete Their Education?
• How Inclusive Education Theory Helps in the Education of Disabled People?
• What Are the Possible Accommodations of the General Education Classroom for Students With Emotional Disabilities?
• Does Special Education Funding Occur Under the Enhanced Education for the Disabled Act of 2004 in the US?
• What Makes Special-education Teachers Special?
• Does Special Education Raise Academic Achievement for Students With Disabilities?
• How Is Driver Training for Students With Multiple Disabilities?
• What Does Special Education Provide for Persons With Disabilities?
• How Does Special Education Address Learning Disabilities?
• What Does Special Education for the Disabled Include?
• What Are the Solutions for the Proper Education of Children With Learning Disabilities?
• How Is Education Adapted for Children With Disabilities?
• What Has the Education System Provided for Students With Disabilities?
• Does Special Education Raise Achievement for Students With Disabilities?
• What Are the Transitional Special Education Programs for People With Disabilities?
• What Is the Attitude of Zambian Teachers Towards the Inclusion of Students With Disabilities in Mainstream Education Classes?
• How Do Students of the General Education Group Treat Disabled Children?
• Is There a Special Sex Education Program for Persons With Developmental Disabilities?
• What Is the Special Education System for People With Disabilities?
• How Is Education for People With Disabilities Going in Myanmar?

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New research review questions the evidence for special education inclusion

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For the past 25 years, U.S. policy has urged schools to keep students with disabilities in the same classrooms with their general education peers unless severe disabilities prevent it. It seems a humane policy not to wall off those with disabilities and keep them apart from society. Who would argue against it?

Schools have embraced inclusion. According to the most recent data from 2020-21 school year, two thirds of the 7 million students with disabilities who receive special education services spent 80% or more of their time in traditional classrooms. Separation is less common today; only one out of every eight students with disabilities was taught separately in a special-needs only environment most of the time.

But a recent international analysis of all the available research on special education inclusion found inconsistent results. Some children thrived while others did very badly in regular classrooms. Overall, students didn’t benefit academically, psychologically or socially from the practice. Math and reading scores, along with psychosocial measures, were no higher for children with disabilities who learned in general education classrooms, on average, compared to children who learned in separate special education classrooms.

“I was surprised,” said Nina Dalgaard, lead author of the inclusion study for the Campbell Collaboration , a nonprofit organization that reviews research evidence for public policy purposes. “Despite a rather large evidence base, it doesn’t appear that inclusion automatically has positive effects. To the contrary, for some children, it appears that being taught in a segregated setting is actually beneficial.”

Many disability advocates balked at the findings, published in December 2022, on social media. An influential lobbying organization, the National Center for Learning Disabilities, said it continues to believe that inclusion is beneficial for students and that this study will “not change” how the disability community advocates for students.

“Students with disabilities have a right to learn alongside their peers, and studies have shown that this is beneficial not only for students with disabilities but also for other students in the classroom,” said Lindsay Kubatzky, the organization’s director of policy and advocacy.

“Every student is different, and ‘inclusion’ for one student may look different from others. For some, it could be a classroom separate from their peers, but that is rarely the case.”

The Campbell Collaboration study is a meta-analysis, which means it is supposed to sweep up all the best research on a topic and use statistics to tell us where the preponderance of the evidence lies. Dalgaard, a senior researcher at VIVE—The Danish Centre for Social Science Research, initially found over 2,000 studies on special education inclusion. But she threw out 99 percent of them, many of which were quite favorable to inclusion. Most were qualitative studies that described students’ experiences in an inclusion classroom but didn’t rigorously track academic progress. Among those that did monitor math or reading, many of them simply noted how much students improved in an inclusive setting, but didn’t compare those gains with how students might have otherwise fared in a separate special-needs only setting.

Fewer than 100 studies had comparison groups, but still most of those didn’t make the cut because the students in inclusive settings were vastly different from those in separate settings. Special education is a particularly difficult area to study because researchers cannot randomly assign students with disabilities to different treatments. Schools tend to keep children with milder disabilities in a regular classroom and teach only those with the most severe disabilities separately. In comparing how both groups fare, it should be no surprise that students with milder disabilities outperform those with more severe disabilities. But that’s not good evidence that inclusion is better. “It’s a serious, confounding bias,” Dalgaard said.

In the end, Dalgaard was left with only 15 studies where the severity of the disability was somehow noted so that she could compare apples to apples. These 15 studies covered more than 7,000 students, ages six through 16, across nine countries. Four of the studies were conducted in the United States with the others in Europe.

The disabilities in the studies ranged widely, from the most common ones, such as dyslexia, ADHD, speech impairments and autism, to rarer ones, such as Down syndrome and cerebral palsy. Some students had mild versions; others had more severe forms. I asked Dalgaard if she found clues in the results as to which disabilities were more conducive to inclusion. I was curious if children with severe dyslexia, for example, might benefit from separate instruction with specially trained reading teachers for the first couple of years after diagnosis.

Dalgaard said there wasn’t enough statistical evidence to untangle when inclusion is most beneficial. But she did notice in the underlying studies that students with autism seem to be better off in a separate setting. For example, their psychosocial scores were higher. But more studies would be needed to confirm this.

She also noticed that how a school goes about including students with disabilities mattered. In schools that used a co-teaching model, one regular teacher and one trained in special education, students fared better in inclusion classrooms. Again, more research is needed to confirm this statistically. And, even if co-teaching proves to be effective over multiple studies, not every school can afford to hire two teachers for every classroom. It’s particularly cost-prohibitive in middle and high school as teachers specialize in subjects.

Instead, Dalgaard noted that inclusion is often a cost-cutting practice because schools save money when they no longer run separate classrooms or schools for children with disabilities. “In some cases, children with disabilities no longer had access to the same resources. It’s not supposed to happen this way, but it does in some places,” said Dalgaard. “That is probably why the results of the meta-analysis show that some children actually learn more in segregated settings.”

I was surprised to learn from Dalgaard that no sound meta-analysis has found “clear” benefits for special education inclusion. Indeed, previous meta-analyses have found exactly the same inconsistent or very small positive results, she said. This latest Campbell Collaboration study was commissioned to see if newer research, published from 2000 to September 2021, would move the dial. It did not.

As a nation, we spend an estimated $90 billion a year in federal, state and local taxpayer funds on educating children with disabilities. We ought to know more about how to best help them learn.

*Correction: This story has been updated with the correct spelling of Lindsay Kubatzky’s name.

This story about special education inclusion was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter .

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PROOF POINTS: New research review questions the evidence for special education inclusion

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For the past 25 years, U.S. policy has urged schools to keep students with disabilities in the same classrooms with their general education peers unless severe disabilities prevent it. It seems a humane policy not to wall off those with disabilities and keep them apart from society. Who would argue against it?

Schools have embraced inclusion. According to the most recent data from 2020-21 school year, two thirds of the 7 million students with disabilities who receive special education services spent 80 percent or more of their time in traditional classrooms. Separation is less common today; only one out of every eight students with disabilities was taught separately in a special-needs only environment most of the time.  

But a recent international analysis of all the available research on special education inclusion found inconsistent results. Some children thrived while others did very badly in regular classrooms. Overall, students didn’t benefit academically, psychologically or socially from the practice. Math and reading scores, along with psychosocial measures, were no higher for children with disabilities who learned in general education classrooms, on average, compared to children who learned in separate special education classrooms. 

“I was surprised,”said Nina Dalgaard, lead author of the inclusion study for the Campbell Collaboration , a nonprofit organization that reviews research evidence for public policy purposes. “Despite a rather large evidence base, it doesn’t appear that inclusion automatically has positive effects. To the contrary, for some children, it appears that being taught in a segregated setting is actually beneficial.”

Many disability advocates balked at the findings, published in December 2022, on social media. An influential lobbying organization, the National Center for Learning Disabilities, said it continues to believe that inclusion is beneficial for students and that this study will “not change” how the disability community advocates for students. 

“Students with disabilities have a right to learn alongside their peers, and studies have shown that this is beneficial not only for students with disabilities but also for other students in the classroom,” said Lindsay Kubatzky, the organization’s director of policy and advocacy. “Every student is different, and ‘inclusion’ for one student may look different from others. For some, it could be a classroom separate from their peers, but that is rarely the case.”

The Campbell Collaboration study is a meta-analysis, which means it is supposed to sweep up all the best research on a topic and use statistics to tell us where the preponderance of the evidence lies. Dalgaard, a senior researcher at VIVE—The Danish Centre for Social Science Research, initially found over 2,000 studies on special education inclusion. But she threw out 99 percent of them, many of which were quite favorable to inclusion. Most were qualitative studies that described students’ experiences in an inclusion classroom but didn’t rigorously track academic progress. Among those that did monitor math or reading, many simply noted how much students improved in an inclusive setting, but didn’t compare those gains with how students might have otherwise fared in a separate special-needs-only setting. 

Fewer than 100 studies had comparison groups, but still most of those didn’t make the cut because the students in inclusive settings were vastly different from those in separate settings. Special education is a particularly difficult area to study because researchers cannot randomly assign students with disabilities to different treatments. Schools tend to keep children with milder disabilities in a regular classroom and teach only those with the most severe disabilities separately. In comparing how both groups fare, it should be no surprise that students with milder disabilities outperform those with more severe disabilities. But that’s not good evidence that inclusion is better. “It’s a serious, confounding bias,” Dalgaard said.

In the end, Dalgaard was left with only 15 studies where the severity of the disability was somehow noted so that she could compare apples to apples. These 15 studies covered more than 7,000 students, ages six through 16, across nine countries. Four of the studies were conducted in the United States with the others in Europe. 

The disabilities in the studies ranged widely, from the most common ones, such as dyslexia, ADHD, speech impairments and autism, to rarer ones, such as Down syndrome and cerebral palsy. Some students had mild versions; others had more severe forms. I asked Dalgaard if she found clues in the results as to which disabilities were more conducive to inclusion. I was curious if children with severe dyslexia, for example, might benefit from separate instruction with specially trained reading teachers for the first couple of years after diagnosis. 

Dalgaard said there wasn’t enough statistical evidence to untangle when inclusion is most beneficial. But she did notice in the underlying studies that students with autism seem to be better off in a separate setting. For example, their psychosocial scores were higher. But more studies would be needed to confirm this. 

She also noticed that how a school goes about including students with disabilities mattered. In schools that used a co-teaching model, one regular teacher and one trained in special education, students fared better in inclusion classrooms. Again, more research is needed to confirm this statistically. And, even if co-teaching proves to be effective over multiple studies, not every school can afford to hire two teachers for every classroom. It’s particularly cost-prohibitive in middle and high school as teachers specialize in subjects. 

Instead, Dalgaard noted that inclusion is often a cost-cutting practice because schools save money when they no longer run separate classrooms or schools for children with disabilities. “In some cases, children with disabilities no longer had access to the same resources. It’s not supposed to happen this way, but it does in some places,” said Dalgaard. “That is probably why the results of the meta-analysis show that some children actually learn more in segregated settings.”

I was surprised to learn from Dalgaard that no sound meta-analysis has found “clear” benefits for special education inclusion. Indeed, previous meta-analyses have found exactly the same inconsistent or very small positive results, she said. This latest Campbell Collaboration study was commissioned to see if newer research, published from 2000 to September 2021, would move the dial. It did not.

As a nation, we spend an estimated $90 billion a year in federal, state and local taxpayer funds on educating children with disabilities. We ought to know more about how to best help them learn. 

This story about  special education inclusion was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the  Hechinger newsletter .

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re: https://hechingerreport.org/proof-ponts-new-research-review-questions-the-evidence-for-special-education-inclusion/ Ref: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cl2.1291 The effects of inclusion on academic achievement, socioemotional development and wellbeing of children with special educational needs

Jill Barshay, Hechinger Reports cc Dr. Nina Dalgaard

It is important to conduct periodic meta-analysis of topics related to public policy, funding and other aspects of education.

I disagree with the reporting by Jill Bashay regarding special education learner inclusion/exclusion.

The reason for my disagreement is that the referenced study authors report contains the authors’ data collection and meta-analysis conclusions (see below) that valid information for meta-analysis is inadequate. My read of the Dalgaard met-analysis report suggests that the two extremes – full inclusion or full exclusion – of SEN students in the ‘normal’ population may be harmful but is really unknown. Therefore, until more and better research is achieved, some logical blend of inclusion/exclusion can be designed and implemented to achieve learning and social integration objectives. My opinion comes from leading manufacturing ventures that have intentionally accommodated “SEN” adults successfully in ways that give them personal work settings along with collaborative opportunities. The emotional intelligence for diversity, equity and inclusion is, I believe, better achieved by starting in the K-12 system.

Larry Gebhardt Ph.D., Captain US Navy (Retired) Pocatello, Idaho

Data Collection and Analysis The total number of potentially relevant studies constituted 20,183 hits. A total of 94 studies met the inclusion criteria, all were non-randomised studies. The 94 studies analysed data from 19 different countries. Only 15 studies could be used in the data synthesis. Seventy-nine studies could not be used in the data synthesis as they were judged to be of critical risk of bias and, in accordance with the protocol, were excluded from the meta-analysis on the basis that they would be more likely to mislead than inform. The 15 studies came from nine different countries. Separate meta-analyses were conducted on conceptually distinct outcomes. All analyses were inverse variance weighted using random effects statistical models. Sensitivity analyses were performed to evaluate the robustness of pooled effect sizes across components of risk of bias.

Authors’ Conclusions The overall methodological quality of the included studies was low, and no experimental studies in which children were randomly assigned to intervention and control conditions were found. The 15 studies, which could be used in the data synthesis, were all, except for one, judged to be in serious risk of bias. Results of the meta-analyses do not suggest on average any sizeable positive or negative effects of inclusion on children’s academic achievement as measured by language, literacy, and math outcomes or on the overall psychosocial adjustment of children. The average point estimates favoured inclusion, though small and not statistically significant, heterogeneity was present in all analyses, and there was inconsistency in direction and magnitude of the effect sizes. This finding is similar to the results of previous meta-analyses, which include studies published before 2000, and thus although the number of studies in the current meta-analyses is limited, it can be concluded that it is very unlikely that inclusion in general increases or decreases learning and psychosocial adjustment in children with special needs. Future research should explore the effects of different kinds of inclusive education for children with different kinds of special needs, to expand the knowledge base on what works for whom.

Of course inclusion, just in general, doesn’t increase outcomes. Just like exclusion, just in general, doesn’t help anyone. So many other things have to be true. What the kids and adults are actually doing when they are being ‘included,’ matters the most. Is there one general education teacher with 25 kids and kids with disabilities are just in class receiving whole group instruction without any targeted supports? Is there a strong co-teaching model led by two content experts with most time spent in small groups? Is the special educator a content expert? If you think about what is true about a self-contained classroom that would, arguably, be better for a student, those things can be replicated within a general education setting. As a school leader, professor, former self-contained, and inclusion teacher, there is no arguing with the notion that a non-verbal student with autism is NOT categorically better off in an autism classroom than in an inclusion classroom with strong language models. The structure of the classroom and the roles of adults have to be strategically designed so that kids benefit from any classroom structure, inclusion or otherwise. I have trained hundreds of school leaders all across the country and have learned that most schools don’t know how to do inclusion well. Let’s talk about that.

I am in total agreement with Tony Barton’s comment. Jill Barshay’s article reinforced what we know: that the right set-up plays a critical role in the outcome. Therefore, since there are so few properly conducted studies, we must focus our attention to ensure that our students with disabilities are all in settings that are conducive to progress in all domains- academically, psychologically and socially. Ensuring all our educators are properly trained is the first step. I have also found that I will create the learning environment for each struggling student based on the current conditions – and include each student’s personality traits as part of the assessment done to determine where the student will truly feel best and progress most. This is similar to a general statement regarding pain. One can never compare his pain to another since pain is physiological and cannot be measured via comparison. Since the personality and individual abilities of the student, teacher, assistant and special educator all will impact the student’s outcome- it is hard to measure and determine where success is most feasible without being aware of all variables. I agree that most schools don’t know how to do inclusion well- or don’t have the staff to properly support it. This article is great in raising our collective awareness of why the Campbell Study couldn’t be more targeted and concise with its results and what we can do to support our students best.

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How to ensure students with disabilities have an equal chance to succeed?

Second in a four-part series on non-apparent disabilities.

Nearly one in four Americans has a disability, according to the CDC . Many disabilities — such as chronic pain, learning disabilities, diabetes, and depression — are “non-apparent,” or not immediately obvious to others, presenting their own set of challenges.

So how can professors design their classes to give all students an equal chance to succeed?

The Law School’s Michael Ashley Stein — who has taught classes such as “Disability, Human Rights, and Development” at Harvard Law School and “Disability Law and Policy” at Harvard Kennedy School — finds it useful to draw connections across affinity groups.

“People of color might point out racism and women and others might point out sexism. To me, all those prejudices and civil- and human-rights-violating type actions are grouped under ableism,” said the visiting professor and co-founder and executive director at the Law School’s Project on Disability . “It’s important when teaching disability to create those linkages, and to create the kind of affinity and solidarity that reaches across groups.”

A tool favored by Andrew Clark , senior lecturer on music and director of choral activities at Harvard, is the Universal Design for Learning framework geared to different types of learners. It gives students options to demonstrate what they’ve learned.

“I have in the last 10 years been in many settings with students where they’ve talked openly about depression or anxiety, whereas 40 years ago, they would not have talked about it.” Arthur Kleinman

Clark began teaching “Music and Disability” in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in 2016. He was inspired by his early years working at a music camp for individuals with disability and chronic illness and a desire to learn more about the intersection between music and disability studies. Students examine musicians or specific works with disability narratives and consider “how disability justice is enacted and embodied.”

“There’s a difference between accommodation and anticipation,” Clark said. “If we can design our classes — as well as extracurricular activities and student life — to anticipate every person rather than to accommodate everyone, that’s true inclusion. That’s making students feel empowered rather than accommodated.”

Nadine Gaab , associate professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, who has centered her work on non-apparent disabilities for more than 20 years, uses the messaging platform Slack to offer students multiple ways to communicate, incorporates scholars with disabilities in her syllabus, and has flexible participation and assignment submission policies.

This spring, Gaab is teaching “Children with Learning and Developmental Differences.” Students learn about the challenges faced by children with conditions such as dyslexia , dyscalculia, and dysgraphia, as well as the teachers, administrators, and medical teams working with them.

“We identify a number of different barriers that prevent us from delivering optimal care for children with invisible and visible disabilities,” Gaab said. “We then identify solutions in educational and community settings that could work in response to those challenges.”

Students apply what they’ve learned to real-world community spaces by identifying accessibility problems and proposing solutions — some of which have already been implemented, Gaab noted.

Mental health, particularly among students, is of interest to psychiatrist Arthur Kleinman . The Esther and Sidney Rabb Professor of Anthropology in the FAS, professor of medical anthropology in global health and social medicine, and professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School has been teaching for more than 40 years and has noticed marked changes in how students approach mental health issues.

“People are much more open about this,” said Kleinman, who noted that he used to discourage students from disclosing mental health issues because of stigma.

“I have in the last 10 years been in many settings with students where they’ve talked openly about depression or anxiety, whereas 40 years ago, they would not have talked about it. The responses they get today are also very different. They’re very supportive.”

While the professors say the stigma around non-apparent disabilities and mental health are lessening, they also agreed that more can be done to create more inclusive learning and research environments — at Harvard and beyond.

“It’s an extra cognitive load,” explained Gaab. “It’s extra-hard work to fit into a system that’s designed for the average learner. It’s really important to make sure that students recognize that in themselves, and faculty are aware, that it’s not that students are lazy or even ‘stupid.’ They’re really trying hard.”

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• University Disability Resources serves as the central resource for disability-related information, procedures, and services for the Harvard community.
• Students who wish to request accommodations should contact their School’s Local Disability Coordinator.
• The 24/7 mental health support line for students is 617-495-2042. Deaf or hard-of-hearing students can dial 711 to reach a Telecommunications Relay Service in their local area.
• Harvard Law School Project on Disability

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Tech offers promise to help yet too often perpetuates ableism, say researchers. It doesn’t have to be this way.

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Dos and don’ts for talking about students with disabilities

It was my first year teaching, and I was getting my classroom ready for school when my new principal dropped off my name tag. “Please wear this every day,” he said. “And good luck this year!”

I looked down at the tag he had placed on my desk. It read Special Education Teacher, with my name below. I gasped. “Oh, no, no, no! I cannot wear this!” I picked up the name tag and ran after him. I explained that I needed a new one, that “special education” needed to change because it’s a loaded, vague term that can do more harm than good. He didn’t understand.

I never did wear my name tag that year. It never got changed either.

Why the term “special education” falls short—and what to say instead

Kids have been taught that it’s not a good thing to be in “special education,” that they’re somehow less than, inferior to their peers. “Special” has come to mean “not good enough” for many of them, and they’re not alone; the negative connotation of the word “special” has been growing for years.

A disability is a mismatch between a person and their environment.

It isn’t exactly clear when “special needs” or “special education” became popular. It may have been as far back as the 1960s when the Special Olympics began. Or it may have happened when the term “handicapped” started getting eliminated from legal language with changes to laws such as Public Law 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, which changed to Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1990.

Language used to describe people with disabilities has continued to evolve this century, too. In October of 2010, President Obama signed legislation requiring the federal government to replace the term “mental retardation” with “intellectual disability.” The measure is known as Rosa’s Law and is named after Rosa Marcellino, a Maryland girl with Down syndrome who championed the change.

Updates in language at the federal level are critical for justice for people with disabilities. Language changes—and the reasons behind them—can take a long time to trickle down, however, and changing the connotation of a term can be especially challenging. A 2016 study by Morton Ann Gernsbacher et al. proves this point. In their article “‘Special needs’ is an ineffective euphemism,” they document their research of the term “special needs” and explain that “persons are viewed more negatively when described as having special needs than when described as having a disability.” They also say that “ special needs  conjures up more associations with developmental disabilities (such as intellectual disability) whereas  disability  is associated with a more inclusive set of disabilities.” An association with developmental disabilities shouldn’t be a problem in and of itself, but data shows bias against people with developmental disabilities is grossly prevalent .

I agree with Gernsbacher et al. that “special needs” is ineffective. It is imprecise. A disability is a mismatch between a person and their environment, so the term “disability” is not just much more accurate, but it also helps us understand how to reach a student better. “Disability” helps us see that a student and their environment simply aren’t compatible, and once we know that, it’s easier to focus on a productive approach: how to alter the environment. That is what accessibility is all about. Accessibility is the correction of that mismatch.

Be kind, get curious, and focus on the facts

Words matter, and it is important to use respectful language when communicating about people with disabilities. Just because two people have the same disability does not mean they will feel the same way about their disability or how their disability should be described. Here are some things to strive for as you consider the language you use when talking about students with disabilities.

How to show kindness

For many people, the term “special needs” feels offensive. As someone with a learning disability who went through school in “special education” and on an individualized education plan (IEP), I prefer and believe in owning the term “disability.” Therefore, when I describe my disability, I use the terms “learning disability” and “dyslexia.” Maybe someone else with dyslexia prefers different language, however. Disabilities cross cultures, genders, age, race, and beliefs, so the language can never be one-size-fits-all. Preferences will vary.

[L]isten to how your students identify and would like to be addressed.

Conventions will change, too. When I started my career in academics, for example, I was taught to always use person-first language . This approach conveys that a person is not defined by their disability. However, as I quickly learned in my more real-world application of accessibility, the use of person-first language is debated within the disability community. Some people prefer the use of “identity-first language.” Identity-first language, as defined in “Ask a self-advocate: The pros and cons of person-first and identity-first language,” “leads with a person’s diagnosis, such as being a disabled person.” I have also learned that person-first language was originally promoted mainly by the non-disabled community. As well-intentioned as this may have been, we were not given ownership of ourselves, our disability, and how we describe ourselves. Ownership is important. So is agency.

If you’re a teacher, I encourage you to listen to how your students identify and would like to be addressed. While some may be too young to express this information, know that most disabled persons, myself included, do not want to be referred to as having “special needs,” and they definitely don’t want it announced that they are in “special education.” I never felt I learned differently from my classmates, and I certainly didn’t feel “special” (nor did I want to).

Please know that it’s ok to say “disability” or “disabled,” but even better is asking the person you’re referring to what they prefer. Honoring someone’s personal preference is a simple way to show a great deal of kindness. Before I speak at an event where I’ll be discussing disabilities and accessibility, I often identify the language I will use and why. That makes it easier for people to understand not just my personal preferences, but the fact that everyone will have their own personal preferences. Not sure what someone prefers? Cue the curiosity.

Ways to be curious

If a person feels comfortable with you and they disclose their disability to you, ask them how they prefer you to refer to their disability (or, potentially, not refer to it). Do they prefer person-first or identify-first language?

Another way to get curious, which takes the burden off the disabled person, is to read materials by people with disabilities, like the self-advocacy article I mentioned earlier. Find out what you don’t know, and if you’re reading a personal narrative, notice the way the author references themselves in their writing. Not every person with a disability will want to talk about their disability. It has taken me a long time to talk openly about my disability because of painful past experiences; for a long time, I was very selective about whom I shared my story with. Disabilities are deeply personal and deserve respect, no matter the type. Using the internet to your advantage so you can learn more will help you educate yourself without pushing a friend, colleague, or student to say more than they feel comfortable with.

Why facts matter

As humans, we want to do the right thing and sometimes our well-intended choice to use terms such as “physically or mentally challenged,” “exceptional,” “learning difference,” or “special needs” comes across as condescending and offensive. Why? Because these terms seem to be tiptoeing around what is a daily reality for some of us. So name the disability: Blind. Deaf. Learning disabled. Or use generic terms that don’t try so hard to flatter, like “physical or cognitive disability.” There’s nothing wrong with people with disabilities, and trying to mask reality with flowery language can make it seem like there is.

Language for describing people without disabilities can be just as challenging. For example, “able bodied” is sometimes used to describe people without a disability, but for some in the disability community, this implies we lack use of our bodies. The preferred terms and phrases are “not disabled,” “non-disabled,” “does not have a disability,” or “people without disabilities.” Avoid terms such as “normal,” too, that imply people with disabilities are strange or abnormal. We’re not. With 26% of adults in the US living with a disability , we’re hardly unusual.

Allies are amazing

I understand language is difficult at times. Trust me. I’m dyslexic. But even just trying to do the right thing can go a long way. If you mess up, that’s okay. Learn and move forward. We’re all just human, and we all want to feel seen, heard, and respected.

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Getting Students With Disabilities the Best Educators

Giving compass' take:.

• This research explores how to measure the effectiveness of teacher instruction for students with and without disabilities to help match students to educators.
• What are the long-term impacts of providing tailored and effective instruction to students with disabilities? How can donors help support specialized education resources?
• Learn why special education silos hurt students with disabilities. 

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New research digs into whether the methods used to teach students with disabilities are effective and inclusive for all students. The researchers offer some of the first findings on differentiating the effectiveness of instruction for students with and without disabilities.

Their study suggests that to help schools make decisions that are best for student outcomes, policymakers may want to consider teacher quality measures that look separately at students with and without disabilities.

Published in the journal  Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis , this research presents a major breakthrough in understanding how to best measure achievement for both groups of students.

“Most students with disabilities spend most of their school day in general education classrooms, but many  teachers  indicate they receive insufficient training and preparedness to educate these students,” says study author Scott Imberman, professor in the economics department in the College of Social Science and the College of Education at Michigan State University.

“We thought that through the use of statistical measures of teacher quality, we could identify which teachers are more effective teachers with these students and how much general education teachers’ ability to instruct these students varies.”

It’s important that students with disabilities have access to high-quality teachers, and not all teachers receive the necessary training and skills to support them. They also can struggle more with certain subjects, such as  math .

Student success outcomes are also often determined by how the entire class performs rather than how individual students perform.

When it comes to evaluating the success of all students, numerical measures known as value-added measures, or VAM, are typically used. However, these measures often do not distinguish between evaluating students with and without disabilities.

Read the full article about students with disabilities by Jack Harrison at Futurity. Read the full article

More Articles

Getting healthcare for children with disabilities, yesmagazine, mar 27, 2024, building stronger disability culture as a business practice, mar 26, 2024.

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