In November of 2019, the National Association of the Deaf and Harvard University entered into a landmark settlement ending four years of legal battles regarding captioning in online content. In that settlement, Harvard agreed to caption new video files consistent with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA and to provide text-only…

This survey study investigated understanding and use of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), self-advocacy, self-determination, and campus resources by college students with disabilities. Thirty-one students registered with a student disability office at a Midwestern state university completed an anonymous survey. Thirty-two percent of…

This study investigated online faculty familiarity, course design use, and professional development interest regarding universal design for learning (UDL) guidelines. The researchers surveyed all 2017 to 2018 online faculty at a large university in the southeastern United States. Findings included 71.6% of faculty reporting familiarity with at…

Physical accessibility at colleges and universities is a perennial and challenging issue. Some campuses have made efforts to address these challenges through a variety of advocacy initiatives, while others have used disability simulations to bring greater awareness of physical accessibility to campus communities. An alternative approach to…

Enactment of the "Rehabilitation Act of 1973" and the "Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990" expanded and clarified the rights of students with disabilities in higher education (Connor, 2011; Pena, 2014; Troiano, 2003). In the past three decades, the enrollment rate of students with learning disabilities (LD) in higher…

The results of recent cases indicate that residences and dormitories owned by higher education institutions should be considered "dwellings," and thus subject to the Fair Housing Act. The Fair Housing Act (1968) as amended requires that the providers of dwellings accommodate assistance animals, which includes not only service animals,…

Video and Web-based tutorials created by libraries from 71 public universities designated by the Carnegie Classification as having the Highest Research Activity (R1) were reviewed for accessibility and usability by disabled people. The results of this review indicate that a large portion of library tutorial content meets neither the minimum legal…

Pioneering legislation such as Sections 504 and 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1997, and the Assistive Technology Act of 1998 have increased attention to the needs of individuals with disabilities. These regulations require that public programs…

People with disabilities are chronically underrepresented in many geoscience departments across the country. There are a number of proposed reasons why this under-representation persists, one of which is lack of instructor training in designing accessible curriculum and making high-quality accommodations. This not only puts students with…

This article theorizes teaching as accommodation and argues for a centering of disability in writing pedagogy. It examines how universal design can improve composition classrooms, applying inclusive principles to the syllabus in particular. In this article, the author takes up these intersecting issues: academic accommodations, disability, and…

The number of students with Asperger's Syndrome enrolled at tertiary institutions in the United States continues to increase. This can be attributed to: (a) the passage of legislations such as the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA); (b) revisions to the "Diagnostic and Statistical…

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), people with disabilities are guaranteed access to all postsecondary programs and services. The purpose of this study, conducted by the Center for Excellence in Disabilities, was to evaluate the current status of a major university's web accessibility. The results indicated that in 2011 only 51% of…

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (UW-Whitewater) is committed to a mission that includes serving students with disabilities beyond the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities act (ADA). To that end, UW-Whitewater has tried to integrate universal Design (UD) principles into multiple facets of campus life. While the integration of UD…

Universal design (UD) can play a role in many aspects of academic life and is often thought of in the context of learning. However, this chapter focuses on the impact of UD on the design of facilities in a university or campus setting. Universal design has the potential for transforming universities into truly egalitarian institutions that…

According to the Americans with Disabilities Act, universities and colleges are required to provide accommodative services for students with disabilities. Many studies have examined the role of malingering mental health symptoms in order to obtain psychotropic medications, but very little research has been done on the role of accommodations as…