The number of students living with a disability accessing tertiary and higher education has quadrupled over the past decade, with students living with invisible disabilities accounting for between 70 and 80 per cent of all students with a disability or chronic illness.
However, students living with a disability are often overlooked in the tertiary education support system, with several of these students choosing not to disclose their disabilities due to fear of stigma or being treated differently.
ADCET data has outlined that students with a disability are reported to have a lower success rate in tertiary education when compared to all students. Furthermore, students living with a disability reported lower levels of satisfaction with the undergraduate experience of tertiary education and had lower levels of retention when compared to all students.
Experts are calling for changes to the institutional, attitudinal and academic environment to best support academic endeavours of students living with a disability, especially those with invisible disabilities
Overcoming unseen barriers
Dr Genée Marks is a lecturer from Deakin University with over four decades of experience in the education industry. As a qualitative researcher and person living with a disability, her expertise and interests includes policy development and implementation, inclusive education, social justice, cultural diversity and disability advocacy.
“Students with disabilities struggle with access and success at universities in various ways, depending on their
disability,” she told EducationDaily.
“While universities generally make a point of ensuring physical access, there are often unseen barriers for students with mobility issues. For example, in many instances, disability parking is at a minimum and often located at considerable distance from classrooms and lecture theatres.
“This is additionally problematic for students who do not use motorised assistive technology such as wheelchairs, but have difficulty walking or moving across campus, or have to propel a manual wheelchair. This is seldom taken into consideration.”
For students with neurodiversities, Marks says barriers exist in both the physical and online environments.
“Demands on participation in on campus seminars can be very disabling for some students, and this is no better in online classes where students are put into breakout rooms to discuss and liaise,” she told EducationDaily.
“This is further exacerbated by demands to complete group work as part of assessment.”
She says students have observed that, even in universities with well-developed policies and practices focusing on inclusivity, the needs of students with various neurodiversities are often overlooked or poorly understood.
“For students who are blind or have vision impairments, negotiating online websites can prove to be challenging even
when universities focus specifically on accessibility, and for students who are Deaf or have hearing impairments, the
availability (or usually unavailability) of interpreters limits access, both in the physical classroom, and online.”
To help create positive future change, Marks says “it is important that universities make all our online offerings in the university system accessible for a start”.
“Often readings are in a format that cannot be picked up by print readers, for example, and many internal university sites online do not operate well with software that would normally enable blind students or students with print disability to access their functions,” she told EducationDaily.
“We need to provide flexibility in assessment options for students with neurodiversity.
“Many students find groupwork both challenging and threatening, and yet universities enshrine this in their unit outcomes and goals. We also know that for students without disability, groupwork can also be challenging, and the outcomes do not necessarily fairly represent the skills of all students involved.”
Marks says professional development is needed for lecturers “to increase their understanding of how to work with students who have disabilities, especially students who have hidden disabilities”.
“Students have reported that many of their lecturers (across a variety of universities), still do not understand neurodiversity, and fall back on old and deficit models and misunderstanding of autism, for example.”
“Students have expressed a desire for academic staff with disabilities, with whom there are many, to be open with their students so students feel safer being open themselves and talking about their needs.”
What unique issues do students with ‘invisible’ disabilities face? How can unis better understand and
Marks says one of the most obvious ways universities can better understand and accommodate the needs of students with invisible disabilities is through consultation, “not necessarily at the individual level (although this is certainly useful), but with groups such as focus groups, of students who can share their experiences and concerns in a safe environment”.
“Students become weary of frequently needing to advocate for their own needs but would warm to universities consulting them with the intention of bringing about change.”
Environmental changes needed at tertiary institutions
Dr Rahul Ganguly is a Senior Lecturer in Education and the Course Director for Postgraduate Studies in Education at Charles Sturt University. His research focuses on grit, resilience and self-determination among university students with disabilities in Australia and internationally.
He agrees that “we need to change the institutional, attitudinal and academic environment to best support academic endeavours of students living with a disability”.
“What we know is that university experience has been shown to be different for some students with disabilities even those who had achieved high academic achievements,” he says.
“Students have expressed difficulty with having reasonable adjustments approved, and in some cases facing bias or stigma from instructors, advisors, and peers.
“Additionally, research has shown that students living with disabilities have been found to demonstrate higher levels of emotional or psychological distress, and in some studies reported lower quality of life than their peers.
“Existing studies suggest that university faculty and staff have significant gaps in knowledge on reasonable adjustments and disability law, as well as a lack of understanding of disability, and universal design for instruction.”
The impact of the COVID years
Although Ganguly says the research in this area is limited, “there is a consensus that the challenges faced by students with disabilities in higher education seem to have been exacerbated in the post-COVID years”.
“For example, many of these benefits during the COVID years (e.g. flexibility in learning delivery) are now being rolled back as society returns to in-person interactions, making it more difficult for students with disabilities to access the support they need,” he told EducationDaily.
“Furthermore, disruptions in the high school educational experiences during COVID years have hindered the development of critical foundation skills, including self-advocacy skills. As a result, many students with disabilities transitioning to university are encountering difficulties in navigating complex university bureaucratic systems for accessing support services.
“For example, academic adjustments in high schools were often granted during COVID without formalised processes. However, at university, where self-advocacy plays a key role in accessing disability services and negotiating adjustments, many incoming students struggle to navigate the complex bureaucratic systems and effectively communicate their needs.”Although Ganguly says the research in this area is limited, “there is a consensus that the challenges faced by students with disabilities in higher education seem to have been exacerbated in the post-COVID years”.
“For example, many of these benefits during the COVID years (e.g. flexibility in learning delivery) are now being rolled back as society returns to in-person interactions, making it more difficult for students with disabilities to access the support they need,” he told EducationDaily.
“Furthermore, disruptions in the high school educational experiences during COVID years have hindered the development of critical foundation skills, including self-advocacy skills. As a result, many students with disabilities transitioning to university are encountering difficulties in navigating complex university bureaucratic systems for accessing support services.
“For example, academic adjustments in high schools were often granted during COVID without formalised processes. However, at university, where self-advocacy plays a key role in accessing disability services and negotiating adjustments, many incoming students struggle to navigate the complex bureaucratic systems and effectively communicate their needs.”
Proactive transformation is needed
To help boost the retention rates and success for students with disabilities accessing higher education, Ganguly says “universities to move beyond compliance-based approaches and implement proactive and systemic transformations in their institutional culture by embracing the social model of disability”,
“The social model posits that disability is a consequence of societal structures rather than individual differences, advocating for the removal of obstacles that hinder the life choices of disabled individuals,” he told EducationDaily.
“By eliminating these barriers, persons with disabilities can attain independence and equality, enjoying enhanced choice and control over their lives.
“The success of students with disabilities in higher education can only be realised through enhanced accessibility of educational institutions, the training of university faculty, and the promotion of awareness among the educational community about the significance of inclusive practices.”
Recognising hidden disabilities
With invisible or hidden disabilities accounting for 70–80 per cent of all disabilities, Ganguly told EducationDaily that the absence of physical markers means a number of “students with invisible or hidden disabilities often go unrecognised or decide against disclosing their conditions due to the stigma associated with them”.
“The challenges faced by students with hidden or invisible disabilities by not disclosing their disability would be minimised if universities adopted a social model of disability and embedded accessibility and inclusivity at all levels.”
Ganguly told EducationDaily “universities can create a proactive and inclusive environment by listening to student voices, training faculty, streamlining support services, including mental health services, and integrating universal design principles in teaching and learning”.
To help boost the retention rates and success for students with disabilities accessing higher education, Ganguly says “universities to move beyond compliance-based approaches and implement proactive and systemic transformations in their institutional culture by embracing the social model of disability”,
“The social model posits that disability is a consequence of societal structures rather than individual differences, advocating for the removal of obstacles that hinder the life choices of disabled individuals,” he told EducationDaily.
“By eliminating these barriers, persons with disabilities can attain independence and equality, enjoying enhanced choice and control over their lives.
“The success of students with disabilities in higher education can only be realised through enhanced accessibility of educational institutions, the training of university faculty, and the promotion of awareness among the educational community about the significance of inclusive practices.”
With invisible or hidden disabilities accounting for 70–80 per cent of all disabilities, Ganguly told EducationDaily that the absence of physical markers means a number of “students with invisible or hidden disabilities often go unrecognised or decide against disclosing their conditions due to the stigma associated with them”.
“The challenges faced by students with hidden or invisible disabilities by not disclosing their disability would be minimised if universities adopted a social model of disability and embedded accessibility and inclusivity at all levels.”
Ganguly told EducationDaily “universities can create a proactive and inclusive environment by listening to student voices, training faculty, streamlining support services, including mental health services, and integrating universal design principles in teaching and learning”.
“Universities must actively engage in initiatives that promote accessibility in all educational settings, ensuring that students with disabilities are afforded the same opportunities to choose their learning environment as their peers, thus fostering a more equitable academic landscape.”
