Online support information for students with disabilities in colleges and universities during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Background The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a rapid shift to remote instruction. This may have caused particular challenges for students with disabilities. Objective We aimed to describe the availability of remote instruction and counseling resources on the disability/accessibility websites of colleges and universities in the greater New York City area. At the time this study was conducted, this region was the global COVID-19 epicenter. Methods All colleges/universities in the New York City metropolitan area were identified using Petersen’s online search guide. Descriptive information (institution’s name, size, and location) was recorded. The disability/accessibility pages of websites were located and examined for remote instructional resources for both educators and for students, a way to make an appointment with the counseling center (phone number and/or email address), and a link to the counseling center. Descriptive statistics were recorded (percentages of small, medium, large size institutions, mean, median, range and standard deviations of enrollments, and number and percentage of institutions that provided online accessibility resources) and one-sided Chi square tests were conducted to test the relationship between school size and the availability of resources. Results 17% of the colleges/universities had no link to disability/accessibility services on their websites. Of the remaining 127 institutions, few made the aforementioned resources available on the disability/accessibility page. The most prevalent resource observed was providing students with remote instruction assistance. The association between school size and the aforementioned resources was not statistically significant. Conclusion Making information available to students with disabilities is a fundamental part of accessibility in higher education. Doing so is all the more necessary given the challenges wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, challenges which are likely to continue for years to come.

The Transition Online: A Mixed-Methods Study of the Impact of COVID-19 on Students with Disabilities in Higher Education

“…However, this research demonstrated that the challenges with online learning during a pandemic outweighed these advantages. This study adds to the growing body of literature identifying these challenges (Adnan, 2020;Ali, 2020;Dianito et al, 2021;Lapitan et al, 2021;Martin, 2020;Meleo-Erwin et al, 2021;Moawad, 2020;Umucu & Lee, 2020Zhang et al, 2021).…”

“…Research is needed to explore the challenges and concerns among SWD and what support might be helpful to improve educational experiences and student well-being (Rashid & Yadav, 2020). Failing to account for these needs and provide resources for SWD and faculty represent issues of inequality in our education systems (Meleo-Erwin, Kollia, Fera, Jahren, & Basch, 2021).…”

Are Self-Efficacy Gains of University Students in Adapted Physical Activity Influenced by Online Teaching Derived From the COVID-19 Pandemic?

“…Professors used gamification tools such as Kahoot ® during the synchronous online sessions to increase learning involvement, a tool that has been successful and resulted in learning gains (Felszeghy et al, 2019). Also, the decision about making available to the students the records of all sessions, together with the links to all the resources used during online teaching, would benefit a more comprehensive understanding and accessibility to the course contents (Meleo-Erwin et al, 2020). Finally, reducing gaps for using technology has been identified as a key factor for teaching PwD and/or delivering APA programs (Ng et al, 2021).…”

In transition: Supporting competency attainment in Black and Latinx students

“…Promoting a Connectivist approach, Kop (2011) identified self-directed learning, presence, and critical literacies as barriers to learning independently. Students, especially those with learning disabilities or who speak English as a second language, may lack the necessary competencies or tools to sift through, aggregate, and critically assess the dependability of resources and information found on the web (Kop, 2011;Meleo-Erwin et al, 2020;Reese, 2015).…”