Support for Students with Hidden Disabilities in Universities: A Case Study

Abstract

Authors' note. Data reported in this paper were collected as part of a larger international study comparing the establishment of universal design for students in higher education. This research was funded by an international research grant from the Heiwa Nakajima Foundation (inc). Project leader for the international project was Associate Professor Mika Kataoka, from Kagoshima University. We also acknowledge the work of Munehisa Yoshitoshi PhD. (Okayama University) for his collaboration and recording of the interviews used in this paper. Finally we would like to thank the staff and students who shared their stories for this research.

Desenho Universal para a Aprendizagem: a Produção Científica no Período de 2011 a 2016

“…Evidence of this is the accessibility services that are available from a student diagnosis registry, that is, access to accessibility resources is possible only through self-declaration of the disability condition, which would be unnecessary if the UDL were used by teachers as a daily practice in their classes. In order not to surrender to the declaration or the institutional visibility, due to fears of prejudice, stigmatization and often medicalization to reach normative standards, these students seek and find in their informal network their most effective support (Couzens et al, 2015). Studies that did not have the centrality on people with disabilities also brought up promising results.…”

“…Making a cut in the UDL with the phenomenon of disability, we highlight the studies that sought to provide data on the number of students who identified themselves as having a disability (Schelly et al, 2011); those who presented the identification of facilitators and barriers (Schelly et al, 2011); and, among these, researches with the following directions were found: focusing on methodological strategies (Black et al, 2015); in the search for help and access to the support resources offered in the learning contexts (Kramer, 2015;Couzens et al, 2015); focusing on technology support (Knight, Wood, Spooner, Broder, & O'Brien, 2014;Vesel, & Robillard, 2013;Coyne et al, 2012); evaluation activities (Mislevy et al, 2013); and, in the students' perception about the accessibility in progress to Distance Education (Catalano, 2014). It is important to highlight that, even in those studies that focused on disability, another type of analysis is perceived, since the phenomenon of disability is displaced in relation to the learning context, evidencing the need to break with the barriers that limit participation, questioning the place of the normalizing and ableistic 7 practices.…”

“…psychiatric illnesses that compromise relationships, communication, or even dyslexia) have been objects of investigation in some localized studies (Couzens et al, 2015;Black et al, 2015). These surveys indicated that students expressed discomfort to discuss accommodations or disclose their disability to teachers (Black et al, 2015).…”

Validation of a Screening Model for Referrals to Support Students with Hidden Disabilities in Higher Education

“…In this research, our intention was to develop and validate a screening model for identifying and referring to a further process for support in higher education institutions, whereby the model aims to identify students requiring further careful analysis or assessment. Quality assessments are costly, difficult to attain, and may be perceived as negative and intrusive by some students [2], so with this model we want to prevent the negative experience of most students, and reduce the costs that the assessment itself requires.…”

“…Students with "hidden disabilities" comprise the majority of disability conditions [1]. Previous researches indicate increasing number of students with disabilities in the university sector [2] who are often categorized as outsiders [3].…”