Disabled students' access to information about postsecondary disability services during their college search process

When college-bound students with disabilities receive special education services in junior high and high school, they go through two processes. The first is a college choice process similar to all nondisabled students. The second is a transition planning process mandated by the Individuals with Disabilities Act (ADA) regulations for special education, which requires students be given information about postsecondary disability services. To date, however, little research exists about how students actually learn about disability services and use the information to make decisions about college. This study focuses on disabled students' perspectives of college choice and transition. Using an online survey (N=31) and in-depth interviews (N=8) with disabled college freshmen, this research investigates three questions: how students find information about college disability services offices, when they learn about disability services, and how that information (or lack of information) may influence decisions about attending college. Study participants represented 9 types of disabilities and were from 11 four-year private and public campuses across the United States. Results are presented using college choice stages based on Hossler and Gallagher (1987) and transition stages developed by Webb (2000). Major findings suggest that students use a variety of sources to learn about disability services and disability-related information in high school, increasingly relying on campus resources and themselves as they enter their freshman year. Students learned about disability services information during and after junior high, receiving the most information during senior year and their first semester of college. They used disability services information in highly individualized ways, but the majority of students did not consider this information as important as their choice of college and having a supportive campus climate where they could be comfortable using accommodations and services. The college choice and transition processes overlapped considerably until students reached college and had to learn separate policies and procedures related to disability services. This paper discusses the study's findings through a framework based on models of disability, ultimately recommending that universal design principles be used in transition planning as a means for reducing or eliminating potential ableism in the transition process.