Promoting Accessibility for Students with Disabilities Must be a Key Priority for Universities

Today marks the observance of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, which makes for an excellent opportunity to think about how our society can empower those with disabilities and ensure inclusiveness and equality, especially from a higher education perspective. While there have been some important strides made in accommodation for disabilities, it’s an area where the higher ed sector as a whole can do more, and where we need to continually ask ourselves how we can further a collective push for equality and accessibility.

To be clear, this is an area where higher education institutions don’t have an unblemished history. I’m reminded of a piece I read a few years back in Inside Higher Ed, “Dropping the Ball on Disabilities”, which shined an important spotlight on the issue. This passage in particular stood out to me:

“I literally had a professor say, 'Well, I've never had a student of that kind before, so I don't know what to do,' one college employee said here Tuesday at the American College Personnel Association's annual conference. “But the student was standing right there ready to take their test. It felt so violating.” 

These experiences fly in the face of the inclusive, accommodating environment that universities need to strive to create, and these stories should serve as a wake-up call for all of us.

Fortunately, things seem to be moving in a positive direction. Schools across the country are feeling the pressure to prioritize accessibility and are working closely with organizations like the National Federation of the Blind, the Association on Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD), and others to ensure that their initiatives properly address the challenges that students with disabilities face. 

At University of Phoenix in particular, we’ve long believed that access to higher education is important to creating a more equal society, and it naturally follows that enhancing accessibility for persons with disabilities to ensure equal opportunities should be a key part of this. We’ve taken steps like creating an executive-level position, Vice President of Accessibility Strategy, who is charged with managing and directing efforts to promote accessibility across the entire institution. We’ve also pioneered an internal system where faculty are encouraged to proactively identify any potential concerns regarding student accessibility in their courses to our accessibility office, who can then reach out to impacted students directly to discuss possible solutions.

What’s more, improved accessibility can have benefits for all students, not just those with disabilities. Efforts like making course materials and lectures accessible online for students to revisit after classes, or routinizing the use of closed captioning technology during online courses, can yield broad improvements in student experience and performance, and add to the impetus for expanding accessibility initiatives.

It’s important for higher education institutions to know that the challenges faced by those with disabilities vary greatly across student bodies, but these differences shouldn’t limit opportunities for anyone. It’s our responsibility to do everything we can to explore new and innovative ways to accommodate specific needs and ensure that students have all the necessary tools to succeed. Today is a great chance to reflect on how we can do this better, but truly, it’s something we need to keep in mind throughout the entire year.