Postsecondary Educational Opportunities for Students with Special Education Needs

Mary Ruth Coleman, Michael Shevlin

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781351107556
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

The decision to go to college is a big one. It signifies a transition into young adulthood and the increasing expectations for independence that can feel exciting, liberating, and daunting! For students with disabilities this transition may be even more challenging. Despite the challenges, more and more students with disabilities are attending postsecondary colleges and universities. While this is certainly encouraging, students with disabilities are less likely to successfully complete their postsecondary programs when compared with their general population peers. So, what do we do? We can learn from our successes during early education and from successful postsecondary programs, taking what we have learned and bring these lessons to scale so that fully inclusive postsecondary programs are available for all students with special education needs. This book was originally published as a special issue of European Journal of Special Needs Education.

Inclusive education in higher education: challenges and opportunities

Anabel Moriña

ABSTRACT
Implementing the principles of inclusive education within higher education can be challenging. Inclusive education was originally developed for younger students, prior to its application within higher education. However, as more students with disabilities successfully complete their early schooling, the need to move towards inclusive practices within higher education has increased. The purpose of this article is to offer thoughts on inclusive practices within higher education. The paper is organised into three sections: a description of the current situation of inclusive education in relation to students with disabilities in higher education; a review of the literature focused on students with disabilities and on faculty members within higher education; and a discussion of how moving the university towards an inclusive setting requires designing policies, strategies, processes and actions that contribute to ensuring the success of all the students.

Introduction: the context for inclusion within institutes of higher education

Inclusive education can be defined as an educational approach proposing schools in which all the students can participate and all are treated like valuable school members. It is an educational philosophy and practice that aims to improve the learning and active participation of all the students in a common educational context. Inclusive education is conceived of as an unfinished process and a belief system that poses a challenge to any situation of exclusion (Ainscow 1998; Sapon-Shevin 2003).

Inclusive education is recognised as a basic human right and the basis for a fair and equitable society (European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education 2012; Forlin 2013). An ethical component is also considered (Reindal 2016). Inclusive education focuses on the need to provide a high-quality educational response for all students, increasing the practices that lead to full participation (Ainscow 2015; Messiou et al. 2016). Within the inclusive philosophy, diversity is conceived in a broad sense comprising the different capabilities, gender differences and differences in social and cultural origin. These differences are seen as a benefit rather than as a problem. The belief is that all students, without exception, should benefit from high-quality learning and enjoy full participation in the educational system.

Inclusive education was developed and implemented within educational settings prior to higher education. However, for some years, inclusive principles and practices have been making inroads into university agendas, policies, and teaching and learning practices. In the context of higher education, there is still a long way to go before we can claim full inclusion, and many challenges must be addressed to align educational practices with the principles of inclusive education.

The purpose of this article is to address the current state of inclusion in higher education with regard to students with special educational needs, specifically students with disabilities. The work is organised around three sections. First, an introduction to the topic considering: the increase of the students with disabilities in the university with an examination of policies, a discussion of the principles of inclusive education and an overview of the social model of disability. This section helps to contextualise how higher education is currently responding to students with disabilities. The second section reviews the literature on higher education, inclusive education and disabilities. The studies in these sections are organised around the findings regarding students and faculty. The third section discusses the social and educational impacts of inclusion within the university. The paper concludes by exploring the policies, strategies, processes and actions that contribute to ensuring the success of all the students.

Inclusive education in higher education: ensuring students’ access, participation and success

Many have called for increased inclusivity within universities, claiming that it should be the university’s responsibility to respond to the needs of all students (Fuller, Bradley, and Healey 2004; Doughty and Allan 2008; Prowse 2009). Indeed, Gairín and Suárez (2014) conclude that inclusivity is a hallmark of a quality university.

Yet, moving towards the principles of inclusive education is a challenge in higher education. We only need to go back a decade to verify that the contemporary higher education classroom is very different from its predecessors; and while we cannot explain this simply by the fact that today’s students are different a common trait in the current university is the increasing diversity among students. Thomas (2016) proposed that participation in the university is broader due to the progressive incorporation of collectives that were traditionally marginalised from higher education including students of different nationalities, ages, cultures, socio-economic situations or capabilities. This growing diversity, which is transforming the classrooms, has gained increasing scientific protagonism and there are more investigations examining how higher education is responding to this new situation. Many of these studies focus on non-traditional groups, including students who need additional support, who, depending on the country, may be students with disabilities, students from minority cultural groups and/or students from a low socio-economic origin (Weedon and Riddell 2016). A growing number of studies focus on the analysis of the experiences of students with disabilities at the university (Claiborne et al. 2010; Leyser et al. 2011; Gibson 2012; Moriña, Cortés-Vega, and Molina 2015).

With regard to this collective, the number of students with disabilities within higher education continues to increase year after year (Pumfrey 2008; Liasidou 2014; Seale et al. 2015). The approval of statements and regulations aimed at promoting inclusion may have influenced this increase in students. The Convention of the Rights of People with Disabilities (UN 2006) pointed out the obligation to ensure that people with disabilities have access – without discrimination and within the same conditions as the rest – to higher education, professional training, adult education and lifelong learning. The European Union is committed to inclusive education within the framework of higher education. For this purpose, the creation of support plans and services that improve access and educational inclusion of non-traditional students was proposed in the European Strategy 2010–2020 (European Commission 2010). In other countries, such as Australia, the United States or the United Kingdom, proceedings of discrimination have been approved to guarantee the right to education in the university for persons with disabilities.

A significant number of countries have launched actions to make universities more accessible for people with disabilities, becoming progressively more committed to the processes of inclusion (Barnes 2007; Jacklin et al. 2007). In response to these laws and policies, many universities have established offices to support the educational needs of students with disabilities, have incorporated the use of new technologies and/or have implemented inclusive educational practices. However, the existence of these actions is insufficient to ensure the right of the students to quality education, without discrimination and based on the principles of inclusive education. Recently, several studies (Quinn 2013; Gibson 2015; Thomas 2016; Wilson et al. 2016) concluded that it is not enough to guarantee diverse students access to education, it is also necessary to provide appropriate support to ensure their inclusion. As has been reported (Wessel et al. 2009; Quinn 2013; Lombardi, Murray, and Kowitt 2016), students with disabilities are at greater risk of prematurely dropping out of universities in comparison to students without disabilities. Therefore, it is necessary to design policies and strategies that encourage students to remain in the university and complete their degree courses successfully.

In order to guarantee equal opportunities and facilitate the inclusion of students with disabilities, it is necessary to incorporate the principles of inclusive education and universal design for learning into university policies and practices based on the social model of disability. Inclusive education postulates the right to full participation and quality education guaranteed to all university students. Diversity is valued in inclusive educational contexts, which foresees design of accessible educational projects, taking into account the different ways of learning and anticipating possible needs that may arise.

The social model, postulates that society, and in this case the university, generates the barriers that hinder the inclusion of university students with disabilities; arguing that the practices, attitudes and policies of the social context generate the barriers and/or supports that influence access and participation (Oliver 1990). According to the social model, disability is not a personal tragedy or an abnormality and there is no need to cure the ‘disease’. Barriers to success are a form of discrimination and oppression and universities should avoid the use of medical labels to identify students with disabilities and they should make efforts to establish inclusive teaching strategies to support student success (Matthews 2009). In contrast, the medical model considers disability as an ‘individual problem’ (Armstrong and Barton 1999). From the perspective of the social model, higher education must restructure the educational experience so that all the students can participate.

Current research on higher education, inclusive education and disability

At present, research on higher education, disabilities and inclusive education is focused mainly on two areas: students with disabilities and faculty members. For this review, the studies were selected from relevant professional journals of higher education (e.g. Higher Education, Studies in Special Education, Teaching in Higher Education) and specific journals of special educational needs (e.g. Disability and Society, European Journal of Special Need Education, International Journal of Inclusive Education). Key words for the search were ‘higher education’, ‘disability’, ‘students with disability’ and ‘inclusive education’. The review looked at investigations after the year 2000.

The works that are cited in this article do not represent all the existing ones in this line of research. To keep the focus of the article, I selected only those investigations that were most relevant for the analysis, and often selected a single representative study for a given topic. Finally, some cited works are not research but are theoretical in nature.

Most of studies revolve around the students themselves. Three primary areas have been examined: the barriers and aids identified by students with disabilities; the transitions from educational stages prior to higher education towards this formative stage; and students’ concern about whether or not disclose their disability if it is ‘invisible’. Many of these studies were qualitative that sought to hear amplify student voices.

Studies about faculty members, although not as numerous, address three topics: analysing the attitudes of the faculty members towards students with disabilities; the faculty members’ need for training; and the use of universal design for learning.

Students with disabilities

The largest group of research studies examined the voice of the students (see Table 1) as they identify both the barriers and the supports in their university experiences (Shevlin, Kenny, and Mcneela 2004; Jacklin et al. 2007; Claiborne et al. 2010; Hopkins 2011; Mullins and Preyde 2013; Moriña, López, and Molina 2015). In this summary, we have chosen to look at the experiences of students with disabilities as a whole, rather than examining individual disability areas. Regarding the barriers, the most important obstacle identified was the negative attitudes displayed by faculty members. In many cases, the students stated that the professor doubted they had a disability, did not adapt the teaching projects and questioned their capacity to study in the university. Additional challenges reported by students with disabilities included: architectural barriers; inaccessible information and technology; rules and policies that are not actually enforced (e.g. the exam schedules and formats were not adapted, class attendance was not facilitated for students with difficulties derived from their disability); or methodologies that do not favour inclusion (e.g. only providing master classes without any interaction between the students and the faculty, technological resources – identified as an aid – were not used) (Mullins and Preyde 2013; Strnadová, Hájková, and Květoňová 2015).

These students’ paths are frequently very difficult, somewhat like an obstacle course and students even define themselves as survivors and long-distance runners (Moriña 2015). Their eventual performance is similar to that of the rest of the students, but in all cases, they reported that this implies a greater investment of effort and time (Skinner 2004). Students with disabilities commonly report that they feel they have to work harder than other students because they have to manage both their disability and their studies (Seale et al. 2015).

It is interesting to note that many of the barriers identified by students with disabilities are also shared by other students (e.g. the difficulties with learning when faculty are inflexible or not empathetic; when the professor uses exclusively master classes to teach, without any kind of additional resources or personal interaction) (Madriaga et al. 2010). Nevertheless, for people with disabilities, these issues may be even more complex and may need additional...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Citation Information
• Notes on Contributors
• Guest Editor’s comments
• 1 Inclusive education in higher education: challenges and opportunities
• 2 Academic self-efficacy, sense of coherence, hope and tiredness among college students with learning disabilities
• 3 Functioning and participation problems of students with ADHD in higher education: which reasonable accommodations are effective?
• 4 Making the transition to post-secondary education: opportunities and challenges experienced by students with ASD in the Republic of Ireland
• 5 Functioning and participation problems of students with ASD in higher education: which reasonable accommodations are effective?
• 6 Developing an inclusive learning environment for students with visual impairment in higher education: progressive mutual accommodation and learner experiences in the United Kingdom
• 7 Responding to the needs of students with mental health difficulties in higher education: an Irish perspective
• 8 Belonging to higher education: inclusive education for students with intellectual disabilities
• 9 Re-visiting the role of disability coordinators: the changing needs of disabled students and current support strategies from a UK university
• 10 Dual PowerPoint presentation approach for students with special educational needs and note-takers
• 11 From the voice of a ‘socratic gadfly’: a call for more academic activism in the researching of disability in postsecondary education
• Index