“As a professor and researcher in special education, I’ve worked with many students with disabilities transitioning to college. The ones who are typically most successful after high school are the ones who were prepared to be strong self-advocates, who could seek out needed services and supports, and who could manage the multiple demands of being independent,” writes Joseph Madaus, a professor of educational psychology at UConn’s Neag School of Education and director of the Collaborative on Postsecondary Education and Disability.

Neag School faculty members and other colleagues are co-authors of a new study, recently published in the Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, that examined the impact of the rapid transition to online learning during the spring 2020 academic semester on college students with disabilities. The researchers conducted a national survey of more than 340 students in both two and four-year programs to measure the perceptions of college students with disabilities about their experiences.

“We’re trying to make it so people with disabilities have more opportunities for employment in society, right?” said Allison Lombardi, a professor who teaches in the Special Education Program at the University of Connecticut. “There’s not a separate society for just people with disabilities, so it really doesn’t make sense for us to create programs that are so separate.”

It will come as no surprise to any college student (or parent of one) that achieving success in higher education starts with the right preparation during the K-12 years. But for students with disabilities, postsecondary education presents an additional set of challenges, though they too can be met with the right strategies in place. In […]