The Why: Accessibility and our Learners

Attempt the question below to gage the pervasiveness of disabilities in community colleges across the country.

 

 

The Numbers

According to the American Association of Community Colleges, students with disabilities make up 12% of the students enrolled in community college, nationally.  However, the percentage of students that self-disclosed a disability on average in Washington's community and technical colleges is 5.8%, which likely means that many more are not disclosing their disability to the DSS offices. Students often don't seek to disclose their disability due to the stigma involved, lack of official documentation, and lack of awareness of resources available to them. Along with a lack of disclosure, most disabilities are hidden, or not easily seen by looking at someone. Check out the graph below to learn about the different types of disabilities. 

Community College Students with Disabilities Graph Transcript Download Community College Students with Disabilities Graph Transcript

Taking the Next Step

Portland Community College has developed an accessibility initiative across their college. In order to improve student access, all new courses developed will require the course to be accessible. In their promotion of that initiative, they developed this video to help faculty and staff understand the daily challenges faced by students with disabilities to help provide a sense of the challenges people with disabilities encounter in a college environment.

Click Next to Hear About The Perspective of an SCC Staff Member