Disability Accommodations Research Articles

Disability accommodations at meetings and events: Text mining and document analysis

While the percentage of the population with disabilities is growing, little research has been reported to date on documenting disability accommodations at meetings and events. By using a combined analysis, consisting of text mining and document analysis, this study analyzes industry magazine articles published from 1991 to 2020 that address disability accommodations and ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) requirements. Findings provide key concepts, relevant topics regarding ADA compliance, the evolution of content over time, and ADA-related practices and implications for planners. This study also discusses the legislation and guidelines applicable to both physical and digital accessibility. The findings will be of interest to venue managers and meeting planners, as well as event organizers. Research contributions and future directions for research on disability accommodations are discussed.

Audit of advertised housing and support vacancies for people with disabilities in Australia

AbstractThe introduction of Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has changed the way housing and support are delivered to Scheme participants. NDIS policy reform focuses on coordinated housing and support responses. These responses are guided by the Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) Rule, Framework and pricing and Supported Independent Living payments. To date, the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) has only released limited data to understand SDA demand or inform market development. To understand changing housing and support approaches and the impact of NDIS housing policy on market responses, this research had three aims: (1) to examine the locations and characteristics of housing and support vacancies advertised for people with disability; (2) to investigate funding sources for, and providers of, these supported housing options; and (3) to examine the proportion and source of government, nonprofit and private sector funding for housing and support developments advertised. An audit was undertaken of all advertisements on the two main non‐government organisation Websites that list Australian supported housing vacancies. A total of 562 property adverts were reviewed in March 2019. Audit findings are considered in relation to the current NDIS policy context. Possible housing futures and market gaps for people with significant and permanent disability in Australia are discussed.

Response to AAR Articles

Response to AAR Articles

Disclosure, Privacy and Workplace Accommodation of Episodic Disabilities: Organizational Perspectives on Disability Communication-Support Processes to Sustain Employment

Purpose Employers increasingly are asked to accommodate workers living with physical and mental health conditions that cause episodic disability, where periods of wellness are punctuated by intermittent and often unpredictable activity limitations (e.g., depression, anxiety, arthritis, colitis). Episodic disabilities may be challenging for workplaces which must comply with legislation protecting the privacy of health information while believing they would benefit from personal health details to meet a worker’s accommodation needs. This research aimed to understand organizational perspectives on disability communication-support processes. Methods Twenty-seven participants from diverse employment sectors and who had responsibilities for supporting workers living with episodic disabilities (e.g., supervisors, disability managers, union representatives, occupational health representatives, labour lawyers) were interviewed. Five participants also had lived experience of a physical or mental health episodic disability. Participants were recruited through organizational associations, community networks and advertising. Semi-structured interviews and qualitative content analysis framed data collection and analyses, and mapped communication-support processes. Results Seven themes underpinned communication-support process: (1) similarities and differences among physical and mental health episodic disabilities; (2) cultures of workplace support, including contrasting medical and biopsychosocial perspectives; (3) misgivings about others and their role in communication-support processes; (4) that subjective perceptions matter; (5) the inherent complexity of the response process; (6) challenges arising when a worker denies a disability; and (7) casting disability as a performance problem. Conclusions This study identifies a conceptual framework and areas where workplace disability support processes could be enhanced to improve inclusion and the sustainability of employment among workers living with episodic disabilities.

Medical-Legal Partnerships: Supporting the Legal Needs of Women in Their Perinatal Care [16F

INTRODUCTION: Medical-legal partnership (MLP) aims to address the numerous social determinants of health. In July 2018 we added an MLP service for pregnant and postpartum women in an underserved safety net hospital in Los Angeles County. Here, we examine the prevalence of legal needs ascertained by self-administered legal needs assessments and the conversion rate of referrals to legal cases. METHODS: The MLP service was implemented as part of the continuum of clinical care. Referrals are tracked as part of case management. Review of self-administered screenings provided our referral screen-positive rates. Of those clients referred, a case conversion rate was calculated when legal cases were generated. RESULTS: Legal needs were identified in the following areas: family law (27%), employment (25%), housing (11%), and immigration (11%). A 72% screen positive rate (79 of 110) was found when clinic staff (provider, nursing, or social worker) directly referred to the MLP. Legal advice was often provided to those who screened positive (64%). Conversion rates were also high with 58% of those referred for formal legal action resulting in open cases (46 of 79 referred). CONCLUSION: Legal needs, such as assistance with employment law for pregnancy related disability accommodations, may have direct impacts on perinatal outcomes. Incorporating the MLP in resource-limited clinical settings can be achieved by including stakeholders in its development. The high conversion rate of referrals to cases illustrates the ability of the medical staff and patients to effectively identify legal needs and then partner with legal aid groups to address these concerns.

Disability accommodation experiences of social work students in the United States

ABSTRACT Social work students with disabilities navigate accommodations as part of their post-secondary education, but there is still limited research about how they use and access program and campus supports. This study explored the accommodation experiences of 262 U.S. students who identified as having a disability. Participants were enrolled in BASW (52.1%), MSW (44.4%) and PhD/DSW (3.4%) programs. Quantitative analysis found that 56.4% were registered with disability resources, 47.1% received classroom, and 14.8% field accommodations. Type of disability was only a significant predictor of receiving field accommodations. Employment status was a significant predictor of both registering with disability resources, and receiving classroom accommodations. Open-ended survey responses from disabled students illustrated the varied supports and challenges students navigated on campus and within the classroom and field while enrolled in their social work programs. We discussed how these findings provide social work programs opportunities to consider ways to increase practices that support students with disabilities.

Disability Barriers in Academia: An Analysis of Disability Accommodation Policies for Faculty at Canadian Universities


 
 
 This article examines disability accommodation policies for faculty at 42 Canadian universities. Although universities in Canada are legally required to accommodate disabled employees, fewer than half of all universities have a written disability accommodation policy available. The search for disability accommodation policies revealed that there is a lack of consistency in policy implementation as well as language and content. The analysis revealed that disability accommodation policies contain overtly medical language and provisions that work to isolate disabled faculty by reinforcing the notion of competency as able-bodiedness and emphasizing the entanglement between disability, health and medicine. This article encourages universities to acknowledge their role in establishing accessible and inclusive workplaces and concludes with recommendations aimed at addressing some of the gaps and inconsistencies in disability accommodation policies.
 
 

An Internet-Delivered Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Depression and Anxiety Among Clients Referred and Funded by Insurance Companies Compared With Those Who Are Publicly Funded: Longitudinal Observational Study.

BackgroundAnxiety and depression are leading causes of disability but are often undertreated. Internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy (ICBT) improves access to treatment by overcoming barriers to obtaining care. ICBT has been found to be efficacious in research trials and routine care, but there is limited research of ICBT when it is recommended and funded by insurance companies for clients on or recently in receipt of disability benefits or accommodations.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to examine ICBT engagement, treatment satisfaction, and effectiveness among individuals involved with 2 insurance companies. The 2 samples were benchmarked against published outcomes from a publicly funded (PF) ICBT clinic.MethodsIndividuals who were on or recently in receipt of disability benefits and were either insurance company (IC) employees (n=21) or IC plan members (n=19) were referred to ICBT funded by the respective insurance companies. Outcomes were benchmarked against outcomes of ICBT obtained in a PF ICBT clinic, with clients in the clinic divided into those who reported no involvement with insurance companies (n=414) and those who were on short-term disability (n=44). All clients received the same 8-week, therapist-assisted, transdiagnostic ICBT course targeting anxiety and depression. Engagement was assessed using completion rates, log-ins, and emails exchanged. Treatment satisfaction was assessed posttreatment. Depression, anxiety, and disability measures were administered pretreatment, posttreatment, and at 3 months.ResultsAll samples showed high levels of ICBT engagement and treatment satisfaction. IC employees experienced significant improvement at posttreatment (depression d=0.77; anxiety d=1.13; and disability d=0.91) with outcomes maintained at 3 months. IC plan members, who notably had greater pretreatment disability than the other samples, experienced significant moderate effects at posttreatment (depression d=0.58; anxiety d=0.54; and disability d=0.60), but gains were not maintained at 3 months. Effect sizes at posttreatment in both IC samples were significantly smaller than in the PF sample who reported no insurance benefits (depression d=1.14 and anxiety d=1.30) and the PF sample who reported having short-term disability benefits (depression d=0.95 and anxiety d=1.07). No difference was seen in effect sizes among IC employees and the PF samples on disability. However, IC plan members experienced significantly smaller effects on disability d=0.60) compared with the PF sample with no disability benefits d=0.90) and those on short-term disability benefits d=0.94).ConclusionsMany clients referred and funded by insurance companies were engaged with ICBT and found it acceptable and effective. Results, however, were not maintained among those with very high levels of pretreatment disability. Small sample sizes in the IC groups are a limitation. Directions for research related to ICBT funded by insurance companies have been described.

The bilingual [dis]advantage

ABSTRACTMost assessments of cognitive abilities are language bound (e.g., directions presented orally or written), even when not assessing linguistic ability. Understanding the relationship between bilingual language acquisition and outcomes on tests of cognitive abilities is critical, given the reliance on intelligence assessment for learning disability accommodations and intellectual disability diagnoses. Research has been mixed regarding the presence of a bilingual advantage or disadvantage on cognitive performance. Thus, the purpose of this review is to examine differences between several types of language users (i.e., early/late, simultaneous/sequential, English dominant / Spanish dominant/balanced), focusing on the relation between level of language acquisition and use and implications for outcomes on tests of cognitive abilities. To conduct the systematic review, guidelines from the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) were used (Liberati et al., 2009). Fifty-two articles met eligibility criteria and are included in this review. Results from the systematic review suggest that bilinguals perform differently than monolinguals in several domains and may be considered neurologically unlike monolinguals. The paper concludes by advocating for the need for appropriate assessment instruments and norms specific for bilingual speakers, as currently available measures cannot reliably and accurately differentiate monolinguals with a language impairment from typically developing bilinguals.

How to Run Together: On Study Abroad and the ASD Experience

The growing offering of study abroad programs across university campuses seemingly disregards the large numbers of students with disabilities accessing higher education. Given that study abroad experiences are becoming expected and, in many institutions, mandatory requirements towards graduation, it is imperative that accommodations for disabilities, as well as course design be addressed. Furthermore, the promotion of study abroad programs as a means to develop some sort of ‘cultural literacy’ demands attention to the cultural processes surrounding perceptions of/ and responses to disability, and which are, above all, culturally specific. Through two case studies in Cuenca, Ecuador, we address some of the challenges and opportunities associated with the participation of two ASD students, both high functioning, in the study abroad experience.

Partner with Disability Services to educate prospective students about available services

Research shows that many students who received disability accommodations in high school do not register for them in college. Their reasons include not knowing accommodations are available or where to go to register, and a sense of stigma. To help bridge the knowledge gap and make prospective students feel comfortable, partner with the Disability Services Office. Educating prospective students can help you recruit them, and their use of services could help you retain them once they enroll.

The Echoes of History, a Personal Professional Meditation

CLA JOURNAL 141 The Echoes of History, a Personal Professional Meditation Therí A. Pickens Hello Therí. This is Jill Reich calling from Bates College. I’m very pleased to be calling and… and… uh perhaps you can think why and that is that we would very much like to have you to join us on the faculty here at Bates. So, I’m calling to talk about an offer. Um, it’s Tuesday afternoon about uh 5:30. I’ll be in the office for about another half hour. You can reach me tomorrow at uh 207-786-6066. I’m afraid I’m going to be at meetings most of the evening. Uh, but I’m going to send you an email and, uh, we really look forward to talking and hope that uh we can work something out so that you can join us here at Bates. Thanks, Therí, and I’ll talk to you soon. Bye-bye. This voicemail is from Tuesday, March 8, 2011. It was a moment of professional triumph. It was also a moment of fear. I had an offer for a tenure-track job, but I had to negotiate the parameters. I hasten to add that few of us know the art of negotiation and seldom do we learn in graduate school. Though I had great mentors (still do!), this process was daunting nevertheless. I needed to negotiate aspects of my career that most junior faculty think about: a base salary increase, course reduction for the first two years, start-up funds, teaching development, and a deeper reserve of conference travel funds. Books like The Academic Job Handbook advise job seekers on best practices in contract negotiation. Noticeably absent, for me at least, was advice on how best to negotiate aspects of my career related to my disability: digital access to my classroom so that I could teach remotely in case of illness, physical access to both my office and classrooms in case of inclement weather, accessible housing within scooter distance to the campus, increase in the yearly conference funding allowance because traveling with a disability is expensive. When Bates’ former Dean of Faculty Jill Reich called to “work something out,” I am certain that she knew she would need to consider my disability. Nonetheless, joining the faculty at Bates seemed like it would be an exercise in trying to create a separate but equal working space1 in a place where ableism was assumed to be a common denominator between employees. I am grateful that Drs. Dana Williams and Kendra R. Parker saw fit to include me in this necessary publication. I want to give a special thank you to Dr. Shanna Benjamin for her adroit assistance in helping me make this rage eloquent (pace Brittney Cooper). 1 The reference to Plessy v. Ferguson is very much intended. The separate but equal doctrine still exists as part of the de facto segregation for the disabled. 142 CLA JOURNAL Theri Pickens Though the conversations about my disability and my tenure-track life were supposedtobeseparate—thatis,mydiscussionswithadministratorsaboutcontract terms that were negotiable and our dialogues about disability accommodations that I was legally entitled to—they happened with the same parties during the same meetings. Simultaneously negotiating my contract perks and outlining disability needs risked conflating the two and negating the urgency of the latter. In other words, adding my needs for disability requests to the list of terms I was already negotiating could have been viewed as asking too much or understood as interchangeable with other requests. For example, could administrators read my desire for more conference funding as an exploitative move that was all about being able to travel more on Bates’ dime?2 The dean could have asked whether an increase in base salary meant that I could personally underwrite costs associated with creating accessible housing. Ultimately, in a town where most housing near the campus is owned by the college and none of it is accessible, the school had to create the parameters for me to be able to join the faculty and work at Bates. Plainly put, I cannot work where I cannot live.3 Further, these requests for access were not...

LGBTQ+ college students with disabilities: demographic profile and perceptions of well-being

Few scholars have examined the experiences of LGBTQ+ college students with disabilities, but the available evidence indicating poor mental and physical health, underutilization of disability accommodations, and frequent marginalization presents cause for concern. In this descriptive study, we analyze survey data from 140 LGBTQ + college students with disabilities in the United States and provide demographics as well as exploration of indicators of well-being, including campus climate. Findings detail how students use multiple terms to describe their sexual and gender identities, report low use of accommodations, assess their physical health positively but also report concerning mental health symptoms, and experience more environmental than interpersonal microaggressions. Implications for educators, researchers, and advocates for LGBTQ + students with disabilities will be discussed.

Coming home: Why veterans with disabilities withhold workplace accommodation requests

Veterans with disabilities are often hesitant to request an accommodation in the workplace, despite the fact that many intranational legal frameworks require employers to provide reasonable accommodation. This study draws from social identity and disability help-seeking theoretical perspectives to examine various factors – veteran identity, disability attributes, and workplace inclusive climate perceptions – which shape feelings of psychological safety and the decision to request a disability accommodation among military veterans with disabilities. Findings suggest veteran identity strain (an incongruence between one’s civilian work and military identity) is related to withholding of an accommodation request through decreased psychological safety. We also find veteran identity strain is less likely to be associated with decreased psychological safety when an organization is perceived to have a strong climate of inclusion, especially for military veterans with higher degrees of disability invisibility. The current study sheds light on why veterans with disabilities might not engage in help-seeking behaviors, and contributes to research streams on workplace disability and veteran workplace integration. Practically, we encourage employers to be especially aware of the needs of vulnerable employees and to develop inclusive climates in order to better support all military personnel transitioning to a civilian workforce.

Realizing a Diverse and Inclusive Workforce: Equal Access for Residents With Disabilities.

Realizing a Diverse and Inclusive Workforce: Equal Access for Residents With Disabilities.

Baccalaureates or Burdens? Complicating "Reasonable Accommodations" for American College Students with Disabilities

This paper examines the controversy surrounding American college students' use of disability accommodations, a process many find unfair or undue, in two ways: (1) by critically unpacking the processes for obtaining accommodations to highlight intersectional issues of who has—or is barred from—access to such services; and (2) by using a rhetorical lens to analyze how the term "accommodation" influences perceptions of disabled students. By combining these processual and rhetorical approaches, this work uncovers significant issues regarding how university students with disabilities are treated on college campuses. Such research is important because disabled individuals are less than half as likely as their nondisabled peers to earn college degrees. Thus, despite ADA laws and pushes for inclusivity and diversity on college campuses, the American higher education system continues to fail a significant part of the nation's population.

Context matters: A review to formulate a conceptual framework for coaching as a disability accommodation.

Although dyslexia affects 5–8% of the workforce this developmental disorder has not been sufficiently researched in adult populations. Yet a diagnosis confers legal protections as employers must provide disability ‘accommodations’ to assist work functioning and performance. The implementation of such accommodations, including coaching, lacks theoretical framing and evaluations of impact in practice. Recognizing a need for conceptual work, we undertook a narrative, systematic scoping review from a realist pragmatic epistemology, taking an iterative approach to define and address the review question: ‘to what extent, and under what conditions, can face-to-face learning interventions improve Working Memory (WM) and Self-Efficacy (SE) and can these lead to functional improvements related to work performance?’ Informed by expert and stakeholder consultation and user data, our review extracted and synthesized 25 studies from eleven countries to identify potentially applicable learning intervention theories, their effects upon WM and SE but also functional outcomes such as comprehension. We suggest that intervention protocols informed by Social Cognitive Learning Theory can improve SE, as would be expected, and more surprisingly also WM. The development of metacognition, stress management and fidelity to Goal Setting Theory were identified as valuable intervention features. We propose that coaching activities may provide a more contextualized environment for transfer of learning from WM to functional skills such as comprehension, when compared to computerized training interventions. We call for theoretically underpinned, primary studies to evaluate interventions with adult dyslexic populations to further our understanding of disability accommodations.

C-42 Is “Clinical Impairment” Normative in College Populations? Identifying Base Rates of Self-Reported Impairment in a Non-Treatment Seeking Population

Abstract Objective Individuals presenting with concerns of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) report impairment and may seek academic or disability accommodations related to perceived impairment. Problematically, the legal definition of impairment remains poorly understood by clinicians, and there is little consensus regarding credibility of self-reported impairment. Furthermore, many impairments reported by individuals seeking evaluation for ADHD appear to be general and non-specific, but base rates of reports of these impairments in non-treatment seeking populations remain unclear. We examined base rates of impairment associated with ADHD in a sample of non-treatment seeking college students. Method Participants were undergraduate students who completed online surveys (N = 175). Participants who failed measures of validity, reported a past diagnosis of ADHD, or endorsed clinically significant symptoms of ADHD were excluded from analyses (final N = 89). Participants largely identified as white (88.8%) and female (85.4). Participants completed measures of impairment (Barkley Functional Impairment Scale) and ADHD symptoms (Conners’ Adult Attention Rating Scale). Base rates of clinically significant impairment among this sample were analyzed. Results Clinically significant levels of impairment were reported at high levels within the following categories; at home (15.1%), interacting with strangers (13.5%) and friends (20.2%), performing daily self-care (7.9%), and managing health (12.4%). Conclusions Base rates of clinically significant self-reported impairment are high among a non-clinical, non-treatment seeking sample of college students without ADHD symptoms. Results raise questions about the validity of self-reported impairment in diagnostic decision making, suggesting that experiences of difficulty in these areas may be normative among college populations and not specific to ADHD.

Learning disability documentation submitted by osteopathic medical students

An increasing number of individuals are requesting disability accommodations on high-stakes licensing examinations, and neuropsychological evaluation reports are a frequent component of disability documentation. This study reviewed 103 requests for accommodations based on a learning disability (LD), submitted to the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners between 2013 and 2016 for accommodation on the licensure exams for osteopathic physicians. Depending on criteria employed, anywhere from 84 to 97% of applicants failed to meet recognized criteria for a LD diagnosis, with the vast majority demonstrating academic functioning that was average or better relative to most other individuals in the general population. Thus, although given a disability diagnosis, the majority lacked evidence of substantial impairment that would require accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Additionally, no significant differences were found between the academic achievement or fluency scores of those requesting 50% as compared to 100% extra time. Finally, many evaluators employed grade-based assessment measures to demonstrate academic impairment, even when candidates’ functioning using age-based comparisons was unimpaired. Recommendations for future research and practice based on these and other findings are discussed.

CSD Program Makes College Possible After Brain Injury

CSD Program Makes College Possible After Brain Injury