Graduate Students with Disabilities: A Case Study

Abstract

This paper presents findings from a survey distributed electronically to graduate students (N=9,237) about their experiences with accommodations at one graduate school, as well as their views of the climate for graduate students with disabilities. In addition, it also shares the perspectives of graduate students (N=20) who participated in semi-structured focus group interviews designed to elicit their experiences with regard to the process of requesting, receiving, implementing and using accommodations. This research was conducted at the University of Michigan’s Rackham Graduate School, as part of its overarching DEI mission. The purpose was to assess the current state of affairs with regards to the inclusion of students with disabilities in graduate and professional programs at U-M. While there is already significant research about accommodating undergraduate students with disabilities, there is almost no parallel research specifically on graduate students, despite the fact that 11.9% of graduate students nationally are estimated by the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES, 2019) to have a disability. Thus, this study contributes new information about a student population that continues to be under-investigated, and it provides recommendations about practices that might better serve graduate students with disabilities.