Skip to main content
Have a personal or library account? Click to login
Experiences of Undergraduate Engineering Students Navigating the Accommodations Process Cover

Experiences of Undergraduate Engineering Students Navigating the Accommodations Process

By:  and    
Open Access
|Jul 2026

References

  1. Abes, E. S., & Wallace, M. M. (2018). “People see me, but they don’t see me”: An intersectional study of college students with physical disabilities. Journal of College Student Development, 59(5), 545562. 10.1353/csd.2018.0052
  2. Barnard-Brak, L., Sulak, T., Tate, A., & Lechtenberger, D. (2010). Measuring college students’ attitudes toward requesting accommodations: A national multi-institutional study. Assessment for Effective Intervention. 35(3), 141147. 10.1177/1534508409358900
  3. Becker, S., & Palladino, J. (2016). Assessing faculty perspectives about teaching and working with students with disabilities. Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, 29(1), 6582. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1107476
  4. Blasey, J., Wang, C., & Blasey, R. (2023). Accommodation use and academic outcomes for college students with disabilities. Psychological Reports, 126(4), 18911909. 10.1177/00332941221078011
  5. Campbell, F. K. (2020). The violence of technicism: Ableism as humiliation and degrading treatment In N. Brown & J. Leigh (Eds.), Ableism in Academia (pp. 202224). UCL Press. 10.2307/j.ctv13xprjr.18
  6. Cech, E. A. (2023). Engineering ableism: The exclusion and devaluation of engineering students and professionals with physical disabilities and chronic and mental illness. Journal of Engineering Education, 112(2), 462487. 10.1002/jee.20522
  7. Cole, E. V., & Cawthon, S. W. (2015). Self-disclosure decisions of university students with learning disabilities. Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, 28(2), 163179. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1074663
  8. Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. 3rd ed. Sage.
  9. Denhart, H. (2008). Deconstructing barriers: Perceptions of students labeled with learning disabilities in higher education. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 41(6), 483497. 10.1177/0022219408321151
  10. Dolmage, J. (2017). Academic ableism: Disability and higher education. University of Michigan Press. 10.3998/mpub.9708722
  11. Dringenberg, E., Kramer, A., & Betz, A. R. (2022). Smartness in engineering: Beliefs of undergraduate engineering students. Journal of Engineering Education, 111(3), 575594. 10.1002/jee.20463
  12. Evans, N. J., Broido, E. M., Brown, K. R., & Wilke, A. K. (2017). Disability in higher education: A social justice approach. Jossey-Bass, a Wiley Brand. https://www.wiley.com/en-us/shop/general-introductory-education/disability-in-higher-education-a-social-justice-approach-p-9781118018224
  13. Fereday, J., & Muir-Cochrane, E. (2006). Demonstrating rigor using thematic analysis: A hybrid approach of inductive and deductive coding and theme development. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 5(1), 8092. 10.1177/160940690600500107
  14. Figard, R. (2025). Disabled student experiences in engineering undergraduate programs: a scoping literature review (WIP). 2025 ASEE Annual Conference. Montreal, Quebec, Canada. 10.18260/1-2--56298
  15. Figard, R., Brunhaver, S. R., & Bekki, J. M. (2023). “It is so sxhausting to constantly have to explain to people”: Exploring the effects of faculty interactions on disabled students. 2023 ASEE Annual Conference. Baltimore, MD. 10.18260/1-2--42321
  16. Freedman, J. E., Dotger, B. H., & Song, Y. (2020). Encountering ableism in the moment. Critical Education, 11(16), 2137. 10.14288/CE.V11I16.186504
  17. Gabel, S. L., & Miskovic, M. (2014). Discourse and the containment of disability in higher education: An institutional analysis. Disability & Society, 29(7), 11451158. 10.1080/09687599.2014.910109
  18. Getzel, E. E. (2008). Addressing the persistence and retention of students with disabilities in higher education: Incorporating key strategies and supports on campus. Exceptionality, 16(4), 207219. 10.1080/09362830802412216
  19. Godfrey, E., & Parker, L. (2010). Mapping the cultural landscape in engineering education. Journal of Engineering Education, 99(1), 522. 10.1002/j.2168-9830.2010.tb01038.x
  20. Gokool-Baurhoo, N., & Asghar, A. (2019). “I can’t tell you what the learning difficulty is”: Barriers experienced by college science instructors in teaching and supporting students with learning disabilities. Teaching and Teacher Education, 79, 1727. 10.1016/j.tate.2018.11.016
  21. Grimes, S., Southgate, E., Scevak, J., & Buchanan, R. (2019). University student perspectives on institutional non-disclosure of disability and learning challenges: Reasons for staying invisible. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 23(6), 639655. 10.1080/13603116.2018.1442507
  22. Gurung, R. A. R., & Galardi, N. R. (2022). Syllabus tone, more than mental health statements, influence intentions to seek help. Teaching of Psychology, 49(3), 218223. 10.1177/0098628321994632
  23. Harbour, W. (2013). “Inclusion in K-12 and higher education.” In A. S. Kanter & B. A. Ferri (Eds.), Righting educational wrongs: Disability studies in law and education (First edition) (pp. 278288). Syracuse University Press. https://press.syr.edu/supressbooks/619/righting-educational-wrongs/
  24. Hartman-Hall, H. M., & Haaga, D. A. F. (2002). College students’ willingness to seek help for their learning disabilities. Learning Disability Quarterly, 25(4), 263274. 10.2307/1511357
  25. Ingman, K. (2023). Addressing equitable access to higher education: Assessing accommodation through syllabi [Bowling Green State University]. https://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1698679463698528
  26. Jensen, J. M., McCrary, N., Krampe, K., & Cooper, J. (2004). Trying to do the right thing: faculty attitudes toward accommodating students with learning disabilities. Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, 17(2), 8190. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ876004
  27. Kali, M. B., Secules, S., & McCall, C. J. (2021). Including Alice: uncovering the narrative of one student’s experience at the intersection of international student status and mental health. 2021 CoNECD Annual Conference. Virtual. 10.18260/1-2--36097
  28. Kazis, R. (2020). Inequities in US higher education access and success: Obstacles and opportunities for marginal populations. In J. Bhabha, W. Giles, & F. Mahomed (Eds.), A better future: The role of higher education for displaced and marginalised people (pp. 129151). Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/9781108655101.007
  29. Kim, W. H., & Lee, J. (2016). The effect of accommodation on academic performance of college students with disabilities. Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin, 60(1), 4050. 10.1177/0034355215605259
  30. Kranke, D., Jackson, S. E., Taylor, D. A., Anderson-Frye, E., & Floersch, J. (2013). College student disclosure of non-apparent disabilities to receive classroom accommodations. Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, 26(1), 3551. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1026808
  31. Krebs, E. (2019). Baccalaureates or burdens? Complicating “reasonable accommodations” for American college students with disabilities. Disability Studies Quarterly, 39(3). 10.18061/dsq.v39i3.6557
  32. Lindsay, S., Cagliostro, E., & Carafa, G. (2018). A systematic review of barriers and facilitators of disability disclosure and accommodations for youth in post-secondary education. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 65(5) 131. 10.1080/1034912X.2018.1430352
  33. Long, R. E. M., & Stabler, A. (2022). “This is NOT okay:” Building a creative collective against academic ableism. Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, 19(4), 288314. 10.1080/15505170.2021.1926374
  34. Mamboleo, G., Dong, S., Anderson, S., & Molder, A. (2020). Accommodation experience: Challenges and facilitators of requesting and implementing accommodations among college students with disabilities. Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, 53(1), 4354. 10.3233/JVR-201084
  35. Martin, J. M. (2010). Stigma and student mental health in higher education. Higher Education Research & Development, 29(3), 259274. 10.1080/07294360903470969
  36. McCall, C., Shew, A., Simmons, D. R., Paretti, M. C., & McNair, L. D. (2020). Exploring student disability and professional identity: Navigating sociocultural expectations in U.S. undergraduate civil engineering programs. Australasian Journal of Engineering Education, 25(1), 7989. 10.1080/22054952.2020.1720434
  37. Miller, I., & Jensen, K. (2025). Engineering students’ attitudes and perceived norms toward disability and accommodations. Journal of Engineering Education, 114(4). 10.1002/jee.70028
  38. Miller, I., & Jensen, K. (2026). Experiences of engineering students with disabilities in the accommodations process: A scoping literature review. Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering. 10.1615/JWomenMinorScienEng.2025054059
  39. Miller, R. A., Wynn, R. D., & Webb, K. W. (2019). “This really interesting juggling act”: How university students manage disability/queer identity disclosure and visibility. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 12(4), 307318. 10.1037/dhe0000083
  40. Moriña, A. (2024). When what is unseen does not exist: disclosure, barriers and supports for students with invisible disabilities in higher education. Disability & Society, 39(4), 914932. 10.1080/09687599.2022.2113038
  41. National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. (2019). Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering: 2019. (Special Report NSF Special Report NSF 19-304). National Science Foundation. https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf19304
  42. Nieminen, J. H. (2023). Unveiling ableism and disablism in assessment: A critical analysis of disabled students’ experiences of assessment and assessment accommodations. Higher Education, 85(3), 613636. 10.1007/s10734-022-00857-1
  43. Nusbaum, A. T., Swindell, S., & Plemons, A. (2021). Kindness at first sight: The role of syllabi in impression formation. Teaching of Psychology, 48(2), 130143. 10.1177/0098628320959953
  44. Pfeifer, M. A., Reiter, E. M., Cordero, J. J., & Stanton, J. D. (2021). Inside and out: Factors that support and hinder the self-advocacy of undergraduates with ADHD and/or specific learning disabilities in STEM. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 20(2), ar17. 10.1187/cbe.20-06-0107
  45. Price, M. (2011). Mad at school: Rhetorics of mental disability and academic life. University of Michigan Press. 10.3998/mpub.1612837
  46. Proudfoot, K. (2023). Inductive/deductive hybrid thematic analysis in mixed methods research. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 17(3), 308326. 10.1177/15586898221126816
  47. Quinlan, M. M., Bates, B. R., & Angell, M. E. (2012). “What can I do to help?”: Postsecondary students with learning disabilities’ perceptions of instructors’ classroom accommodations. Journal of Research in Special Educational Needs, 12(4), 224233. 10.1111/j.1471-3802.2011.01225.x
  48. Rao, S., & Gartin, B. C. (2003). Attitudes of university faculty toward accommodations to students with disabilities. The Journal for Vocational Special Needs Education, 25(2), 4754. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ854908
  49. Reinholz, D. L., & Ridgway, S. W. (2021). Access needs: centering students and disrupting ableist norms in STEM. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 20(3), es8. 10.1187/cbe.21-01-0017
  50. Riley, D. (2017). Rigor/us: Building boundaries and disciplining diversity with standards of merit. Engineering Studies, 9(3), 249265. 10.1080/19378629.2017.1408631
  51. Roberts, E. K. (2019). Who is missing? A critical analysis of disabled students’ subjectivity in an ableist university culture. [Doctoral dissertation, University of British Columbia] UBC Library Open Collections. 10.14288/1.0378471
  52. Robinson, S. A. (2017). The voice of a gifted Black male with dyslexia represented through poetry: An auto-ethnographic account. Journal of Poetry Therapy, 30(2), 113119. 10.1080/08893675.2017.1266201
  53. Saldaña, J. (2016). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. (3rd ed.). Sage Publications.
  54. Shpigelman, C. N., Mor, S., Sachs, D., & Schreuer, N. (2022). Supporting the development of students with disabilities in higher education: Access, stigma, identity, and power. Studies in Higher Education, 47(9), 17761791. 10.1080/03075079.2021.1960303
  55. Simpkins, N. (2023). The rhetorical role of syllabi in student conversations about disability accommodations. College Composition & Communication, 74(4), 673694. 10.58680/ccc202332522
  56. Skrtic, T. M., Kent, J. R., & Cantor, N. (2013). Rights, needs, and capabilities. In A. S. Kanter & B. A. Ferri (Eds.), Righting educational wrongs (pp. 58101). Syracuse University Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1j2n77p.8
  57. Slaton, A. E., Cech, E. A., & Riley, D. M. (2019). Chapter 17. Yearning, learning, and earning: The gritty ontologies of american engineering education. In W. J. Letts & S. Fifield (Eds.), STEM of desire: Queer theories and science education, 319340. Brill Sense. 10.1163/9789004331068_017
  58. Southwest ADA Center. (2017). Postsecondary institutions and students with disabilities. ADA National Network. https://adata.org/factsheet/postsecondary
  59. Stephens, N. M., Townsend, S. S. M., & Dittmann, A. G. (2019). Social-class disparities in higher education and professional workplaces: The role of cultural mismatch. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 28(1), 6773. 10.1177/0963721418806506
  60. Szechy, K. A., Ramos, P., Bray, M., Anderson, N., Wiseman, R., & O’Donnell, L. A. (2026). “Rooted in ableism:” An embedded mixed methods study of disability disclosure on a university campus. Disability & Society, 41(1), 5175. 10.1080/09687599.2025.2498413
  61. Thompson, B. (2007). The Syllabus as a communication document: Constructing and presenting the syllabus. Communication Education, 56(1), 5471. 10.1080/03634520601011575
  62. Thurmond, V. A. (2001). The point of triangulation. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 33(3), 253258. 10.1111/j.1547-5069.2001.00253.x
  63. Timberlake, M. (2020). Recognizing ableism in educational initiatives: Reading between the lines. Research in Educational Policy and Management, 2(1), 84100. 10.46303/repam.02.01.5
  64. Walther, J., Sochacka, N. W., & Kellam, N. N. (2013). Quality in interpretive engineering education research: Reflections on an example study. Journal of Engineering Education, 102(4), 626659. 10.1002/jee.20029
  65. Weatherton, Y. P., Mayes, R. D., & Villanueva-Perez, C. (2017). Barriers to persistence for engineering students with disabilities 2017 ASEE Annual Conference. Columbus, Ohio. 10.18260/1-2--27650
  66. Wertans, E., & Burch, L. (2022). ‘It’s backdoor accessibility’: Disabled students’ navigation of university campus. Journal of Disability Studies in Education, 3(1), 5778. 10.1163/25888803-bja10013
  67. West, E. A., Novak, D., & Mueller, C. (2016). Inclusive instructional practices used and their perceived importance by instructors. Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, 29(4), 363374. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1133764
  68. Williams, S. (2022). Absent students: A critical disabilities studies approach to accessibility services [Master’s thesis, Brock University]. https://dr.library.brocku.ca/handle/10464/16620
  69. Womack, A. M. (2017). Teaching is accommodation: Universally designing composition classrooms and syllabi. College Composition & Communication, 68(3), 494525. 10.58680/ccc201728964
  70. Wright, C. J., Hargis, L. E., Usher, E. L., Hammer, J. H., Wilson, S. A., & Miller, M. E. (2021). Identifying engineering students’ beliefs about seeking help for mental health concerns. Presented at 2021 Virtual ASEE Annual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--37269
  71. Zaussinger, S., & Terzieva, B. (2018). Fear of stigmatisation among students with disabilities in Austria. Social Inclusion, 6(4), 182193. 10.17645/si.v6i4.1667
  72. Zongrone, C., McCall, C. J., Paretti, M. C., Shew, A., Simmons, D. R., & McNair, L. D. (2021). “I’m looking at you, you’re a perfectly good person…”: Describing non-apparent disability in engineering. 2021 CoNECD Annual Conference. Virtual. 10.18260/1-2--36059
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21061/see.194 | Journal eISSN: 2690-5450
Language: English
Page range: 1 - 21
Submitted on: Nov 5, 2024
Accepted on: Apr 30, 2026
Published on: Jul 16, 2026
Published by: Virginia Tech Publishing
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

© 2026 Isabel Miller, Karin Jensen, published by Virginia Tech Publishing
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.