EXCEPTIONAL EDUCATION
Why College Students with Disabilities Need to Connect with Faculty By Toby Tomlinson Baker, PhD
THINK OF YOUR FAVORITE HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER. THEY INSPIRED YOU, SUPPORTED YOUR DREAMS, AND ALLOWED YOU TO BE YOURSELF. THEY HELPED YOU WHEN YOU WERE STRUGGLING TO LEARN SOMETHING DIFFICULT. YOU PROBABLY IMAGINED THEM GOING TO COLLEGE WITH YOU AND TEACHING YOU EVERY COURSE YOU TAKE. YET, WHEN YOU GRADUATED FROM HIGH SCHOOL AND STARTED COLLEGE, YOUR FAVORITE TEACHER WAS NOT THERE ANYMORE.
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or post-secondary students with disabilities, meeting new faculty, particularly professors with PhDs, can be daunting. The last thing these students want to do is introduce themselves by saying, “Hi. I’m Joe. I have a learning disability and ADHD, and I’m in your class.” Certainly, for a student with disabilities (SWD), there are more effective ways to communicate their needs. Some freshmen with disabilities tend to conceal them in the hopes of being viewed no differently from any other student.
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Many post-secondary SWDs face new academic challenges such as varied schedules, time management, and seeking out assistance from faculty independently. Even if every other step goes as planned when SWDs go to college, they face the barrier of the stigma associated with having a disability. Since many post-secondary SWDs yearn to avoid negative interactions with faculty, they hold back on asking for assistance. In addition, they may fear faculty predetermine a lower grade for an SWD, assuming they are simply a C student.
