Date Presented Accepted for AOTA INSPIRE 2021 but unable to be presented due to online event limitations.
College students with disabilities have poorer retention and graduation rates than their peers without disabilities. The academic success of college students with disabilities can be enhanced by the provision of specialized academic support. A coaching intervention provided by OTs allowed college students with disabilities to meet 77% of their self-identified goals. Participants were satisfied with 94% of the areas of need addressed by disability-specific supports.
Primary Author and Speaker: Marie-Christine Potvin
Contributing Authors: Monique Chabot, Janette Boney, Caitlin Beach, Margaret A. Ryan, Michael Patrick Barrett, and Kathleen Carr
PURPOSE: Successful completion of postsecondary education (PSE) has been found to play a vital role in facilitating independence, job acquisition and higher earnings for both students with and without disabilities (Plotner & May, 2019). However, students with disabilities graduate from college at lower rates than their peers without disabilities (Houtenville & Boege, 2019). For students with disabilities, receiving proper supports in college has been found to predict their degree of success (Herbert et al., 2014). However, specialized supports are not required by law in PSE. Consequently, most institutions only provide the accommodations that are required by the American with Disability Act and section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Office for Civil Rights, 2011). A study was undertaken to promote the academic and living success of students with disabilities through the addition of occupational therapy (OT) led coaching as a specialized support.
METHOD: A one group repeated measures design was used to measure the outcomes of this study. A convenience sample of participants was recruited through the Office of Student Accessibility Services at a mid-Atlantic university during five consecutive academic semesters. Students eligible for accessibility services were eligible for inclusion in the study if they had unmet self-identified needs on the Screening Tool for Accessibility Requirements and Satisfaction (STARS) questionnaire. The primary outcome measure for the study was Goal Attainment Scaling. The STARS questionnaire was also used to evaluate the overall needs and needs not met by traditional supports for college students with disabilities as well as their satisfaction with services received. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data.
RESULTS: A total of 30 students with disabilities participated in the study; 26 were undergraduate and four were graduate students. Participants identified 88 self-identified goals to address with the help of their occupational therapist. Participants met 77% of their self-identified goals which were grouped by topic: academic, health and wellness, interpersonal relationship, and time management/organization. On average, it took 2.2 (SD = 1.5) intervention sessions for goals to be met. Of the identified goals, 93% improved to a degree deemed clinically significant. Participants most frequently identified (> 30 times) help with time management, stress management, organization and planning, and testing accommodations as areas of need. The highest percentage of students (72%) also identified time management, stress management, and developing study skills as areas of need. Participants were satisfied with 94% of the areas of need addressed by disability specific supports. The overall satisfaction rating for all areas of need was 3.6 with one being not at all satisfied and four extremely satisfied. Seven areas of need had at least one dissatisfied rating from students, while the remaining 23 areas of need had zero dissatisfaction ratings.
CONCLUSION: OT-led coaching is an innovative approach to expanding the traditional accommodations offered to students with disabilities on college campuses to meet their needs. Students within this program met the majority of their self-identified goals and were overall satisfied with OT-led coaching. OT-led coaching is an appropriate intervention to help students with disabilities meet frequently identified areas of need such as time and stress management.
IMPACT STATEMENT: The study's findings highlight the benefit of providing OT-led coaching within PSE institutions to promote the academic and living success of students with disabilities. College academic success can have long-term positive impacts on the lives of people with disabilities.
References
Plotner, A. J., & May, C. (2019). A comparison of the college experience for students with and without disabilities. Journal of Intellectual Disabilities, 23(1), 57-77. https://doi.org/10.1177/1744629517719346
Houtenville, A., & Boege, S. (2019). Annual report on people with disabilities in America: 2018. University of New Hampshire, Institute on Disability. https://disabilitycompendium.org/sites/default/files/user-uploads/Annual_Report_2018_Accessible_AdobeReaderFriendly.pdf
Herbert, J. T., Welsh, W., Hong, B. S., Soo-yong, B., Atkinson, H. A., & Anne Kurz, C. (2014). Persistence and graduation of college students seeking disability support services. Journal of Rehabilitation, 80(1), 22-32. https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-363192003/persistence-and-graduation-of-college-students-seeking
Office for Civil Rights. (2011). Students with disabilities preparing for postsecondary education: Know your rights and responsibilities (rev. ed.). http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/transition.html
