ABSTRACT
Students with disabilities are attending postsecondary education institutions more than ever before. In the 1970s, not long after the passage of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (1975), 2.6% of undergraduates were reported to have a disability (Gajar, 1992). In 2008, according to census data, 3.0% of students in undergraduate colleges had a disability (U.S. Census Bureau, 2009). Most of these students had learning disabilities (NCES, 2007). The current profile of college students with disabilities is diverse, with increasing numbers having psychiatric disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorders (Government Accountability Office, 2009; Hart, Grigal, & Weir, 2010; Wagner, Newman, Cameto, Garza, & Levine, 2005). The 2009 report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) noted that in 2008 nearly 11% of all postsecondary students had a disability. The number of two-and four-year college undergraduates is expected to reach 16 million by 2015 (Gregg, 2009). These kinds of enrollment numbers parallel the population of students with disabilities in the K-12 public education system, where about 11% of all students ages 6-17 have a disability (Data Accountability Center, 2010; Kessler Foundation and the National Organization on Disability, 2010). Yet these numbers fall far short of the numbers of students without disabilities transitioning to college (Wagner, Newman, Cameto, Garza, & Levine, 2005; National Center for Learning Disabilities, 2009).
