“Does disability matter?”

This chapter aims to investigate whether or not student's satisfaction with academic and social experiences on campus is influenced by the presence of a disability, compared to the experiences of other diversity groups, viewing disability as a form of diversity. Overall sense of belonging, perceived institutional commitment to diversity, and perceived discrimination and bias are lower among students with self-identified disabilities than non-disabled students. Of those minority student groups, African-American students and students with disabilities tend to have lower perceptions of their campus diversity that other minority student groups. Moreover, traditionally underrepresented minority students with disabilities perceptions of campus diversity are relatively lower than those minority students without disabilities, pointing to the significant role disability plays in influencing student attitudes toward and views of diversity on campus. Students with more than one minority category are more susceptible to having negative college experiences, such as perceived discrimination and bias, particularly African-American students with disabilities.