Abstract
Family counselors at times work with families in which a family member with a disability is transitioning into higher education settings. Frequently, these counselors are unaware of the federally protected rights of all students and they may not know how to access this information. This article explains the differences between laws for students with disabilities in K–12 school settings and the components of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and its subsequent ADA 2008 Amendments to inform family counselors on how to support clients and their families in the transition to higher education. In this article, the authors discuss the ADA and the ADA 2008 Amendments, which dramatically impacted the college experience of all students with disabilities. With record numbers of students with disabilities now attending college, counselors, as they advocate for families, should be aware of federal guidelines that require physical access to educational facilities, the use of universal design, electronic accessibility, and the provision of academic accommodations and modifications in college classrooms. Through family counselors’ awareness of these significant changes in the higher education experience, they can more fully assist families with students with disabilities who are transitioning from high school to higher education. This article describes each of these four facets of the ADA 2008 Amendments as well as the impact each major facet of the amendment has on the higher education landscape for students with disabilities.
Navigating the transition from high school to higher education is a difficult experience for students. As students transition from high school to higher education, they must have healthy coping strategies to adjust successfully (Dvořáková et al., 2019). Students progressing into higher education while coping with an unprecedented level of freedom are expected to relocate, select a fulfilling yet financially lucrative career path, obtain financial funding, manage finances, tackle demanding coursework, establish new relationships, manage time well, and further develop an identity—all usually without previous support systems. In fact, “college represents the only time in many people’s lives when a single integrated setting encompasses their main activities—both career related and social—as well as health services and other support services” (Hunt & Eisenberg, 2010, p. 3). The stressors associated with transitioning to college can even precipitate the onset of mental health disorders (Blanco et al., 2008).
While the transition from high school to higher education is strenuous for students, it also has unique challenges for the family unit. Specifically, parents and parental guardians may experience the “empty nest syndrome,” which involves a period of emotional distress and identity confusion following the launch of an adult child into an independent environment (Mount & Moas, 2015). Not only do parents experience significant changes as the result of one of their children leaving their home but also siblings may undergo a “sibling empty nest” experience similar to parental empty nest experiences following the departure of their older sibling or siblings from their family home (Rosen et al., 2002). Therefore, the transition of one individual from high school to higher education may be challenging for the entire family unit.
Although attending college is challenging for all students and their families, there are additional stressors for individuals with disabilities and family members of individuals with disabilities (American Psychological Association, 2018). Additionally, a growing population on higher education campuses identifies as having a qualifying disability for which they need instructional accommodations in the classroom. As students transition to higher education, some of the stressors that individuals with disabilities encounter on a college campus include lack of awareness of campus resources, difficulty in providing appropriate documentation to receive accommodations, and negative responses following disclosure of disability (Toutain, 2019). Because numerous researchers recognize the transition from high school to higher education as particularly challenging for individuals with disabilities, they suggest that counselors support individuals with disability through teaching self-advocacy skills in order to obtain access to the accommodations and services necessary to be successful in the higher education academic environment (Beecher et al., 2004; Corrigan, 1998; Jacques & Abel, 2020). This article provides family counselors with information to assist families with an individual with a disability as they move from high school to higher education. Specifically, the authors of this article share the significant differences in experiences of students with disabilities in K–12 settings compared with their experience in higher education institutions, present an overview of hallmark disability legislation and its impact on services provided in the higher education setting, and include implications of the higher education disability services for family counselors through a fictional case example.
Students With Disabilities in K–12 Settings
While the American School Counselor Association (2016) addresses the family’s role in assisting their family member with a disability in receiving the appropriate modifications and adaptations necessary to meet the needs of the student to further their educational growth, there is limited attention to the family’s role in assisting their family member with a disability in navigating higher education with their disability. In a K–12 school setting, families of individuals with disabilities are expected to be highly involved in their educational process as they cooperatively authorize accommodations or changes in the curriculum (Haley et al., 2013). Family involvement is the result of the individualized education plan, a process in which families serve as advocates for their family member with a disability to ensure that their family member with a disability receives the best, specialized education possible to meet their needs (Burke, 2013). Further, school counselors in K–12 school settings are expected to empower parents, especially marginalized parents, in collaborating with school officials so that the family is actively involved in their child’s education (Kim et al., 2018). Therefore, the family’s involvement in educational planning for individuals with disabilities is a fundamental component of current educational practices at K–12 schools (Carlson et al., 2020). In fact, in K–12 settings, parents sought to have regular communication with teachers and administration regarding their child’s educational performance (Carlson et al., 2020).
As a result of families’ involvement in K–12 educational practices, families with a student who has a disability and who is transitioning to higher education experience significant changes as the student transitions to higher education. For parents who were accustomed to the disability processes in K–12 settings, the switch to college can be shocking because student records are no longer accessible to parents unless their student signs a Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) waiver stating their parent can receive information about their educational record. Consequently, in higher education institutions, students with disabilities have the responsibility to initiate accommodations, and “after years of having others provide for their needs, some [students] find it difficult to accept this responsibility” (Beecher et al., 2004, p. 88). Due to the probability of these students having limited experience in seeking the assistance they need, they may be unfamiliar with how to access services and may be unaware of the existence of their disability resource center (Beecher et al., 2004).
With the responsibility of accessing disability services transferring from families of individuals with disabilities and the school environment to the student with the disability, family counselors need to be aware of these unique concerns and become familiar with the disability laws impacting higher education in order to assist this population. Unsurprisingly, counselors are more comfortable assisting students with disabilities and their families in navigating seeking accommodations and obtaining educational adaptations after they became more familiar with disability-related concerns as well as more aware of accommodations available (Goodman-Scott et al., 2019).
Family counselors understand that ethically they must advocate for their clients because advocacy is a basic tenet of the International Association of Marriage and Family Counselors (IAMFC) Code of Ethics (2017). Further, the IAMFC Code of Ethics (2017) states that family counselors “commit themselves to enhancing family relationships and advocate for the healthy development of families while also considering the uniqueness of individuals within the family system” (p. 1). Accordingly, family counselors must be aware of these and other issues that families encounter as they assist families with the transitions related to disability services on college campuses.
Therefore, counselors must become knowledgeable concerning landmark legislation that protects and empowers their clients as they advance into the higher education settings. Counselors must also be aware that the rules related to student disability services change dramatically as students transition from public high schools to institutions of higher learning. Many times students and their families are unaware of the differences between services and safeguards provided through the Individuals with Disabilities Act in their K–12 school and their chosen higher education institution. Furthermore, family counseling clients will naturally turn to their counselor for answers and information. Thus, preparing counselors to deal with the questions and concerns raised by the student and their family members will become a critical feature of the counseling relationship. In these situations, it is logical that families have many questions concerning the transition of disability services for their family member(s). For example, the family may need specific information about the services a specific university provides, and it may be unclear to the family how to obtain this information. Once they do obtain this information, parents may wish to interact with the disability determination providers; however, as stated above, this is not possible until the student signs a waiver allowing parents to communicate with the named higher education entity and/or staff. Further, as students seek educational accommodations and modifications appropriate to their disability(ies), parents may question why their family member does not have the same services they received in high school. When this occurs, parents and guardians may want to explain their particular student’s issues and advocate for their students to obtain appropriate modifications and accommodations. In these situations, counselors need specific preparation to provide both advocacy and accurate advisement to clients and their families as they begin to navigate the journey to higher education. Many family counselors may not know this information and may struggle to find it in an easily understandable and concise format. To address this concern, this article provides family counselors with an overview of one hallmark piece of disability legislation and its impact on services provided in the higher education setting. This legislation mandated sweeping changes related to physical accessibility and course accommodations and modifications for those with disabilities. In the following paragraphs, we discuss these changes.
Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)
As the population of students with disabilities increases in higher education, it is evident through a review of the ADA of 1990 and the ADA Amendment Act of 2008 that the passage of this legislation has dramatically changed the landscape of the higher education classroom. ADA addresses instructional barriers for students with disabilities to improve the opportunity for participation in college and university courses (Lazarus et al., 2009). Fully accessible programs and services in higher education are based on court interpretations of the law. The interpretations of law now impact the delivery of these services in all educational settings.
Historical Legislation Preceding ADA
While the passage of ADA in 1990 was a major milestone in the development of accessible programs and services in higher education, the initial law passed by Congress to address persons with disabilities and accessibility to government programs and services was the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. This act was the first federal law that specifically addressed the fact that
no otherwise qualified disabled individual in the United States, shall, solely because of their disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance. (Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Section 504, 29 U.S.C. §794)
ADA and Ensuing Educational Changes
Congress passed the ADA into law on July 26, 1990, by President George H. Bush. The focus of ADA enforced equal access to buildings and television programming and eventually revolutionized how people with disabilities could participate and succeed in higher education. These changes generated extensive improvements for individuals with disabilities on college campuses. Since that time, there has been nonstop activity through court actions and rulings shaping and defining the deficit areas that qualify as a disability. As a result of various interpretations of the definition of a disability and qualifiers and the need for clarification, the U.S. Congress passed the ADA Amendment Act in 2008. The ADA 2008 dramatically expanded and clearly defined the areas that qualified as a disability and removed many of the previous restrictions placed on the original legislation through the court rulings (U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, 2008). Currently, the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division (2020) defines a disability as “a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a person who has a history or record of such an impairment, or a person who is perceived by others as having such an impairment” (para. 2).
Changing the College Classroom
The ADA 2008 Amendments required access to education and the instructional strategies of faculty. Through the ADA 2008 Amendments, students with disabilities in higher education were provided opportunities to fully access the university environment through course materials, online learning, and electronic media that in the past had been inaccessible (U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, 2008). These changes enhanced the prospect for students with disabilities to actively participate in classroom activities and to demonstrate their ability to learn information through improvements in instructional strategies as well as classroom design in higher education (Flexer et al., 2013). Additionally, the provision of appropriate accommodations as an educational benefit to students with disabilities in meeting their instructional needs in postsecondary settings began to produce measurable positive results for the success of the students (Lazarus et al., 2009; Schreuer & Sachs, 2014). The next section will provide information to more thoroughly understand the impact of the ADA 2008 Amendments by examining changes to (1) building accessibility, (2) universal design, (3) electronic accessibility, and (4) academic accommodations in the college classroom.
Building Accessibility
Title II of the ADA most directly impacts higher education because it addresses state and local governments. This section of the law acknowledges the fact that persons with disabilities have the right to full accessibility of programs and services of any government program, agency, or any recipient of government funding. The standards were revised by the U.S. Department of Justice ADA Standards for Accessible Design (U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, 2008). Thus, the ADA now clarified that if a person with a physical disability using a wheelchair had the desire and interest to take part in a program and service, but they could not physically enter through the door of the program’s building, then it was not truly accessible. For most institutions of higher education, older classrooms were deemed inaccessible due to stairs without access to elevators. Consequently, any remodeling or new construction project needed to include plans for accessibility.
While the law was originally designed for individuals with ambulatory disabilities, it also assisted students with temporary disabilities, such as a broken leg, because they were no longer restricted from class. The same buildings and classrooms redesigned to meet the needs of students in wheelchairs made it possible for others to attend class as well. Curb cuts, which allow wheelchair access from corners of intersections on campus, now allow students in wheelchairs easier, quicker access from building to building on campus. While these were mandated as necessary for full access to buildings by students confined to wheelchairs, the curb cuts were also an asset for blind students who could now avoid curb drop-offs. Likewise, the curb cuts allowed mothers with strollers and others with equipment on rollers to move easily across campus. It became apparent that regulations designed to ensure full physical access for persons with disabilities were also providing a significant benefit to nondisabled students as well.
While the adjustments toward compliance were often met with resentment and frustration due to costs, the advancements precipitated a paradigm shift in the ways that administrators conceptualized the benefits of making their campuses physically accessible to everyone (Association on Higher Education and Disability [AHEAD], 2013). Interestingly, many students, even those without physical and emotional challenges, use physical accommodations, and as a result of those accommodations, they report being more satisfied with the building accommodations on university campuses (Lazarus et al., 2009; Schreuer & Sachs, 2014).
Advancement of Universal Design
Universal design embodies both accessibility and coursework improvements for students with disabilities. Similar to building accessibility, universal design promotes development of an environment that increases access and understanding for all students (U. S. Department of Justice, 2010). Defined in the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-315), universal design for learning (UDL) is a scientifically valid framework for guiding educational practices to provide flexibility in the manners in which information is presented, in the ways students respond or demonstrate knowledge and skills, and how students are engaged and reduce barriers in instruction, provide appropriate accommodations, and maintain high achievement expectations for all students, including those with disabilities or who are limited English proficient (§103(a)(24)).
Universal design consequently became a model of guidance for higher education administrators to focus on full accessibility for campus facilities for all students (Burgstahler, 2015). Flexer et al. (2013) describe a variety of methods for improving instruction through UDL that can positively impact all students’ achievement. Graphic organizers, guiding notes, advance organizers, sound field amplification, and mnemonics can all be utilized to enhance the experience for all students in the college classroom. Providing flexibility for student response modes through the use of cooperative learning group projects rather than reliance entirely on exam scores has also proven to be a quality method for determining student progress. Finally, they state that UDL should improve student engagement by providing more frequent feedback and systematically rewarding appropriate responses. UDL benefits all learners in the classroom by transferring from a single method of presentation and evaluation to the use of a variety of modalities and processes for assessing student accomplishment.
Electronic Accessibility
Electronic accessibility represents a third area where the ADA had a tremendous impact on instructional strategies in higher education. ADA mandated full accessibility to online classes and electronic media regardless of a student’s physical and emotional challenges, otherwise termed as “disabling condition.” This mandate resulted in new expansions of technology accessibility to all forms of visual media, particularly increasing the use of closed-captioning. While this change was a huge benefit for hearing-impaired individuals, a study conducted by the United Kingdom television broadcasting indicated that many people accessing closed-captioning were not physically hearing impaired. Instead, they exhibited a variety of other issues such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; Griffin, 2015). The study revealed that many of those who had sensory impairments, such as autism, found that turning down the volume and following the captioning at the bottom of the screen had a dramatic impact on their retention of the materials. Likewise, all higher education students may benefit from the results of ADA regulations designed for people with disabilities to have full and fair access to services.
Institutions of higher education are required by ADA 2008 to provide fully accessible web-based content to students with any disability. Many institutions have been slow in making this transition, but court decisions between the United States and Louisiana Tech University ( United States v. Louisiana Tech University & Board of Supervisors, 2013), Miami University of Ohio ( United States v. Miami University of Ohio, 2016), and the University of California at Berkeley ( United States v. University of California at Berkeley, 2016) required all web-based content and electronic media created or used since January 2010 to be in compliance as described in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) established in 2008. These guidelines require auditory components and lectures that previously did not have captioning to be converted with the captioning technology or be accompanied by a full written transcript of the content (Kirkpatrick et al., 2017).
Previously, students with hearing impairments were not able to participate in an auditory-based online course because they could not access a great deal of the information such as recorded lectures without captioning or transcripts. With the implementation of WCAG, institutions were required to implement compliance plans to ensure that all online materials were transcribed or closed-captioned. Currently, faculty must make this accommodation when developing new courses or updating current ones, especially considering the aggressive compliance enforcement as demonstrated in the court settlements noted above. With all instructional information available in both written and auditory format, any student with a disability can access the course materials. Implementing the accessibility guidelines of WCAG will have a significant impact on student success and retention. In a typical postsecondary classroom, as many as 61% of the students will have some type of learning challenge that could benefit from the dual accessibility of the course information (Raue & Lewis, 2011).
Academic Accommodations
The ADA 2008 Amendments resulted in the increased frequency of classroom accommodations for academic support. During the late 1990s, court cases and investigations by the U. S. Department of Education began molding the definition and use of classroom accommodations in higher education by addressing key issues of concern to higher education administrators regarding such terms as “appropriate” and “reasonable” when reviewing specific accommodation requests made by students (Schreuer & Sachs, 2014). Prior to 2008, there was much confusion regarding the implementation of modifications and accommodations. Thus, a professional organization emerged to assist those working in the field of disability services in higher education due to the major differences in the federal laws governing educational services for students with disabilities in public schools and those in higher education.
The AHEAD was formed in 1977 to help higher education professionals establish policies and guidelines for providing assistance to students with disabilities after the passage of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Section 504, which clearly indicated that institutions of higher education were included in government entities covered under the antidiscrimination clause in the law. After the passage of ADA in 1990, AHEAD began aggressive growth as institutions developed policies to comply with new federal laws. The AHEAD organization created standards and guidelines to assist colleges and universities with interpreting the law while helping to define that educational accommodations refer to how students learn material and modifications refer to what the students are expected to learn. Additionally, these standards established clear policies defining eligibility for services requirements and reasonable accommodation descriptions (AHEAD, 2013).
Federal court rulings and Office of Civil Rights findings established that institutions were not required to lower admission or academic standards to accommodate a student with a disability. The regulation required that when a student who qualified for disability services met published admission standards, the institution must then ensure full access to academic programs through reasonable and appropriate academic accommodations. Since the late 1990s, regulations from the U.S. Department of Education established clear guidelines concerning what was expected of higher education institutions in terms of reasonable and appropriate accommodations (Raue & Lewis, 2011). Thus, many different types of classroom modifications and accommodations emerged to significantly improve the opportunities for a student with a disability to be academically successful. Several of these accommodations included time extension, videotaping lectures, note-taking assistance, human assistance, recording lectures, oral administration of tests and assignments, dictating assignments, class notes online, receiving PowerPoint presentations, and closed-captioning videos.
Accommodations and modifications must be designed to provide equal access so that students with disabilities demonstrate the same level of mastery as other students without disabilities. The accommodations and modifications must not lower or alter the overall academic standards. Instead, the modifications and accommodations allow for the same level of mastery (U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, 2008). The need for specific accommodations and modifications must be based on the nature of the impairment and the educational environment (Gordon & Keiser, 2000).
The original stated purpose of accommodations and modifications in ADA was to ensure a person with a disability had the same opportunities and access to courses or exams, not simply to assist a person to pass an exam or course (Gordon & Keiser, 2000). Even today, accommodations such as note-taking assistance and recording lectures allow students with attention issues or physical constraints due to disabilities to focus on oral materials without worrying about writing all the essential information in their notes. Additionally, allowing extra time to complete examinations accommodates students with reading disabilities, ADHD, mobility impairments, or anxiety issues and is commonplace on campuses of higher education.
The impact of providing modifications and accommodations is significant in the higher education classroom for students with disabilities because these allow students to fully participate in the classroom (Lazarus et al., 2009; Schreuer & Sachs, 2014). As faculty members begin to understand and implement the concept of universal design, they implement these types of classroom accommodations on a regular basis in their classrooms (Burgstahler, 2015). Accommodations and modifications are provided to ensure that any student with any need can fully access the program. By offering modifications and accommodations that “level the playing field,” the courses, just like buildings, become accessible to all people all the time (AHEAD, 2013). AHEAD reframes the idea of access being a disability issue and instead focuses on accessibility as an academic success issue. For example, a lecture that is recorded in an audio format should always be closed-captioned as a standard practice, not only because deaf students need it but because many students with a variety of challenges that range from attention deficit disorder to auditory processing and mild hearing loss can also utilize the technology.
Implications of ADA Laws for Family Counselors
Counselors must be familiar with accommodations and modifications available in higher education institutions in order to better assist college students and their families in navigating the difficult transition from high school to higher education. Specifically, family counselors can assist family units in shifting the roles and responsibilities of family members to align with higher institution practices because students with disabilities in higher education are expected to self-advocate and seek assistance on their own in order to achieve independence that is necessary for success beyond college. While family counselors should be familiar with accommodations available for individuals with disabilities, they do not need to be experts in disability law. However, family counselors, as stated previously, should be aware of pertinent laws to effectively advocate for students and their families. Familiarity with influential disability laws and higher education accommodations allows the counselor to be aware of appropriate referral resources and promote clients’ self-advocacy skills. The following fictional case example demonstrates the benefits of a family counselor’s familiarity with higher education disability accommodations.
Jaxon and the Rowell Family: A Fictional Case Example
Jaxon, a family counselor, has been working with the Rowell family for 2 years. The Rowell family consists of Emily, Toby, and Todd. Emily is Todd’s and Toby’s grandmother who received legal guardianship of Toby and Todd at ages 15 and 17, respectively. Jaxon has worked with the family to assist them with communication skills, trust-building, and issues related to past trauma that Toby and Todd experienced as children. Todd was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder at age 7. Throughout Todd’s education, since age 7, he has received educational accommodations and modifications related to his diagnosis. As a result of these accommodations and modifications, Todd has been a very successful student. He has recently been accepted into two colleges, and he is very excited about continuing his education. However, his excitement quickly turned to anxiety as he considered that he might not have the educational modifications and accommodations in college that he previously received in high school. He and his grandmother consider these accommodations to be necessary for him to succeed academically. Now, due to his anxiety, Todd is seriously considering not attending college. Thus, Jaxon has found that most of their counseling lately has been related to Todd’s anxiety about school which is manifesting in his becoming more argumentative and uncooperative at home.
Throughout their counseling sessions, Jaxon is addressing Todd’s anxiety and its effects on the family. Fortunately, Jaxon is familiar with disability services and how these services transition to higher education for Todd and other students who have received accommodations in K–12. Jaxon is able to share several of the commonly available accommodations in higher education and refers Todd to the disability services offices at the two institutions that he is considering attending. After addressing Todd’s anxiety and teaching Todd the necessity of advocating for himself, Jaxon is able to concentrate on the shifts occurring in family dynamics. Further, Jaxon is able to use Todd’s contacting the disability services offices as the first step toward Todd initiating responsibility for his academic success throughout his higher education experience.
Conclusion
Adjusting to the higher education learning environment can be difficult for all students and their families. However, for families with students with disabilities, there are several changes in educational structures from K–12 school settings to higher education. In order to understand the most significant adjustments from K–12 to higher education institutions, family counselors must be familiar with the Americans with the ADA of 1990 and the 2008 ADA Amendments. Counselors also need to be aware that electronic accessibility standards enable a student to avoid the requirement to disclose their disability while still receiving equal access to course materials (Burgstahler, 2015). Finally, providing academic accommodations increases a student’s opportunity to demonstrate achievement and learning rather than simply penalizing them for their disability. In order for family counselors to assist families with an individual with a disability in attending a higher educational institution, family counselors need to be familiar with the unique challenges that individuals with disabilities and their families encounter when transitioning to a college environment.
Footnotes
Authors’ Note
Please note that the term “disabilities” is used by the authors of this article because this is the term that educational entities and law use to describe “physical and emotional challenges.” The authors of this article prefer the use of person-first language to describe persons in positive terms. Thus, the use of the term “disabilities” is not condoned by the authors; however, at this time, this is the term used in educational settings.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
