Assessing the Knowledge Base of Faculty at a Private, Four-Year Institution

Abstract

following study evaluated the knowledge, experience and attitudes, that faculty at a private four-year institution have towards students with disabilities. 208 participants responded to a survey questionnaire. findings of the study indicated that many of the faculty had little or no contact with this particular student population. Many had no experience working with these students and were less willing to accommodate them. Yet, others indicated a high willingness to accommodate in specific areas (i.e., extended exam time, etc.) In addition, a number of the faculty were unaware of the DSS office's existence and had little knowledge of their services. As a result of this study, the DSS office is implementing a faculty education component to its website and additional dissemination of as indicated in the results. Introduction Postsecondary educational entities, private and public alike, are experiencing tremendous growth in their numbers of students with documented disabilities. is estimated that approximately one and a half million students in higher education have a documented disability. Unfortunately, many of these students face negative attitudes and resistance to classroom accommodations from faculty and staff. This negativity often stems from the lack of disability related information. Providing classroom accommodations to students with at the college level, and receiving acceptance of accommodations by faculty, are imperative issues when discussing the academic success of these students (Norton, 1997). The goal of accommodations is to minimize the impact of the disability so that students can demonstrate mastery of information (Norton, 1997). Laws have been implemented to protect students with by requiring that reasonable accommodations be made. Yet, a gap still remains between the law and current practices. Since the inception of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, a number of changes have emerged in the disability area, one of which is faculty education. Faculty education was one of the first areas identified as essential in promoting access for students with disabilities (Scott, 2000). importance of knowing what disability faculty need is crucial for a successful disability support program, where both the students and faculty are supported. It has been noted that there are only 3 things that faculty need to know in working with students with disabilities: 1) that they must accommodate 2) that they are capable of developing appropriate accommodations; and 3) that the DSS office will help faculty as much as possible (Scott, 2000). Disabled Student Services (DSS) have found through their constant contact and interaction with students, that many faculty are unfamiliar with most aspects of disability services. This is becoming more evident as the population of these students increases. Many faculty are not knowledgeable about their legal responsibilities, the students' responsibilities, basic knowledge of disabilities, and what is considered a reasonable accommodation. Many faculty members are hesitant, or refuse to provide accommodations believing that such treatment would be unfair to other students. Other research of various institutions has shown that the overall faculty attitude was, that there is a willingness to provide accommodations in the classroom, but it was primarily dependent on the type of accommodation being requested. So in order to ensure a quality post-secondary educational experience for these students, many DSS offices at public and private institutions are addressing these issues and are surveying the knowledge and needs of their specific faculty in order to educate the faculty (Leyser, 1998). Based on this trend of research and need for campus specific information, the DSS office at a private 4-year institution determined that in order to provide support for their growing and diverse student population, as well as their faculty, that they should survey their campus' faculty to determine their attitudes and knowledge of disabilities. …

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