How this benefits all students, not just those with accommodations

This column is based on a conversation with accessibility directors and coordinators from IU Bloomington, IU Indianapolis, IU South Bend, IU East, and IU Columbus, along with representatives from the Assistive Technology and Accessibility Centers (ATAC) and the Office of Civil Rights Compliance (OCRC). Student quotes are from an anonymous, voluntary survey shared with students at IU Indianapolis, IU Kokomo, and IU Southeast.

You have more students with disabilities in your courses than you think. While around 20 to 25% of undergraduates report having a disability, most of them don't file with their campus accessibility office. Less than half disclose physical disabilities. For mental health, learning, or neurological disabilities, that number drops below 30%. The end result: Nationally, only 7% of the student population actually files for an accommodation, so there's a significant gap in what students need to be successful and what they get.

Why don't they disclose? Some students fear stigma from peers or worry about pushback from instructors. Others can't afford the testing or don't have access to adequate healthcare. Some haven't been formally diagnosed. And some students dealing with new or temporary health conditions don't think of themselves as having a disability at all, even when it's significantly affecting their ability to learn.

When you receive an accommodation letter, what’s really behind it?

The documentation process for students can be challenging, particularly with the requirement for current and comprehensive testing, which can be expensive, difficult to schedule, and unfamiliar. These accessibility professionals shared some of the barriers students face:

• Access to healthcare varies by community.
• Wait times for specialists stretch for months.
• Students in rural areas often lack access to mental health professionals entirely and may not have the vocabulary to begin advocating for themselves.
• International students face additional barriers navigating an unfamiliar healthcare system, obtaining documentation from their home countries, and arranging translations/interpretations.

When students manage to navigate these barriers successfully, the impact is real. One accessibility coordinator recalled a student who had spent years fighting for basic accommodations in high school. At IU, the experience was completely different. After completing the documentation process, the student said getting accommodations was "the easiest, best thing I did all semester." With the right support in place, that student graduated with honors and went on to earn a master's degree.

Accessibility professionals we talked to shared similar stories. When students receive the accommodations they need, not because standards were lowered but because they finally had what they needed to succeed, they showed significant GPA improvements "going from 2.7 to 3.4 to 3.5 over subsequent semesters."

Accessibility features help more than students with documented disabilities.

Many technologies we take for granted today started as accessibility features. Voice-to-text and audiobooks were designed for people with disabilities before becoming popular with a broad audience. Fortunately, IU tries to make assistive technology available to all students. In addition, accessibility specialists teach students how to work with built-in assistive tech on computers, so they're not reliant on specialized programs when they leave.

Students use these tools in ways you might not expect. As they explained,

An instructor recently shared with accessibility services that working to make course materials accessible was "making me a better teacher." The process pushed them to think about different ways to explain complex concepts, strengthening their pedagogy.

Accessibility coordinators and directors see this regularly. "What's beneficial for one is actually beneficial for all in the academic setting," one noted. When you design with accessibility in mind from the start, you're not just accommodating a few students. You're creating a better learning environment for everyone. As one student put it:

Accessibility work happens collectively, not independently. The professionals in these offices don't see themselves as enforcers; they see themselves as partners. When you receive an accommodation letter, they want to help you. And they intentionally foster relationships among students, faculty, accessible educational services, ATAC, the Office of Civil Rights Compliance (OCRC), and others to collectively provide access and figure out how best to support each student's specific, individual needs.

Call your campus accessibility office. You'll reach an actual person, not a phone tree. They're more than happy to answer your questions. At the end of the day, as one consultant put it, "We're helping students do amazing things when they've been told they can't do anything. Instructors play a vital role in creating an inclusive curriculum and activities." And it's not only about compliance with the ADA. Students get wrap around services like academic coaching and support they might not get elsewhere. They're being connected to resources that they may not have known about — and they're learning to advocate for themselves in professional settings.