Teaching High School Students With Disabilities to Advocate for Academic Accommodations

Abstract

One factor that may contribute to the success of students with disabilities in postsecondary educational settings may be their ability to advocate for academic accommodations. By incorporating self-determination practices into the curriculum and transition process during high school, students with disabilities may acquire the self-advocacy skills for postsecondary settings. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a modified Self-Advocacy and Conflict Resolution (mSACR) training program on the ability of five high school students with high-incidence disabilities to request academic accommodations in a high school general education course. A multiple-probe-across-participants design was employed to evaluate the effects of the intervention on 14 targeted behaviors. Results indicated a functional relation between the mSACR and the ability of students to request accommodations. Findings from this study are discussed along with limitations, suggestions for future research, and implications for educational practice.

Use of Simulated Discussions of Postsecondary Accommodations to Inform Self-Advocacy Instruction

“…It is critical for students to receive self-advocacy instruction as part of K-12 transition practices. Findings from this study can inform research into the use of instructional interventions to teach high school students with LD and with ADHD self-advocacy skills needed to request academic accommodations (e.g., Holzberg et al, 2019;Lopez et al, 2020). Students' communication with Professor Williams in this study reinforces the importance of components of self-advocacy as previously conceptualized by Test and colleagues (2005), such as the need for students to demonstrate knowledge of self (e.g., explaining their needs and how an accommodation addresses those needs) and knowledge of resources (e.g., institutional processes related to their accommodations).…”

“…Participants were subsequently asked to generalize the skills by contacting their teachers to arrange a meeting to discuss accommodations. These studies have found a functional relationship between SACR instruction and the ability of students with LD and/or ADHD to request accommodations, either with a high school teacher (Lopez et al, 2020) or a college professor (Holzberg et al, 2019;Walker & Test, 2011) Given the evidence that students with LD and students with ADHD underutilize accommodations that could support positive outcomes, it is important to understand how these groups of students can be better prepared to access accommodations in postsecondary education. The purpose of the present study was to work backward to inform instruction to prepare high school students to advocate for accommodations by examining how current postsecondary students with LD and students with ADHD discuss accommodations with professors.…”

Using a Literacy Based Behavioral Intervention to Teach College Students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities to Request a Classroom Accommodation

“…With an increasingly more diverse and inclusive postsecondary population, it is vital that professionals have a repertoire of interventions that are effective in teaching the skills needed to be successful in IPSE programs to individuals with IDD. Upon leaving high school, responsibilities for requesting accommodations and modifications shift from the school service personnel and family members to the individual with the disability (Lopez et al, 2020). Researchers need to determine effective ways to teach essential self-advocacy skills, such as requesting academic accommodations, that are frequently needed by consumers on a college campus.…”

“…When students with disabilities transition from high school to college they often lack the resourcefulness of their peers and may struggle to identify ways to problem-solve and self-advocate in the postsecondary setting (Lopez et al, 2020). Self-advocacy is defined as needs and wants and to make decisions about the supports needed to achieve them (Daly-Cano et al, 2015, p. 214).…”

“…In postsecondary settings, students need to self-disclose and communicate directly with professors to receive accommodations. Since “college graduation, not just matriculation, is the goal for these students,” (Lopez et al, 2020, p. 147), instructors need to ensure students are capable of requesting the specific accommodations they need to be successful in an IPSE program.…”