Designing and Implementing a Clinical Simulation to Examine How Postsecondary Students Advocate for Accommodations

• In Event: 63.079 - Postsecondary Outcomes for Individuals With Disabilities: Supports and Self-Advocacy for Transition

Abstract

Postsecondary students with disabilities are commonly expected to advocate for themselves by communicating directly with faculty members if they want to use disability related accommodations. In this paper, I use a clinical simulation design to examine how fifteen university students with disabilities discuss accommodations when meeting an actor who was trained to portray a faculty member. Participants then de-briefed the simulated meeting and later discussed the meeting as they watched a video of the simulation. The results of the study demonstrate how students respond to questions and concerns when discussing accommodations. Further, the results suggest that the ways that students advocate are more complex and contextual than current definitions of self-advocacy account for in special education.

Author

• Justin Freedman, Rowan University