Reimagining inclusion in higher education: learning from the experiences of U.S. students with dis/abilities before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 global pandemic provided an opportunity to reassess pedagogies, practices, and policies in higher education. In this dissertation, I explored the experiences of undergraduate and graduate students with dis/abilities (SWDs) in higher education before and during the COVID-19 global pandemic. The first manuscript is a descriptive study that used the lens of the social model of disability to review and examine the responses of 218 U.S. SWDs who responded to a nationwide, online, self-administered survey regarding students’ adjustment experiences before and after the COVID-19 crisis began in Spring 2020. The second manuscript presents qualitative data from a single institution case study, which allowed me to compare pandemic-related experiences in Spring 2020 with experiences in the following academic year. Key findings revealed mixed reports of SWDs (a) being negatively or positively influenced by the shifts that occurred during the pandemic with issues that newly emerged or were exacerbated or alleviated; (b) having feelings of belonging or unbelonging as a multiply minoritized student; and (c) feeling unsafe to disclose their dis/ability or feeling that the accommodations process is complicated. Another key finding included the emerging barriers that graduate SWDs experienced during the pandemic. Together, these studies call for higher education administrators to deconstruct institutional gatekeeping and reimagine inclusion for SWDs through incorporating training for stakeholders, providing more funds for the student disability services office, and implementing universal design in all aspects of higher education.