2025 Theses Bachelor's

Disability, Human Rights, and Higher Education: A Study of Accommodations as a Tool for Accessibility and Adaptability

Stanley, Jackson

Disability accommodations have been used for decades now in higher education spaces in order to accommodate students with disabilities. Universities across the United States have enacted policies and created offices dedicated to addressing the specific and wide-ranging needs of students with disabilities. However, these accommodations for disabled students are rarely seen as a human right and are seen, rather, as an additive bonus for students with disabilities.

Therefore, this study seeks to explore the intersection of disability accommodations and the human right to higher education. This study uses interviews with disabled students from Columbia College and Barnard College of Columbia University to explore how accommodations are, or are not, used as a tool to further the right to higher education.

The results of these interviews show that the interviewed students face unintended internal barriers related to requesting and using their accommodations, including negative self evaluation and image, relating oneself to abled peers and external barriers like disability information sharing practices and lack of “comfortability” in discussing accommodations. These results complicate the spirit of disability accommodations acting as a tool for disabled students to realize their right to education, and call for a reimagining of disability accommodations in higher education spaces.