Centers for teaching and learning (CTLs) have increasingly been attending to diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and access (DEIJA), offering myriad programs for instructors to learn how to make their teaching more welcoming and effective for all students. Yet considerations of disability continue to lag behind in higher education, and…

The article discusses recent Higher Education (HE) initiatives to introduce the Sunflower Scheme, which enables students with hidden disabilities to 'discreetly' indicate the existence of a disability to access support. A significant problem related to persons with hidden disabilities lies in their frequent reluctance to disclose their…

Intellectual Disabilities (ID) remains an underrepresented topic in social work curriculum, which perhaps results in relatively few social workers opting to practice with people with ID. To address this curricular gap, the article describes three need-based service learning initiatives developed in partnership with community agencies. Students…

It can be tough to talk about disabilities. However, when we avoid talking about it, we ignore a huge piece of someone's personal identity. This identity is complex, multifaceted, and requires a unique set of needs. It is important that students with disabilities are heard. When living with a disability, society can often have lower expectations…

Many students with physical disabilities graduating with a postsecondary STEM degree do not acquire full-time employment. Work experiences can provide undergraduates with authentic experiential learning to help them better prepare for successful STEM careers. Internships provide an important transitional learning phase for students with…

The three of us met in 2014 through our shared interest in adult literacy. We are colleagues as practitioners and as researchers; altogether, we have been in the field of adult literacy in Canada since the 1980s. Our experiences working with learners come from our role as volunteer tutors and paid staff in provincially funded programs and…

Peer mentors provide crucial social, academic, and campus community inclusion supports to students with intellectual disability enrolled in higher education. Research on the perspectives of peer mentors provides valuable insight into the impact that supporting students with intellectual disability has on both the students and the mentors. Research…

There is a great need for education and training about neurodiversity due to the rapid increase of neurodivergent students enrolling in postsecondary educational programs. As neurodivergent professionals, we offer a look at the common myths and misunderstandings that plague neurodivergent students as well as highlight the strengths neurodivergent…

Medical students receive very little instruction related to caring for people with intellectual/developmental disabilities. As a result, medical students and physicians alike report low levels of confidence in their ability to provide care to this population. In this piece, I provide a medical student's perspective on how to implement changes in…

This article examines the history of learning disabilities (LDs) on college campuses, from the introduction of the concept in the early 1960s to its spread throughout American higher education during the 1990s. At first, colleges offered relatively little assistance and urged students to compensate for their LDs by working harder and adopting…

Deaf and hard-of-hearing people are no less capable of being geoscientists or working geoscience academics than are hearing people. However, deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals are represented in lower percentages in these fields, contributing to a lack of diversity. People with some form of hearing loss face stigmas and misconceptions, as well…

Most social work students receive only limited instruction about disabilities in their general coursework despite a growing need for trained social workers in this area. In this paper, we argue that coursework dedicated to the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) needs to be implemented as an essential component of a…

In spring 2021, I taught a synchronous online course in disability studies, communing with young people struggling with their present and future as educators. The students not only felt empowered to introduce themselves with their preferred pronouns, but they were also empowered to disclose their disabilities. One-third of the students identified…

Underestimating the important role that disability plays in our growing world, the environment, and our inter-dependent economies is no longer acceptable. Far from being placed in a subaltern position, disability plays a significant role in theory and research development in the most recent waves of initiatives addressing work, resources, and the…

Comprehensive Transition & Postsecondary Programs (CTPs) were created by the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA, 2008). They are designed to support students with Intellectual Disabilities (ID) as defined by the HEOA, who want to continue academic, career or technical instruction in higher education in order to better prepare for…