Although about 53% of public higher education students are enrolled in community colleges, the proportion of students with disabilities served by the community colleges is about 71%. According to a 1995 survey of 672 community colleges across the United States, approximately 8% of students reported a disability and about half of those requested services. Eighty percent of responding colleges indicated that they had a formal disability support services (DSS) office, up from 70% in 1992. Support services provided by colleges include disability assessment, orientation, academic advising, career exploration, transfer advising, tutoring, adjustment counseling, and adaptive equipment. Moreover, many DSS offices have developed partnerships with community organizations or other campus departments to aid in the provision of services. Successful DSS efforts are marked by four general characteristics: administrative commitment, community linkages, staff expertise, and faculty support. Barriers to providing effective services include difficulty in obtaining adequate funding, lack of training and limited understanding of disabilities among faculty and staff, and inadequate referral services. Future efforts should include analyses of the effectiveness of support services, efforts to track students after they leave college, appropriate professional development opportunities for faculty and staff, and publicizing the availability of DSS. (TGI)