| Increasing numbers of students with disabilities are pursuing post-secondary education. In spite of legal requirements and improved access, students continue to encounter barriers and inadequate disability supports on campus. We know little about the process whereby students negotiate accommodations from their institution, nor do we know how they cope with inadequacies in disability service provision. This report presents a depth interview study of print access negotiation by twenty-two blind and visually impaired graduate students. Participants were recruited across the country from a range of disciplines in the humanities, social sciences, and other fields of study. I developed a grounded theory that delineates the steps in the accommodations process: requesting accommodation, providing accommodation, and responding to inadequate provision. I used this theory to examine the pathways by which many students ended up managing their own alternative format provision. Most students had low expectations for accommodation based on prior socialization and were hesitant to make strong requests for support. Some preferred to manage their own document conversion to have greater control and independence. Those students who sought institutional accommodation, found, for the most part, that their university could not reliably provide materials in their needed format. Most participants did not challenge their university's inadequate services because they perceived themselves to have little power to effect change and feared hurting relationships with university staff and faculty. Students used a range of alternative strategies for accessing print, including converting their own materials and obtaining paid and voluntary assistance outside of their university. Implications for theory, research, and intervention are discussed within the context of an ecological perspective on disability. |
