The Impact of Accommodation Services on Students with Learning ...

Running head: IMPACT OF ACCOMMODATION SERVICES ON LEARNING DISABLED STUDENTS

The Impact of Accommodation Services on Students with Learning Disabilities by Jenniel Taylor-Samuel

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for ED6890 Faculty of Education, Memorial University of Newfoundland St. John’s, Newfoundland Professor: Dr Robert Kelly March, 2016

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ACCOMMODATION SERVICES AND STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES

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Abstract This article presents findings on accommodation services for students with learning disabilities (LD) with the research question being: what is the impact of accommodation services on students with learning disabilities in higher education. The findings explored several services offered by post-secondary institutions (PSE) along with the positive and negative impacts. Research from local and international literature was reviewed to determine the impact of accommodation services. It was found that accommodation services granted equal education access to students with learning disabilities and it leveled the playing field in testing and assessments settings. Use of accommodations such as assistive technology allowed students the opportunity to review and learn material at their own pace and gain more control over their learning experience. Where students were taught and equipped with advocacy skills, study habits and other soft skills, the student displayed more confidence in navigating classes and meeting the demands of higher education. Although not part of the original research question, findings indicated that the manner in which accommodation services are administered cannot be separated from the service itself and thus the impact of accommodation administration is also included. Poor administration of accommodation services negatively impacted students’ confidence in advocating for their rights and often encouraged non-disclosure of LD. In addition to stating the impact of accommodations on LD students, the paper concludes by discussing the areas in which the delivery of accommodation services can be improved to increase the benefits to the students who need it.


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Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... 2 Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................ 3 The Impact of Accommodations Services ...................................................................................... 7 Who Receives Accommodations ................................................................................................ 7 How Do Students Benefit............................................................................................................ 8 Academic and personal skills. ............................................................................................... 9 Technology accommodation.................................................................................................. 10 Testing and assessment accommodations.............................................................................. 12 Transition accommodation. ................................................................................................... 14 Negative Impact of Accommodation Services ............................................................................. 15 Accommodation Administration ............................................................................................... 15 Teacher Impact on Accommodations ........................................................................................ 17 Discussion ..................................................................................................................................... 18 Barriers to Accommodation Access .......................................................................................... 18 Encouraging LD Self-Disclosure in Higher Education ............................................................. 20 Development of Transfer Programs for LD Students ............................................................... 21 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 22 References ..................................................................................................................................... 24


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The American National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities (NJCLD) defines learning disabilities (LD) as a heterogeneous group of disorders which present significant difficulties in the acquisition and use of reading, writing, speaking, reasoning or mathematical abilities (NJCLD, 1991).

The Learning Disabilities Association of Canada (LDAC), states that Learning Disabilities refer to a number of disorders which may affect the acquisition, organization, retention, understanding or use of verbal or nonverbal information. These disorders affect learning in individuals who otherwise demonstrate at least average abilities essential for thinking and/or reasoning. As such, learning disabilities are distinct from global intellectual deficiency. Learning disabilities result from impairments in one or more processes related to perceiving, thinking, remembering or learning. These include, but are not limited to: language processing; phonological processing; visual spatial processing; processing speed; memory and attention; and executive functions (e.g. planning and decision-making). (“LDAC”, 2002) The LDAC indicated there were over 3,000,000 Canadians with learning disabilities, and these individuals need to be supported in their educational endeavours. To give direction regarding such supports, the organization introduced a policy statement to guide education ministers, institutions, administrators, teachers, and parents/guardians of individuals with learning disabilities. The goal of the policy statement (which received Government endorsement in 2007) was to ensure that the 1 in 10 Canadians with learning disabilities received access to the most appropriate and effective accommodations at all levels of education and in all educational settings. In the United States, students with disabilities are increasingly enrolling in higher education, however many institutions are unprepared to support these students beyond the basic mandates of reasonable accommodations and equal access (Hong, 2015). The US Department of Education (2008 data) indicated that 707,000 students with disabilities were enrolled in US universities (Lee, 2014). With this increase in enrollment, how are learning disabled students in


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higher education impacted by the suggested accommodation services? This paper will explore the impact when answering the research question. Individuals pursuing post-secondary education with learning disabilities often experience LD related barriers. Students with disabilities face more challenges when accessing and completing post-secondary programs, and often have lower attendance and graduation rates than students without disabilities (Timmerman & Mulvihill, 2015). In addition, individuals with learning disabilities aged 15 to 44 were more than twice as likely to report high levels of anxiety disorders, depression, distress, suicidal thoughts and visits to mental health professionals (Wilson, Deri Armstrong, Furrie & Walcot, 2009). With an increased demand for writing, reading, listening and memorizing skills in higher education, LD students often have to spend more time on their studies and academic skills development to meet the same academic requirements and achievements as their non-disabled peers. To meet the demands of post-secondary education, students need to acquire selfdiscipline, academic coping strategies, study and organizational skills, including managing expectations and academic workload (Tsagris & Muirhead, 2012). Accommodation services can help LD students develop the necessary skills. Lee (2014) cites data from the US Department of Education which indicated that as of 2008, there were 707,000 students with disabilities enrolled in private and public US colleges and universities. The data confirmed that 31% of these students had learning disabilities. With 31% of the US higher education student population reporting learning disabilities, there is a need for post-secondary institutions to provide these students with accommodation services (Lee, 2014).


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Accommodations are the tools, services and supports used by and provided to individuals with learning disabilities to compensate for difficulties that may arise from their disabilities. Accommodations should therefore ‘equalize the opportunity for students to compete fairly, to gain and demonstrate knowledge unimpeded by limitations of an impairment that are irrelevant to the academic task at hand’ (Roberts, 2012, p.78). In an educational setting, accommodations include audio tests, adaptive technology, additional time, word prediction software, digital recorders, excused absences, special seating, readers, note takers and scribes. The 2008 World summit on Learning Disabilities encouraged support of accommodations for individuals with learning disabilities during post-secondary education. It is not enough for post-secondary institutions to provide a one size fit all offering however. Each individual is unique, therefore wherever applicable, the supports and services should be tailored to meet the needs of the learner (Burke, 2008). When designing accommodation programs and services, Wilson et al. (2009) recommends that strategies and supports should be developed for adults with LD. There should be a collaborative approach involving professionals from education, mental health and medicine disciplines. By critically examining existing research on LD and accommodations, this paper will seek to address the question ‘What is the impact of accommodation services on students with learning disabilities in higher education?’ The answer to this question will be applicable to faculty and staff at post-secondary institutions who create, implement and administer policies and services for students with learning disabilities.


The Impact of Accommodations Services Accommodation services are designed to provide equal educational access to students with LD, but the actual accommodation as well as the method of delivery can have both positive and negative impacts for the learner. These impacts can influence whether or not students selfidentify as LD learners in post-secondary education (PSE), advocate for services, experience equal access to education or obtain a successful academic outcomes.

Who Receives Accommodations Accommodation services are offered to students who require adjustments or modifications to their environment, tasks, or their usual way of doing things. This is done in order to grant the LD students equal opportunity to participate in academic programs (U.S. Department of Education, 2007). Students with learning disabilities can be classified under one or more of the following groups: dyslexia (learning disabilities in reading), dyscalculia (learning disabilities in math), dysgraphia (learning disabilities in writing), dysphasia/aphasia (difficulty with language), and visual processing disorder (difficulty interpreting visual information). Despite the definitions of learning disabilities, not all LD students receive the accommodation services they need. Due to the administrative requirements of post-secondary institutions, only the LD students who self-identify and provide appropriate documentation in a timely manner receive access to academic accommodations (Newman & Madaus, 2015). Students with clear disability documentation stand a better chance of accessing the tailored services that they need. Documentation such as the statutory rights of the student under the Americans with Disabilities Act (1990), and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982) advocate for the rights of LD individuals.

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Where there is incomplete documentation, administrators must rely on institution documentation guidelines and personal and professional judgement calls (Banerjee, Madaus, & Gelbar, 2015). This could leave gaps between the services needed and the services provided. Along with complete and appropriate documentation, students who are proactive and advocate for their needs are more likely to receive and benefit from accommodation services (Barber, 2012). There are many services available to LD students; however there are some concerns surrounding the levels of LD self-disclosure (Couzens et al. 2015). From a National Longitudinal Transition Study–2 (NLTS2), Newman and Madaus (2015) report that only 35% of PSE students disclosed their disability to the institution and more students access accommodations in high school than in PSE. Some of the reasons for low access to PSE accommodation include student ignorance about their legal rights, lack of knowledge of available services, and the impact of their leaning disability on learning (Newman and Madaus, 2015). There is an opportunity for PSE institutions to offer transition programs that teach these topics to students prior to them attending PSE. Transition programs will be discussed later in this paper. The research revealed that once students are receiving accommodations there are positive and negative impacts which are discussed in the proceeding sections.

How Do Students Benefit Depending on the type of LD, there are different types of accommodation services which seek to meet the needs of LD students during their academic career. Some services can only be provided by external sources while others can be developed by the student. In accessing both types, there are impacts on the learner and the following pages will explore such services and their benefits.


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Academic and personal skills. To better understand the impact of accommodations, Woloshyn and Munn (2014) conducted interviews with two senior post-secondary education (PSE) learning strategists’ at large institutions. From the study they concluded that students with LD benefited from accommodation services that taught them time management training, study skills, writing, reading, memory techniques, test preparation, and note taking. Students benefited from academic counseling, coaching and training in self-advocacy skills which they could use to liaise with community agencies, campus staff and faculty. The learning strategists also helped students understand their legal rights and the services available to them (Skinner & Lindstrom, 2003). Knowledge and development of such skills strengthens the student’s position when advocating for their needs. Metacognitive skills and self-awareness were two additional skills that Woloshyn and Munn (2014) stated would be beneficial for LD students to develop in order to better manage their learning and navigate PSE. It should be noted that the authors provided information on the benefits of accommodations based on the opinion of two staff members who provided the services but not from the receiver’s point of view. Timmerman and Mulvihill (2015) provided a student view when they referenced a study of 139 postsecondary graduates. From this sample, the study found that 69% of students using disability services were very satisfied with their accommodations, and of that same group 85% reported that their accommodations were appropriate for their needs. LD students need accommodations to accomplish many of the same tasks as their peers. A mixed-method methodology study by Stack-Cutler, Parrila, Jokisaari, and Nurmi (2015), confirms that accommodation supports, including helping students strengthen learning skills


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such as time management, study strategies, writing, organization and self-regulation are critical to the success of students with LD. Using the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study, Mamiseishvili and Koch (2011), explored the first to second year persistence of students with disabilities. They found that students with accommodations were significantly more associated with persistence and moved on to the second year of PSE. Their study also revealed that only 4.3% of the students with accommodations did not persist. In contrast, where students did not access accommodation services, 24.7% of the students did not display persistence in completing their first year which supports the thought that accommodation services were beneficial to first year students with disabilities. Student access to accommodation is correlated to their success in post-secondary institutions. Students that do not possess the appropriate skills could potentially become at risk students. The skills of self-management, self-determination as well as assistive technologies were identified as fundamental in the retention of students with disabilities in post-secondary education (Getzen, 2008). Academic and personal skills are important for LD students as it increases self-awareness, self-management skills, knowledge and experience in navigating PSE, improves advocacy skills and propels students to use the services available to them. In addition to personal skills, students often benefit from technological accommodations in higher education. Technology accommodation. Assistive technologies are useful for students with LD and researchers recognized the need to provide such accommodations to LD students. Císarová, Lamr, and Vitvarová, (2015) described the benefits of The Advanced Learning Space (ALS), an e-learning portal that gives students access to recorded lectures, files and presentations. Students with accommodation for excused and authorized absences can benefit from systems like ALS (Hong 2015). Having anytime access to recorded videos allowed students to learn on their own


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time and at their own pace. ALS was also beneficial to students who had challenges concentrating in class. For example, students were able to revisit the lecture for important information that they may have originally missed. The 2011 ALS pilot project resulted in positive feedback from students and despite only two out of seven faculties using the system, approximately 4,000 recordings were accessed 110,550 times. To strengthen the case for assistive technology benefits, more concrete data on the impact for students with learning disabilities would be useful to enhance the findings of this study. As it stands, systems like ALS would be beneficial to all students. Watt et al. (2014) used a mixed method research study to explore lecture capture technology and how well it could be aligned with principles of Universal Instruction Design (UID). The aim was to meet the needs of all students with disabilities by providing lectures in multiple formats so they are accessible to all learners to the greatest extent possible. UID considers the potential needs of learners and identifies and removes unnecessary barriers to teaching and learning (Pliner & Johnson, 2004). This could increase the level of selfidentification and access for learners with LD. When provided with recorded lectures, students reported flexibility, convenience and a positive impact on learning as key benefits (Fernandez, Simo, & Sallan, 2009). Drawback of this study included a low online survey response rate of 32% (although not uncommon for this collection medium) and the research study did not capture views of LD students due to a small percentage of participation in the McMaster study. To strengthen his points however, Watt et al. (2014) cites research by Williams and Fardon (2005) who confirmed that such technologies give students with learning disabilities more control over their learning experience and better accessibility to visual and audio content.


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Another form of technological accommodation was explored by Bain, Lund-Lucas, and Stevens (2012) who reviewed the impact of the Hosted Transcription Service (HTS) on students with disabilities. Under Canada’s Social Development Partnerships Program, the HTS is a speech recognition platform that provides transcripts of multimedia lectures. A couple points of concern were raised as some students signed up for the service but never followed through. In addition there were lecturers who declined to participate because they did not want their lectures recorded. Both the reasons for low student follow through and lecturer’s non participation could be researched to identify and address any barriers to accommodation access which may exist. Despite these concerns, the results showed that students using the system experienced an increased understanding of the lecture content. Assistive technology provides yet another opportunity for LD students, who do not gain the most benefit from in-class lectures, to capture and absorb information. This is important as without such services some LD students would not have equal access to their education depending on the LD challenges. Besides receiving accommodation in the teaching and learning environment, students with LD also require accommodations during testing and evaluation activities. Testing and assessment accommodations. Assessment accommodations were created to level the playing field to ensure students with disabilities could participate in assessments at all levels of education. The assessments given to students with LD need to hold validity so that they do not alter what the assessment was intended to measure. A common practice for students with learning disabilities is to use and benefit from online and computer based testing (Thurlow & Kopriva, 2015). The authors continue by saying, in order for accommodations to be valid they should not alter what is being measured; assessors should be able to compare scores between


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students receiving accommodations and those who are not; and they should benefit students with disabilities only. Thurlow and Kopriva, (2015) indicated that the results of research conducted to determine the effects of general accommodations on assessment is inconclusive, however, there is a clear research indicating there is an impact of extended time. According to Lewandowski, Cohen, and Lovett, (2013) and Lovett, Lewandowski, Berger, and Gathje ( 2010), there is no empirical basis to determine who should get what amount of extended time and in actuality extended time is beneficial to all students. Lewandowski, et al. (2013) goes on to show that when LD students were given double time they had an advantage over non-LD students, which is of concern. Accommodations such as extra time are not supposed to provide advantages but create equal access and mitigate performance obstacles for students with disabilities (Lewandowski et al., 2013). While this may be the case, students with documented and legitimate learning disabilities need equal access to tests and exams and extended time is one accommodation that provides this. Extended time allows learners who have problems reading and writing, enough time to process information in the assessment setting (Lewandowski et al., 2013). Further research into optimal extended times for test and assessments which balances and provides equal access to LD and non-LD students is required. This research would lead to a standardized method to help determine adequate assessment time allocation for LD students with deferring needs. Lewandowski et al. (2013) referenced extra time for students in a writing setting, however Cawthon, et al. (2009) highlighted the different needs of LD students. The authors focused on students with reading difficulties who were required to do math tests. They found that these students benefited more from extra time accommodations than students who had difficulties in math only. Based on this research, it would appear that classifying extra time as an


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overall solution for LD would not be accurate or adequate for all students in equal measure. Depending on the type of LD, extra time is more beneficial to some students than to others. Testing accommodations is important to students with attention, spelling, reading, anxiety or general slowness challenges. Extra time for LD students has been shown to improve student performance relative to other students (Lewandowski et al., 2013). This is an example of leveling the playing field which is the main purpose of accommodations. Transition accommodation. Included in this paper, are studies found on transition accommodation programs that can be offered by PSE to their incoming or potential LD students. Tsagris & Muirhead (2012) examined the effects of preparatory courses for students with LD who attended Summer Transition Programs (STP) prior to attending higher education institutions. The content of the transition to PSE program equipped students with greater selfawareness and provided knowledge about available accommodation services. Students learned to develop their executive functioning, time management and self-advocacy skills, which are also noted by Woloshyn and Munn (2014) as necessary skills for LD students. It was found that STP students accessed more accommodations services in PSE, which in turn contributed to their academic success. Students were more proactive in seeking out the help that they needed rather than waiting for poor academic grades to propel them to seek help, as in the case of many unsuccessful students. Learning to advocate for their accommodation needs helped students with LD meet the academic demands of PSE (Prater, Redman, Anderson & Gibbs, 2014). This research identified that successful students attended more enhanced services appointments while in PSE than unsuccessful students. The students in this study, who used the accommodation services, reported academic benefits. Couzens et al. (2015) is another supporter


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of transition programs for students with LD before they arrive at university, and they reviewed the benefits of establishing student supports for various stages of the student life cycle. In Canada, many high school students are used to having others advocate for their disability rights and accommodations. However, in post-secondary institutions, students must self-identify and seek out the accommodations they need. Many LD students are not prepared for this change to self-advocacy. Programs such as the STP can equip students with the mindset, knowledge and skills they need to make the transition, as well as teach them how to take responsibility for their own learning needs.

Negative Impact of Accommodation Services

While recognizing the need for accommodations, students are not always positively impacted by the implementation of accommodations. Thurlow and Kopriva, (2015) noted that in cases where humans are needed to provide the actual accommodation such as readers, sign language interpreters or scribes, there is a risk that individuals may unintentionally provide hints or answers to questions. This would dilute the learning opportunity for the student who would no longer have the benefit of natural independent processing as other students. This can also provide an unfair advantage to the LD student in the short term, as well as a long term disadvantage of not being able to fully engage in the learning experience.

Accommodation Administration Poor administration or misallocation of accommodation services may also impact LD students negatively. Roberts (2012), cited cases where students with learning disabilities requiring accommodation for a certain subject did not necessarily receive accommodation in a separate subject where the LD accommodation need was imbedded in the subject. For example,


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if the student received accommodations for dyscalculia in mathematically based subjects, they may not receive accommodation in geography even though some mathematical skills may be required in geography. In cases like these, the educational faculty and staff should be knowledgeable in the course requirements thus ensuring that the learner is in possession of all the tools needed to operate on a level playing field wherever LD challenges occur. While this would be the ideal outcome, in some situations, it is very challenging for instructors to meet the need of all their students. This again puts some students at a disadvantage because there may be students in the class that have higher needs. While the accommodation itself is beneficial to LD students, accessing such accommodations at the risk of social standing can negatively impact students. Prater et al. (2014) conducted a study where students were given steps to advocate for their needs and they found that where one of the students needed to advocate for his needs in public, he did not follow the steps. The assumption was made that this student did not advocate for his needs in the public setting as he was concerned about the impact on his social standing. This raises the question: is it enough to provide the skills? How would the skills be useful if students value their social standing more than their academic success? Jones and Hensley-Maloney (2015) indicated that educators need to look out for and communicate to school counselors, the signs of social difficulties in the classroom to help reduce isolation of students with disabilities. While aiming to reduce social isolation is a noble endeavor, it can be better accomplished with students up to the high school level. At a higher education setting it may be difficult to monitor social exclusion in large classes and it could be difficult for instructors to determine whether social isolation is by choice or if it is related to a stigma around a learning disability.


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While it may be unintentional, there are concerns about separation amongst students with LD. McCrimmon (2015) noted that where students were required to separate/segregate to access the services they need, the focus was more on their disabilities rather than their abilities. Students prefer to be treated like everyone else rather than carry the label of being disabled. In this regard, some LD students choose not to self-identify, rather than risk being labelled, treated differently or embarrassed in public or private settings (Hong, 2015). DaDeppo (2009) found that LD students often had a lower self-concept which affected how they dealt with daily stressors. Richman, Rademacher, and Maitland (2014), stated that selfdetermination and executive functioning are two processes that can minimize social and emotional barriers for LD students in college settings. Once institutions understand this, they can create more targeted social interventions to help LD students. Teacher Impact on Accommodations If accommodations are supposed to provide equal access to students (National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities [NJCLD], 2011), one must look at all the factors affecting access. Research by Moriña Díez, Gavira, and Molina (2015), noted that faculty and staff play a vital role in hindering or helping students with learning disabilities. Moriña Díez et al. (2015) used a biographical-narrative methodology on a multidisciplinary basis to gather first hand stories of student experiences. While the research was conducted in Spain, the authors also drew from internationally published qualitative and quantitative research. The research cited by Moriña Díez et al. (2015) indicated that lecturers’ delays in changing their teaching style to adapt to the needs of students, and attitudinal barriers were the most common hurdles that students faced. Other concerns were students’ limited access


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to the lecturers. The primary research found that there were good experiences with faculty and staff, but significant barriers were highlighted. There is a need to research and implement effective methods for teacher training in inclusive assessment. Previous research has indicated a gap in teachers knowledge regarding the use of accommodation for their assessment and instruction (Lin & Lin 2015). Instructors have a duty of care to enact required accommodations as pointed out by Quinlan, Bates, and Angell, (2012). Students in this study recounted stories of insults, isolating or being ignored by instructors when they requested accommodations.

Discussion The research indicated that barriers to accommodation can take several forms and each has an impact on the learner. Is it enough to create and advertise accommodation services across higher education institutions? In order to benefit from the services, students need to make requests from their lecturers, campus staff and other school personnel. The research showed that interaction with faculty and staff had a major effect on LD students, so much so that students often chose to abstain from accessing needed LD accommodations. As the aim of accommodations is to provide equal access, institutions should consider the various factors within their control that can be addressed to ensure that LD students receive the services they need to access and succeed in higher education.

Barriers to Accommodation Access Poor experiences with instructors can negatively impact LD students and force them to choose between asking for the accommodations and protecting their image, self-esteem and/or social standing. While the research showed accommodations help students gain equal access to


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education, much of the literature speaks to the under reporting or self-identifying by students with LD. While there may be personal reasons for this, authors such as Watt et al. (2014) cites institutional barriers, such as teacher and staff attitudes as some of the reasons why students do not self-identify. The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 (AODA) aims to mandate universal accessibility by breaking down barriers including lack of adequate staffing (AODA, 2005). Faculty and staff often cite lack of time and availability to meet the growing demand for accommodations (Watt et al., 2014). What can institutions do to ensure that all who need accommodations are receiving it? Although accommodations are provided for students with LD, in reality the students who benefit are those who self-identify and advocate for the services they need. Tsagris and Muirhead (2012) raised an interesting point in that the goal for PSE institutions should be to create accessible environments for students with LD to keep their anonymity and independence yet receive the services they need, without the need to self-identify. This would ensure that student’s accessed the services they need without having to face the institutional and personal barrier that often accompany accommodation requests. To ensure equal access to the accommodation for students with learning disabilities, faculty and staff should be trained in LD awareness and be encouraged to provide the necessary equitable access to applicable students. Accommodation is beneficial to those who need and receive it (Harrison & Holmes, 2012). The discussion about meeting the need of LD students also extends to online courses. Roberts, Crittenden, and Crittenden (2011), note that students may not always disclose their disability when enrolling in online courses. From their study of 221 students who indicated they needed certain accommodations, only 23% self-identified. Although this report focused on


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various disabilities without specific reference to learning disabilities, the results can be used to inform if not raise additional questions surrounding the experiences of students with learning disabilities in an online environment. There is still work to be done in both online and offline learning environments. As organizations strive to meet the needs of students with learning disabilities, can they also provide services to encourage self-identification? Or is this a societal issue to be addressed on a wider scale? When it comes to academic support, Prater et al. (2014) identified academic accommodations that benefited students with disabilities. The authors also noted that it is important for students with disabilities to have a sense of purpose and social integration. For further development, more research can be done on the provision of social accommodations for students with learning disabilities. It would be interesting to see what challenges would be faced by institutions seeking to provide social accommodations for students with learning disabilities. Social accommodations could include organized groups or intentional spaces for LD students to develop and practice their peer to peer and general social skills. This could help LD students level the playing field in the social arena. Encouraging LD Self-Disclosure in Higher Education Research in this paper highlighted the benefits of accommodation services for students with LD, however authors such as Newman and Madaus, (2015); Moriña Díez et al. (2015) and Roberts et al. (2011) referenced poor non-disclosure rates at different institutions both locally and internationally. There is a need for additional research into the reasons for such low rates of self-disclosure and what can be done to reverse this pattern. Every LD student has a right to equal access to education, and accommodations can provide that access. If students are not requesting the needed services, institutions should seek to understand why, and implement


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policies to close the gap between LD students and their non-LD counterparts. It is the right of students if they choose not to self-identify, but if they are forced to make that choice, the factors impacting that choice would need to be addressed. Development of Transfer Programs for LD Students Transitional programs were seen as being beneficial to LD students. The longitudinal mixed method study by Tsagris & Muirhead (2012) showed that students accessing the STP experienced a faster and less complicated intake process into college. However the STP is not enough to assist students while in PSE. Attendance in the STP or non-attendance (NSTP) did not have any effect on the likelihood of students achieving a GPA above 2.0 in the first year and a half. The main benefit is in helping students gain the skills necessary to advocate and navigate post-secondary education. According to Harrison and Harrison (2012), because there is no federal governance for educational institutions, on a provincial level, each institution has its own enrollment process, LD identification and documentation policy. Unfortunately, this causes inconsistencies when learners transfer or apply to different educational institutions across Canada. Under the auspices of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, a report by the Learning Opportunities Task Force (LOTF) agrees that supports for student transition from secondary to post-secondary institutions is a major issue. Tsagris and Muirhead (2012) recommended that school boards should be held accountable for compliance with their regulatory responsibility to develop transition programs and plans, and that proven transition programming should be made available to all students with learning disabilities who are going on to post-secondary education and are interested in participating in such opportunities.


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Conclusion This paper explored the impact of accommodations on students with learning disabilities and there were several services that had positive outcomes for LD students. The most frequently used services included testing accommodations, training and skill development, assistive technology, transition programs and instructor facilitation. No evidence was found to indicate that these services were not beneficial in and of themselves despite the fact that some researchers like Roberts (2012) and McCrimmon (2015), indicated that the manner in which accommodation services are administered could have negative impacts on learners. The research indicated that when students developed their personal and study skills with the help of a learning strategist, there was an increase in student confidence, self-advocacy skills, ability to manage the demand of PSE and improved academic performance (Woloshyn and Munn, 2014). Technology accommodation benefited students who qualified for excused absences or had problems concentrating in class (Císarová, et al., 2015). The access to lecture recordings gave students better control of their learning and allowed them to study at their own pace, replaying difficult concepts until they were understood. Testing and assessment accommodation catered for students who demonstrated general slowness as well as writing, reading, spelling, and anxiety challenges (Lewandowski et al. 2013). The extra time reduced anxieties associated with timed tests and allowed students the time they needed to mentally process and complete assessments based on their ability levels. For LD students this resulted in better performance than if no extra time was granted. Instructor facilitation had both negative and positive impacts on students. When accommodations requests and services were administered in a positive manner, students benefited from the encouragement and support of faculty and staff. Students benefited from


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equal access to education where lecturers adapted exams to meet their specific needs, extended deadlines for assignments, provided digital course materials or provided special materials for exams and classwork (Moriña Díez et al., 2015). Alongside the benefits of accommodations, the research revealed that poorly administered services can leave gaps between what was provided and the service that was needed. It can also create social anxiety forcing students to preserve social status rather than selfidentify and request accommodations (Prater et al., 2014). Staff and faculty attitudes when approached for and while administering accommodation has been seen to have negative impacts on learners as well (Hong, (2015); Moriña Díez et al. (2015)). To better enhance the experience of LD students, more discussion is required in order to encourage the removal of institutional and cultural attitudes and barriers to accommodation access in higher education. Accommodations are beneficial and necessary for students with LD. Care should, nevertheless, be taken when administering accommodations so as not to give LD students unfair advantages. Where accommodations work as intended – providing equal access to education – the benefits can been seen in granting fair access and promoting more academically successful, self- aware, proactive and productive students.


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