College application tips for students with disabilities | Feb 2012

By Menachem Wecker, U.S. News & World Report

There are about 1.1 million physically disabled undergraduates in the U.S., according to Steve Kaye, research director of the Disability Statistics Center at the University of California at San Francisco, citing data from the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau.

While this figure represents about 5.9 percent of all students, most colleges and universities aren't meeting their needs. This is particularly true if the students' physical disabilities are so serious that they drastically affect daily living, according to Chris Wise Tiedemann, who co-authors the website Disability Friendly Colleges (disabilityfriendlycolleges.com) with her son Tom, who has cerebral palsy.

According to Tiedemann, author of "College Success for Students With Physical Disabilities" (Prufrock Press), only five schools — Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, University of California at Berkeley, University of Houston, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Wright State University — offer enough services for a student with serious physical disabilities to live on campus.

Tiedemann says seriously disabled applicants should consider one of those five schools. Tom, for example, studies at Edinboro. But students with less serious disabilities have more options if they do their research properly. Here are some tips for disabled applicants.

Prepare early: Start contacting college disability services offices as freshmen and sophomores in high school.

Gabe Trujillo, a quadriplegic and graduate student at Arizona State University, also advises researching whether target schools have support groups, clubs and adaptive sports for disabled students. "It's important to get out and mingle with your classmates," he says.

Visit prospective campuses if possible: Disabled applicants and parents should check campuses for handicapped parking availability, accessible buildings with elevators, and curb cuts (ramps leading up to sidewalks). "If these things are not easily available, attitudes about handicapped students may not be what they should be," Tiedemann says.

Don't confuse high school and college: Just because high schools accommodated a disability doesn't mean colleges will, even if you specify it in your application, says Matthew Kandel, manager of the online company, Newcastle Tutors, who has worked with many disabled students.

"Students need to proactively contact the office of disabled services at their school and provide ample documentation of the disability in order to receive services," Kandel says.

"Parents and students are almost invariably unaware of how much more responsibility is placed upon a college student," Tiedemann says. "Most students do not leave for college with experience in hiring aides to help them get showered (and) dressed. If they haven't prepared in high school for this, they are sunk."