Reflections of an Undergraduate Participatory Action Research Group: Exploring Disability Service in College

Dr. Courtney Wilt

Dr. Courtney Wilt graduated with her PhD from the Department of Special Education, University of Kansas in 2021. Since graduating, Courtney has been working at the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater as an Assistant Professor in the College of Education and Professional Studies. It is her enthusiasm for teaching and engagement with students that prompted this action research project! Within the UWW community, Courtney and her colleague Dr. Matthew Wolfgram mentor an undergraduate action research collective, which began in Fall of 2021, to better understand the experiences of students with disabilities at UWW specifically. Their work is highlighted here and serves to give insight into the potential and process of undergraduate action research collectives with a focus on informing university supports and services for students with disabilities. 

Ashley Peterson

As a campus tour guide at the UW-Whitewater (UWW), communication sciences major Ashley Peterson wanted to know: How does the experience of students with disabilities at UWW align with our university ethos of accessibility and inclusion? In other words, guiding potential students and their families through the UWW campus while highlighting the accessibility features and inclusive programming of UWW, Ashley, who does not identify as disabled, was curious about the realities of this particular ‘selling point’. 

Ashley was not alone in contemplating these questions, McKenna Meyer and Maggie Tienor, also undergraduate students in the College of Education and Professional Studies at UWW, came together to form the initial action research group, asking: 

What factors shape the college experience for students with disabilities at UWW, and how can supports and services be improved to better address their needs? 

McKenna Meyer

Maggie Tienor

The action research group formed to address these questions is titled the Intersectional Action Research for Disability Justice (IARDJ), which is an ongoing effort to center students with disabilities broadly, meaning members and participants are not required to have (or have had in the past) formal diagnosis or means of support, such as special education services in K-12 or accommodations through UWW’s Center for Students with Disabilities. This framing is purposeful in seeking nuanced and intersectional understandings of college students with disabilities and their experiences. Thus, the IARDJ holds space for expansive perspectives on disability and engages a multi-dimensional analysis that accounts for intersecting identities and social forces in the context of college life. 

The IARDJ holds space for expansive perspectives on disability and engages a multi-dimensional analysis that accounts for intersecting identities and social forces in the context of college life

Given this framework, recruitment demanded multiple means of outreach–from campus clubs, such as Active Minds, a student-led organization focusing on mental health, to personal contacts of individual researchers. Student researchers read literature, developed interview protocols, conducted individual interviews, wrote researcher notes, and came together in a process of coding and analysis. Each of these dynamic processes, guided by Dr. Wilt, challenged and supported students to think critically about the data and their own relationship to it. Below, we describe four emergent themes, followed by individual researcher insights that illuminate the power and potential of attending to the research process itself. 

Findings: Key Takeaways

The findings of the group are preliminary, based on a modest sample of interviews (n=6), which are nonetheless both rich and illustrative of some of the challenges and other experiences faced by students with disabilities. Preliminary analysis indicates four emerging themes: (a) gender and disability intersections, (b) extra labor of obtaining services and navigating siloed university entities, (c), impact of space and place and (d) the importance of advocacy and representation. 

Theme 1: Gender and Disability Intersections

Gender identity and expression was found to intersect with how students with disabilities were perceived by others when advocating for themselves and their needs. For example, male participants experienced fewer barriers when enacting self-advocacy with professors, instructors, and advisors when requesting accommodations. In particular, female students experienced barriers to having their accommodations recognized as valid in the context of advising. Often, female students enlisted a legitimizing source to have their voices heard and needs met. These legitimizing sources could be a male classmate advocating alongside/on behalf of the female student or a ‘higher up’ person in the advising office stepping in. Furthermore, female participants were more likely to be positioned as less believable or too emotional when advocating for their well-being and educational support needs. For example, one participant described her professor’s reaction to her sharing her course-related anxiety,  telling her to stop crying and saying, “No one will take you seriously.” 

Theme 2: Extra Labor of Navigating Siloed University Entities

This theme asserts that the atomization of university entities (i.e., the process or state of fragmentation or disintegration into smaller parts) creates gaps that, in our findings, students with disabilities are left to bridge on their own. For example, one participant described difficulties receiving answers from offices across the UWW campus to related questions, such as how to register with a reduced course load accommodation, plan a course of study, and apply financial aid with full time student status. This creates extra labor, both physically and emotionally, that their peers without disabilities may not experience and compounds the challenges faced by students with disabilities in university settings.

Theme 3: Impact of Space and Place

Campus life holds multiple, intersecting cultures that differ across the various places (e.g., offices, colleges, living spaces) and the people/groups who occupy them. We found that campus spaces had a significant impact in shaping experiences for all participants. Spaces were defined by their physical and tangible aspects, and the interactions and experiences that took place within these specific places. Physical characteristics of accessibility did not inherently generate inclusivity. For example, one of the newest buildings on campus boasts accessibility as a core feature, yet that particular building was also viewed as less comfortable socially than other, less up-to-date buildings on campus. Ultimately, this theme highlighted the socially constructed nature of space and illustrated how messages of accessibility may not align with actual student experiences. 

Theme 4: Importance of Advocacy and Representation

Participants noted the value of disability representation in the student body generally and in student leadership specifically. Greater equality and understanding amongst faculty and peers was of high importance. Participants expressed the need for greater understanding of ‘invisible’ disabilities and wished to be treated as competent individuals and not put on a pedestal for their accomplishments as a person with a disability. Finally, participants noted gaps between medical, or internalized, notions of disability and social notions of disability that recognize social and environmental factors as contributing to experiences of ableism. 

Together, these themes illuminate the need to approach inclusive university aims with an intersectional lens. Future directions for the research project include involving student researchers with disabilities and gaining more student perspectives.

Theme 5: The Benefit of Action Research 

The final theme relates to the research process itself. The iterative process of action research helped shape, deepen, and disrupt researcher knowledges, assumptions, and ideologies. In the process, researchers gained training and practice in research skills. Below, each of the undergraduate researchers describe their individual perspectives on the research process. 

Undergraduate Researcher Insights

Ashley: In this project I have had a part in designing the research, collecting and analyzing the data, and writing research reports and presenting findings equal to that of my faculty mentors. I helped organize the recruitment of participants, scheduled and conducted interviews, transcribed audios, and analyzed the results. This has allowed me to develop as a research professional and will help me in future projects. Also in this research process I have identified and worked with the interesting aspects of diversity that are different to each individual person. This intersectional perspective will help me to contribute to the diversity and success of future projects as well as in my professional career.

Maggie: With this project, I have had the opportunity to be a part of an equal opportunity team in which all researchers and mentors get to play an important role in the design, organization, and execution of the study. I enjoyed being able to conduct interviews and meet with participants to learn about their individual perspectives regarding accessibility. This particular feature of the project helped me further recognize the multifaceted nature of identities and the importance of acknowledging and advocating for diversity in all forms. Both of these aspects will greatly influence my work as a researcher and the services I provide as a future healthcare professional. Regarding the theme of advocacy and representation, for instance, I am committed to serving my future clients to the best of my ability and in a way that respectively and accurately acknowledges each of their individual identities. I learned more about the process of gathering and analyzing data as well, which are additional skills I can utilize in future professional opportunities.

McKenna: Through this project I have gained many useful skills. I have learned how to conduct interviews for research purposes which can be applied for other interviews I may do in the future. This research has strengthened my knowledge of how students navigate their own disabilities personally and academically which has made me more confident in having conversations with people about their own disabilities experiences and stories for my personal life and future career. As a future educator, it is important to me to understand all my students and adhere to their struggles. This research project has opened my eyes to students with disabilities and has made me more equipped to help in future situations in my classroom. I understand that there is more than one factor to a student’s struggle, whether that be gender discrimination, socio economic exclusion, or spatial factors. From this project, I have more knowledge surrounding what shapes student success and will be able to use that knowledge in my future as an educator. 

Recommendations

Our five recommendations below draw on these findings to advance disability justice through centering the diverse voices and experiences of students with disabilities.

1. Universities should consider policies that impact opportunities for students with disabilities to be recognized for their academic contributions. For example, Dean’s Lists and/or other forms of academic student recognition should include academically qualifying students who receive reduced course load as an accommodation.

2. Universities should provide opportunities for instructors to reflect on their gender-based assumptions of student needs as it intersects with disability. For example, how might instructor responses to students seeking support for anxiety and depression be impacted by student gender expression? How might instructors’ own histories and experiences shape responses to student requests or emotions? This recommendation also applies to other forms of student expression and identity, such as race, language, and sexuality. 

3. University offices (e.g., registrar, centers for disability services, health centers) should coordinate to decrease the extra labor experienced by students with disabilities and reduce risk of attrition or failure.

4. Universities should promote disability representation in all aspects of university life through strategic recruitment and pathways to leadership roles. 

5. Universities should explore expansive notions of space in the student experience, recognizing spaces are impacted by both social and physical domains. For example, in acknowledging that accessible spaces do not necessarily equate to inclusive spaces, universities can curate social and cultural aspects of inclusivity.  

In closing, we reflect on the generativity of this work, developed and enacted by undergraduate student researchers attending UW Whitewater, the University of Wisconsin system school that enrolls the highest percentage of students with reported disabilities. UWW has tremendous dedication to accessibility and inclusion and yet following national trends, students seeking services from the Center for Students with Disabilities at UWW are more and more frequently reporting mental health-related diagnoses and support needs, such as anxiety and/or depression. This research collective (and future collectives) serves as a means to reflexively identify and address current and future concerns of the largest university constituents–undergraduates–leveraging their important voices and affording opportunities and contributing to a rich research community.