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CU-BOULDER CAMPUS CLIMATE SURVEY: FALL 2001

Disability status

In order to ensure that our sample included a sufficient number of students with a disability to permit separate analyses for this group, we obtained a list of 84 students who were either registered with or had used the services of the campus disability office. All students on the list were invited to participate in the climate survey. Of the 35 who responded, only 22 indicated that they considered themselves disabled. An additional 13 students, who were not on the official disability services list, indicated that they had a disability. Here we analyze responses from the 35 students who did indicate "disabled" on the survey.

Because so few students with a disability completed the survey, we could not analyze responses from students with different types of disabilities separately. Responses for all disabled students were combined and contrasted with a no-disability group. Caution should be used in interpreting results from these analyses; in addition to combining together students with quite different disabilities (e.g., ADD and hearing), the number of students is smaller than we would like.

Highlights

Overall, disabled and non-disabled students rate the campus climate quite favorably; however, responses from students with disabilities are somewhat less positive. Though the differences are not large, students with disabilities are slightly less likely to feel that the campus is friendly and welcoming. They also report less comfort in social settings, such as using the rec center or the UMC, looking for a place to rent in Boulder, and living in the residence halls.

Students with disabilities are slightly less comfortable in class. They rate disability access in the classroom to be below average, whereas the non-disabled students indicate above average disability access. It is interesting to note that non-disabled students report better disability access inside the classroom than outside, whereas students with disabilities report the opposite.

Reports of how frequently the disabled and non-disabled students hear other students make disparaging remarks about various groups are quite divergent. Particularly pronounced differences are found for how often disabled and non-disabled students hear other students making disparaging remarks about people with disabilities, people with strong religious beliefs, men, out of state students, whites and resident students. In all cases, students with disabilities report hearing such remarks more often.

Relative to the no-disability group, students with disabilities report that they are not only more likely to challenge derogatory remarks made about physical abilities, but they also seem to be more comfortable challenging derogatory remarks in general. This finding may reflect the fact that, in our society, persons with disabilities often have to be more vocal in order to get the accommodations they need and deserve. It may also be a reflection of how the sample was selected or who responded to the survey.

It is not surprising that the disability group reports more frequent contact with other students with disabilities. Even so, the disability group's frequency of contact with other students with disabilities is actually not very high. Two-thirds of the students with disabilities say they "seldom" or "sometimes" have contact with other such students; only 21% say "often" or "very often." This may be predominantly a function of a large ratio of non-disabled to disabled students on campus such that students are much more likely to meet non-disabled students than to meet other students with disabilities. Students may also be unaware of the many times they have such contact since many of the disabilities (e.g., ADD) are not readily apparent.

Finally, it is interesting to note that among the students with disabilities, only two listed disability status as their most important group identity in terms of how they are treated on campus. The two who did so listed attention deficit disorder. For the group as a whole, the most common group identities are major and socio-economic status.

Graph of scale scores by disability status

Campus Climate Survey 2001 Table of Contents

l:\ir\survey\climate\climate01\report\summarydraft-bydisability.doc last updated 6/28/02

Last revision 09/10/03