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CU-Boulder Campus Climate Survey, Fall 2006

Disability status

In order to ensure that we surveyed a sufficient number of students with disabilities to permit separate analyses for them, we made a special effort to recruit students with disabilities. At our request, the director of the campus Disabilities Services office sent an email to students on the Center's mailing list encouraging them to complete the survey. Of the 44 students with disabilities responding to the survey, 11 were recruited using the Disabilities Services mailing list and were not part of the random sample; the remaining 33 were part of the random sample.

Because so few students with disabilities completed the survey, we could not analyze responses from students with different types of disabilities separately. Responses for all students with disabilities were combined and contrasted with a group of students without disabilities. For several reasons, caution should be used in interpreting results from these analyses. First, students with quite different disabilities (e.g., ADD and hearing) have been combined into one group. Second, the number of students is relatively small. Finally, because students with disabilities were not part of the sampling design for the survey, it is possible that their responses are not representative of the population of all students with disabilities at CU-Boulder.

Highlights

Although, overall, students both with and without disabilities rate the campus climate favorably, responses from students with disabilities are somewhat less positive. Students with disabilities are somewhat less likely to feel that the campus is friendly and welcoming. They also report less comfort in social settings, such as using the recreation center or the UMC, participating in campus social life, shopping or eating in Boulder, and living in the residence halls. Three times as many students with disabilities as those without disabilities (25% vs. 8%) report "often" or "very often" feeling "left out," and twice as many (48% vs. 21%) report "often" or "very often" feeling disconnected from other students. A complete presentation of percentages of the responses made by both students with and without disabilities is provided in a separate table.

The great majority of students with and without disabilities report that they feel comfortable in class, and more than half of both groups of students report that classrooms are "pretty much" or "very much" accessible to persons with disabilities. Only 56% of students with disabilities, however, rate classroom accessibility this highly, compared with 69% of students without disabilities. Students both with and without disabilities do not differ in their ratings of disability access outside the classroom, with about half of each group reporting that facilities outside the classroom are "pretty much" or "very much" accessible to persons with disabilities.

Reports of how frequently students with and without disabilities hear other students make disparaging remarks about various groups--including foreign students, racial or ethnic minorities, GLBT persons, and people with strong religious beliefs--are generally similar. Some differences are found, however, for how often both students with and without disabilities hear other students making disparaging remarks about whites. In this instance, students with disabilities more often report hearing such remarks.

Relative to the students without disabilities, students with disabilities report that they are less likely to challenge derogatory remarks made about gender, race/ethnicity, physical abilities, religion, or sexual orientation. They also are somewhat less comfortable challenging derogatory remarks in general than are the students without disabilities.

It is not surprising that those students with disabilities report more frequent contact with other students with disabilities. Even so, this group of students' frequency of contact with people with disabilities is actually not very high. Two-thirds of the students with disabilities say they "seldom" or "sometimes" have contact with people with disabilities; only 14% say "often" or "very often." This may be predominantly a function of the large ratio of students without disabilities to students with disabilities on campus, such that all students are generally much more likely to have contact with students without disabilities. However, another major factor is likely a function of students often being unaware of the many times they have had such contact with students with certain types of disabilities (e.g., ADHD, dyslexia) that are not readily apparent.

Finally, it is interesting to note that among the students with disabilities, only four listed disability status as their most important group identity in terms of how they are treated on campus. The four who did so identified their disability as a learning disability and/or ADHD. For the group as a whole, the most common group identities are major, age, gender, and socio-economic status.

Graphs of scale scores by disability status

Last revision 11/29/07