Research reveals approximately 20% of the general population and 11% of postsecondary students identify as having a disability. However, colleges/universities often share that student reporting is less than what is shared nationally. This means that many students with disabilities may not be getting the services they need to succeed in their courses and programs. For online students with disabilities, accessibility and support are critical to early engagement and retention. Therefore, accessibility and support services must be at the forefront when developing marketing, application, matriculation, and course content materials. Web accessibility and support cannot be an afterthought. Currently at Drexel University, less than 5% of all students self-identify as having a disability. Within the online programs, this number is even lower. However, attrition data reveals that a growing percentage of students with disabilities are leaving the institution. Therefore, Drexel has established an Accessibility Committee that is charged with increasing accessibility awareness and developing materials that can be utilized by all educational programs to increase accessibility and engagement for students with disabilities. This panel session will share what Drexel University is doing to collaboratively develop best practices and guidelines across the institution's 13 colleges and schools to increase online success for students with disabilities. This panel includes online students with different disabilities (hearing, visual, speech, cumulative trauma disorder), a program director, instructional designer, and web developer. This session is divided into four parts. The first part will provide an overview with statistics on students with disabilities in higher education, ADA regulations, and the importance of early student engagement and support services. The second part of this session will provide a student perspective of online education from four students with different disabilities including challenges, successes, and considerations. The third part will provide best practices developed by Drexel University for increasing online student success for students with disabilities as well as recommendations from the four students. The fourth part of the session will include Questions & Answers with the audience as well as asking participants to share best practices from their students for increasing online success for students with disabilities. Goals: At the end of this panel session, participants will be able to: (a) identify current and emerging ADA regulations affecting online education; (b) understand that accessibility must go beyond the institutional website and include full accessibility to online courses, to faculty webpages, and to all student support services; (c) develop new strategies for going beyond access to increase and ensure student engagement in online courses through interactive materials and alternative assignments as needed; and (d) establish campus partnerships to harness available technologies and optimize resources to provide students with disabilities the opportunity to be an active participant from point of first contact through matriculation and graduation.
