University students with disabilities (SD) face particular challenges in accessing resources and services, communicating with professors and peers, and managing stress and anxiety. A multi-disciplinary approach provides a comprehensive understanding of these issues and shows how career development practitioners can help these students succeed and achieve their desired life trajectory.
Philion and colleagues’ study was based on an e-mailed questionnaire sent to 1,230 SDs at three universities in Quebec. 290 people responded to the questionnaire, and six counsellors with expertise in career guidance or remedial teaching were also interviewed. The aim of the study was to understand the role that SD counsellors play within universities, focusing on the accommodation and support needs expressed by students. The article also aimed to determine (a) which components of this role fall under which expertise (i.e., remedial teaching, guidance counselling, or other), (b) identify the issues and challenges encountered in this role, and (c) the actions to be taken to address these issues and challenges.
The article first sets out the accommodation and support needs expressed by SDs. A majority of SDs said they would like to have access to accommodations for exams (79%) and lectures (62%). Many said they needed information on financial aid (45%) and on the psychological and diagnostic services offered by the school establishment (22%). Other support needs were mentioned, particularly regarding developing learning strategies (41%), managing personal challenges (23%), improving communication (23%), using ICT (21%), writing assignments (21%), and obtaining career guidance (9%).
The interviews shed light on the distribution of tasks in the role of the advisors. The table below shows the components of the counsellor’s role according to their respective expertise. We can see that a number of tasks overlap, reinforcing the importance of good communication between counsellors of different expertise and the other professionals and professors who have a role to play in the SD integration process.
| Area(s) of Expertise Components of their role related to student needs | Remedial | Remedial and guidance | Guidance | Others |
| Access to accommodations | X | |||
| Additional services (information) | X | |||
| Psychological support | X | |||
| Diagnostic assessment | X | X | ||
| Learning disabilities and ADHD screening | X | |||
| Financial aid | X | |||
| Career guidance | X | X | ||
| Physical accessibility | X | |||
| Tutoring | X | |||
| Skills development support | ||||
| Use of technological aids | X | X | ||
| Learning strategies | X | X | ||
| Writing academic papers | X | |||
| Dealing with personal challenges | X | |||
| Disclosure of special needs | X | |||
| Indirect assistance | ||||
| Communicating with professors and professionals | X | |||
| Supporting decision-making bodies | X |
Remedial: Remedial teaching
Guidance: Guidance counselling
Philion and colleagues’ research also revealed that the role of counsellors brings its own set of challenges, including lack of resources and support, complexity of SD needs, and the need to work closely with other staff members. The solutions put forward by the participating advisors mainly concern the deployment of the financial and human resources needed to better organize SD services. In conclusion, the article points out that the complementary expertise of guidance counsellors and remedial educators argues in favour of multidisciplinary approaches within SD services. The study also highlights the importance for SDs to have the same assigned counsellor throughout their academic journey to guarantee continuity in follow-up. This reinforces the idea that the assignment of a counsellor to a student should be based on their expertise and ability to meet most of the student’s specific needs.
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