Trends

INITIAL response

Our survey had a much greater response rate then we had expected, with over 83 respondents. As well, we had 15 students who volunteered to participate in our interviews
Because of the high response rate and student interest, we were able to gather some interesting data, and recognize several trends about student experiences with accessibility on campus.

Access fatigue

Students reported regularly experiencing access fatigue at UWO. 60% of respondents reported experiencing access fatigue at least once a month, and 19% of students reported experiencing it daily. These experiences of access fatigue come from many places, such as a student having to repeatably explain their disability and needs. Sometimes, these students were still being doubted by faculty and their peers about their disabilities and needs.

Non-apparent disabilities

A significant number of students at UWO have non-apparent disabilities. 77% of respondents considered their disabilities to be exclusively non-apparent. 2 out of 83 respondents reported their disability to be exclusively visible, while 20% reported their disabilities as both visible and non-apparent.

Accessibility services

A third of survey respondents were not registered with UWO accessibility services. There were several reasons provided for this. Some students did not think that it was worth the energy to register with accessibility services. They did not think that they would get enough help to justify the effort. Another reason was that some students were not aware of the services that UWO accessibility services could provide. Some students were unaware of the process to register with accessibility services.

Lack of diagnosis

25% of participants reported having undiagnosed disabilities. This could be for a number of reasons, such as a lack of diagnosis when younger, barriers to accessing specialists, or trouble paying for diagnosis now. Some students do not think that there is any value to getting officially diagnosed. This lack could contribute to the lack of students registering for accessibility services.