Our Research

The National Center for College Students with Disabilities is charged with doing ongoing national research about disability and higher education.  Here we explain a few of our current projects.

Follow the links on this page, our DREAM or HBCU listservs, Facebook or Twitter for ongoing updates about our publications.

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​Literature review

In the first year of the project, we reviewed over 25,000 articles to find existing interventions and studies of disability in higher education.  We publish our findings in various ways on our site and in outreach activities.
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​Research Highlights​

Research "highlights" are quick, easy-to-read summaries of new research of interest to professionals working in disability services offices.  These are published in both the AHEAD Hub newsletter and in the Research Highlights area of the NCCSD Clearinghouse.
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Research briefs

We are interested in finding ways for professionals to apply research in practice. To date we have produced a series of research briefs on topics such as national databases, campus climate and student employment.
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Original research and database

We have conducted two large-scale research projects, in collaboration with partners at the University of Massachusetts-Boston.  The first study began in the Fall of 2018 -- a national needs assessment to identify what people think the Center should be doing, and what higher education needs in order to be more welcoming and accessible for students with disabilities. 

The results of this are reported in Scott, S. (2019). Access and Participation in Higher Education: Perspectives of College Students with Disabilities. NCCSD Research Brief, 2(2). Huntersville, NC: National Center for College Students with Disabilities, Association on Higher Education and Disability. 
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In the Fall of 2019, we collected national data about disability services offices on campuses across the United States, and will make that information available to the public through the CeDaR Database.  We also hope to use existing federal data sets to learn more about students with disabilities, and each member of our research team also does individual research and writing on topics of interest to them.