Faculty Knowledge, Attitude and Intent to Provide Accomodations to Nursing Students with Disabilites: Are Faculty Prepared to Meet the Needs of Diverse Populations?

In the United States 54 million people, or one in five, live with at least one disability.  Because a growing number of students entering college have learning, mental health or physical disabilities, educators must be prepared to accommodate the individual student’s unique educational needs.

A convenience sample of 231 nursing faculty from baccalaureate nursing programs in Pennsylvania participated in an online study to explore knowledge of disability-related law, attitudes and intent to provide accommodation of nursing faculty members.  Through a descriptive, correlational design, The Assessment of Faculty Attitudes and Beliefs Toward Accommodation for Students with Disabilities (AFABTASD) and the Assessment of Faculty Knowledge of the Americans with Disability Act of 1990 Policies and Guidelines surveys were used to measure attitude, intent to provide accommodations and knowledge of disability related legislation of nursing faculty members.  The results of the study indicated that 21% of faculty respondents achieved a passing score on the knowledge subscale.  Further, faculty respondents demonstrated slightly positive (1.25) attitudes towards providing accommodations to students with disabilities and slightly positive (1.61) intent to provide accommodations. A small positive statistically significant correlation (r =.219, p = .001, n = 211) was detected between knowledge of disability-related legislation and respondents’ attitude toward providing accommodations. A moderate positive correlation was detected (r =.378, p = .001, n = 219) between attitude and intent to provide accommodations.  The recommendations of this study are that all institutions in higher education provide faculty members with comprehensive professional development activities related to the needs of students with disabilities. Based on comprehensive assessment, meaningful professional development activities could be developed and offered to remedy the knowledge deficit of faculty.