It has been estimated that 10% of any given modern human population have some form of disabling impairment (Shirley 1983). Relatedly, at the college level, “the field of postsecondary education and disability services” now “serves an estimated 11 percent of all students in higher education” (Madaus, National Center for Education Statistics 2009). While these statistics are generally indicative of successful developments in the ways in which accommodations are made accessible to students with disabilities by colleges and universities in the United States, there currently exists, however, significant differences among institutions in the ways that such accommodations are offered to current and prospective students. This inconsistency is due to the combined influence of rapidly advancing technologies (including software, the internet and related Information Technology), modern theoretical developments in understanding the nature of disability (as it can be appreciated as having combined personal, sociological and interpersonal meanings), as well as recent advancements in institutional ideology related to how such accommodations should be offered (such as Universal Design). As many colleges are currently employing different institutional approaches to how they offer and promote accommodations for students with various physical and mental impairments, it is an exciting period in the development of such services. This research design therefore is qualitative in nature and considers how the seventeen individual schools within the University of North Carolina system offer or make accommodations accessible to students with disabilities through information provided within their respective websites.
