Barriers to Providing Counseling for College Students with Disabilities

1
Barriers to Providing Counseling for College
Students with Disabilities
Mark E. Beecher, Ph.D., David A. Shwalb, B.A.,
Julie E. Preece, Ph.D., Norman L. Roberts, Ph.D.,
Edward A. Martinelli, Ph.D., Phillip D. Rash,
Ph.D. Brigham Young University, Provo, UT
ABSTRACT
CONCLUSIONS
As the number of students with disabilities
attending college increases, psychologists
working in university counseling centers are more
likely to find such students on their caseload
(Beilke Yssel, 1999 Gibson, 2000 Paul, 2000).
While some studies point to the progress made by
institutions at providing accessibility to
buildings and classrooms (Beilke Yssel, 1999),
others (Leigh, et al., 2004) conclude that
psychologists in the private sector require
additional training on disability issues and
providing accommodations to persons with
disabilities. As with the psychologists surveyed
by Leigh, the college psychologist is likely to
find him/herself under-prepared and
under-educated to provide such services. The
current study attempted to discover the level of
understanding, experience and education of
psychologist working in a college counseling
center, providing services to students with
disabilities. Subjects were all counselors who
work in college or university counseling center
in institutions around the United States whose
directors were registered on the Association for
University and College Counseling Center
Directors (AUCCCD) List Serve . A total of 91
complete surveys and 29 partial surveys were
obtained to provide descriptive data from which
comparisons with the prior Leigh, et al. (2004)
study were made. Various barriers and supports
were noted regarding comfort level, lack of
resources, secrets to success, and need for
training.

• Reviewing our results, the following conclusions
  seem important to psychologists in general and to
  psychologists working in college counseling
  centers in particular
• All three groups surveyed seem to feel that
  physical access to their services is typically
  satisfactory. This may be indicative of
  successful applications of the Americans with
  Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act of
  1973 to improve physical accessibility of most
  public buildings. However, their responses also
  indicate that there continue to be significant
  barriers to psychological services for persons
  with disabilities.
• Counseling center psychologists report a
  significant lack of training and expertise in
  serving students with disabilities, even though
  such students are coming to colleges and
  universities in ever-increasing numbers.
• As may have been expected, counseling center
  psychologists report more discomfort, less
  experience, and fewer secrets to success in
  working with students with disabilities than
  psychologists from the other two sample groups.
  Counseling center psychologists also express the
  greatest need for training, information about
  disability services, and consultation.
  Unfortunately, it seems that such help and
  training is not available.
• All three sample groups express significant
  discomfort in working with people who are deaf or
  hard of hearing. They also all report feeling
  that there are significant barriers to serving
  people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
• Ultimately, it seems that there is ample evidence
  to suggest that counseling center psychologists
  need more training in how to best serve students
  with disabilities. It also seems that, for some
  groups in particular (eg., people who are deaf or
  hard of hearing), significant barriers to
  effective psychological services still exist, and
  there is plenty of room for improvement.

Table 1
Table 1 Selected Comparison of College
Counselors with APA Division 22 and APA Members
Reporting Disabilities College Counselors
APA Members Division 22 APA Members w/
Disability (n91) (n301) (n176)
X2
p-value Barriers Hindering Services to Persons w/
Disabilities expertise 59.3 11.0
22.2 97.73 lt0.01 funding 16.5 62.8
55.7 60.82 lt0.01 access 51.6 59.1
72.2 12.89 lt0.01 referrals 34.1 19.9
34.7 15.24 lt0.01 Accessibility
Barriers stairs with no ramp
9.9 15.3 23.3 8.87 0.012 restrooms not
accessible 7.7 15.9 23.3 10.81 lt0.01 Disabil
ity Groups Perceived as Difficult to
Serve speech impairments 22.0 7.3 20.5 22.42
lt0.01 developmental disabilities 28.6 14.3 18.
2 8.84 0.012 learning or memory
problems 11.0 3.7 10.8 11.23 lt0.01 movement
disorders such as cerebral palsy 15.4 5.0 11.4 1
2.01 lt0.01 Secrets to Success personal
experience with disability 15.4 18.9 81.3 206.5
8 lt0.01 personal connections to people with
disabilities 31.9 43.5 60.8 23.28 lt0.01 traini
ng in disability issues and supports 39.6 74.1
65.9 37.13 lt0.01 mentorship or consultation
from colleagues 33.0 44.9 28.4 13.86 lt0.01 prof
essional experience 56.0 96.3 84.7 96.36 lt0.0
1 Support Needed training related to serving
persons with disabilities 68.1 14.3 23.9 106.16
lt0.01 information about disability services and
resources 54.9 23.9 35.2 31.64 lt0.01 access
to consultants or mentors 48.4 12.6 15.3 59.95
lt0.01 access to resources to improve the
accessibility 44.0 23.9 33.5 14.75 lt0.01 suppo
rt from your institution to improve
services 42.9 15.3 18.2 33.40 lt0.01 informatio
n about strategies to improve services 54.9 16.3
26.1 55.00 lt0.01 indicates significant
(plt.05) difference from College Counselors
resulting from post hoc analysis.
METHODS
Participants were 120 university and college
psychologists throughout the United States. Via
email, we sent the directors of each university
and college counseling center listed on the
AUCCCD List Serve a letter of introduction, an
informed consent form, and a link to our online
survey. In our letter of introduction we invited
the directors to forward the survey to any other
psychologists on their staff. We used the same
survey instrument Leigh, et al. used in their
study and collected all responses using
Zoomerang, a secured, web-based research clearing
house developed by MarketTools, a web-based
market research company. For quantitative survey
questions Zoomerang provides response tallies and
corresponding response ratios for each response.
We compared our findings from college counseling
center psychologists with Leigh, et al.s APA
members with disabilities and rehabilitation
psychologists using chi-squares for each item.
When we found significant differences, we used
further chi-squares to determine which of the
three groups were significantly different.
RESULTS

• Training
• 72 did not know of state or local training to
  improve service provision to those with
  disabilities
• 79 had not participated in any such training
• Needed supports to build capacities to serve
  persons with disabilities
• 50 reported a need for training, information
  about disability services and resources, access
  to consultants or mentor, and information about
  strategies to improve services
• College counselors compared with Leigh, et al.s
  sample
• In comparing the responses of college counselors
  to those of APA members with disabilities and
  members of Division 22 (Rehabilitation
  Psychology) (Leigh, et al.), we found that there
  were significant differences in several areas.
  Table 1 shows those items on which comparisons
  yielded significant differences.

• Noteworthy findings pertaining to college
  counselors responses
• Barriers to service provision
• gt50 reported not having sign language
  interpreters or TTY capability
• gt50 reported lack of knowledge and lack of
  awareness of community resources
• Difficulty serving disability types
• 68 would have difficulty serving those with
  hearing loss
• lt10 would have difficulty serving those with
  visual impairments, amputations, or physical
  disabilities
• Secrets to success in treating students with
  disabilities
• gt50 endorsed professional experience in serving
  persons with disabilities and training in
  disability issues as secrets to success

LITERATURE CITED
Beilke, J. R., Yssel, N. (1999). The chilly
climate for students with disabilities in higher
education. College Student Journal, 33(3),
364-371. Gibson, J. M. (2000). Documentation of
emotional and mental disabilities The role of
the counseling center. Journal of College
Counseling, 3(1), 63-73. Leigh, I. W., Powers,
L., Vash, C., Nettles, R. (2004). Survey of
psychological services to clients with
disabilities The need for awareness.
Rehabilitation Psychology, 49(1), 48-54. Paul,
S. (2000). Students with disabilities in higher
education A review of the literature. College
Student Journal, 34(2), 200-210.