1. Fichten, C. , King, L. , & Havel, A
Fichten, C., King, L., & Havel, A. , in collaboration with members of the Adaptech Research Network. (2018, October). Postsecondary students with disabilities: How research informs practice. Presentation at the 4th Ed-ICT International Network Symposium, Hagen, Germany.
Postsecondary Students With Disabilities: How Research Informs Practice
Catherine Fichten, Laura King, Alice Havel
and members of the Adaptech Research Network
Retrieved from
4th Ed-ICT Symposium, Hagen, Germany
October 17, 2018

2. Adaptech Research Network: Overview
Focus
College/university students & grads with disabilities
Information and communication technologies
Free or inexpensive assistive technologies

3. Who are We Talking About: Enrollment
Self-reported disability: 11%-17% of students1
≈ 2/3 not registered for campus disability services2
Mainly students with
Learning disability/ADHD
Mental health conditions
Chronic health conditions
≈ 50% have multiple disabilities
1Fichten, C.S., Heiman, T., Havel, A., Jorgensen, M., King, L., Nguyen, M.N., & Budd, J. (2016). Will the real universal design stand up? Postsecondary students with disabilities in Canada and Israel. Manuscript submitted for publication.
2Fichten, C.S., Jorgensen, S., Havel, A., Barile, M., (2006). College students with disabilities: Their future and success. Final report to FQRSC. Montréal: Adaptech Research Network, Dawson College.

4. Grades College 6 year archival study1 Program
Learning Disability / ADHD 
All Other Disabilities
No Disability n
Grade
Social Science
166
64%
103
70%
13,908
62%
Career/Technical 32 40
71%
4,634
67%
All Programs
347
285
40,262
66%
1 Jorgensen, S., Fichten, C.S., Havel, A., Lamb, D., James, C., & Barile, M. (2005). Academic performance of college students with and without disabilities: An archival study. Canadian Journal of Counselling, 39(2),

5. Graduation / Persistence
Students with/without disabilities graduate at the same rate1
Higher graduation rate of students with disabilities
But not significantly
Take an extra term
1 Jorgensen, S., Fichten, C.S., Havel, A., Lamb, D., James, C., & Barile, M. (2005). Academic performance of college students with and without disabilities: An archival study. Canadian Journal of Counselling, 39(2),

6. Employment - Graduates of 3 colleges 5-10 months after graduation1
Students
Working Full Time
Working Part Time
Looking for Work
Studying
Unavailable For Work
Pre-University
With a Disability 90
10% 4% 1%
83%
No Disability
752 8% 5% 2%
84%
Career/Technical 86
51%
15%
30%
540
49%
14% 3%
31% n
Employed
Pre-university
14% with a disability
13% nondisabled
Career/technical
66% with a disability
63% nondisabled
1 Fichten, C.S., Jorgensen, S., Havel, A., Barile, M., Ferraro, V., Landry, M-E., Fiset, D., Juhel, J-C., Chwojka, C., Nguyen, M.N., Amsel, R. & Asuncion, J.V. (2012). What happens after graduation? Outcomes, employment, and recommendations of recent junior/community college graduates with and without disabilities. Disability and Rehabilitation 34(11),

7. Employment: 4 Year Follow-up1
175 university & 77 college students
4 years later
193 graduated from original program
59 dropped out
Employment outcome
9% not in the labor force
Of those in the labor force
82% employed (94% if no disability2)
Jobs of grads closely related to field of study
2Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey. (2015). Unemployment rates of 25-to 29-years-olds, by educational attainment, Canada and provinces, 1995, 2000, 2005, and to Retrieved from
1Fichten, C. S., Jorgensen, S., Havel, A., Barile, M., Ferraro, V., Landry, M.-E., Fiset, D., Juhel, J.-C., Chwojka, C., Nguyen, M. N., & Asuncion, J. V. (2012). What happens after graduation? Outcomes, employment, and recommendations of recent junior/community college graduates with and without disabilities. Disability and Rehabilitation, 34(11),  

8. Specialized ICTs Used by Students with LD and Experts’ Recommendations
Kurzweil 3000 6%
45%
Wynn 3%
19%
Dictation software
10%
65%
WordQ
25%
29%
Text-to-speech software
18%
38%
Scanning/OCR
27% 9%
Mind-mapping/concept mapping
41%
Smartpen
Check how items were asked

9. General-Use ICTs Used by Students with LD and Experts’ Recommendations
Office suite
86%
71%
Antidote
65%
47%
Electronic dictionary
58% 2%
MP3 to listen to books/texts
30%
E-book
11% 0%
PDF
74%
Digital recorder
16%
Laptop
85%
36%
Smartphone/iPod etc.
69%
10%

10. Learning Disabilities & Universal Design
Study of reading comprehension1
432 college students
LD (learning disabilities)
Poor readers
Very poor readers
Adequate readers
Universal design
If tasks / technologies designed to be accessible from the inception, less need for accommodations2
2 Fichten, C. S., Nguyen, M. N., King, L., Havel, A., Mimouni, Z., Barile, M., Budd, J., Jorgensen, S., Chauvin, A., & Gutberg, J. (2014). How well do they read? Brief English and French screening tools for college students. International Journal of Special Education, 29(1),  
2 Thomson, R., Fichten, C., Budd, J., Havel, A., & Asuncion, J. (2015). Blending universal design, e-learning, and information and communication technologies. In S. Burgstahler (Ed.), Universal design in higher education: From principles to practice (2nd ed.), pp Boston: Harvard Education Press.

11. From Research to Real Life
Barriers students faced
Prohibitive cost (>$1000) of adaptive technologies
Lack of knowledge of available products
Inadequate opportunities to try products before purchasing
Lack of information about where to purchase products
Not knowing if a product would work well for them
Make sure to explain that these are for assistive/adaptive technologies

12. The Birth of FANDI Free and Inexpensive Technology Database (FANDI)
Evolved from listing of ICTs
Explain where the listing came from (i.e., suggestions/answers from students, experts/service providers, vendors)

13. Apple iOS for iPhone, iPad, & iPod
FANDI in 2016
Built-in Features
Windows 7, 8.1, & 10
Mac OSX
Apple iOS for iPhone, iPad, & iPod
Android devices
Products
Software & Hardware
Windows
Macintosh
Mobile Applications
Windows 10
Apple
Android

14. Some of Adaptech’s Favourites
ABBYY PDF Transformer
Dragon Naturally Speaking
Evernote
Inspiration
Livescribe Smartpen
Notability
TextAloud 3
Voice Dream Reader
VuPoint Magic Wand
WordQ

15. Product Categories (1)
Adapted Keyboards Dictionary/Reference Organization/Productivity Alternative Mice Dictation

16. Product Categories (2)
Magnification Scanning & Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Screen Reading Writing Other (including multipurpose programs)

17. Your Favorites
What are some of your favorite free and/or inexpensive technologies?

18. Questions?