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 listserv or HBCU listserv , Facebook or Twitter for ongoing updates about our publications.

CeDaR Database

The Campus Disability Resources (CeDaR) Database has contact information for disability services provided at nearly every degree-granting college and university in the U.S. Over 500 campuses also provided detailed information about disability resources, and there are easy ways to search for campuses with LD, autism, or inclusive higher education programs. The survey to collect data for this project was funded by the U.S. Department of Education and approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB Control Number 1840-0841). For a copy of the survey, contact us.

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 website.

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.

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.

We also did extensive research for the CeDaR Database, contacting every degree-granting accredited institution of higher education in the United States and its territories.

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.