Competitive Disability Friendly Colleges

aquapt
Tue, 24 Jul 2018 19:16:38 +0000

BU used to be terrific, disability-services-wise. I attended their PT school while Rick Hoyt of Team Hoyt marathon fame was an undergrad, and I worked for a number of other students with various disabilities through the disabilities office, doing academic-assistant stuff, as well as through the state-funded PCA system. I’m not sure what it’s like today, though. I think Northeastern may have pulled ahead in terms of proactive disability services; and NU also has a more compact and inherently-accessible campus than BU’s. Harvard… ehhh… I’m not sure. They love their occasional disability feature story (i.e. Brooke Ellison), but when it comes to sustained supportiveness… I’m skeptical.

Have you looked at Rice? It attracts a lot of students who need ongoing medical attention, because of the proximity of the huge and top-notch Houston Medical Center. The weather is vastly more disability-friendly (except for those for whom heat in between air-conditioned buildings is a deal-killer) than Boston/NY/Providence/Chicago, and the physical accessibility of the campus is terrific - mostly-level, ramps and automatic doors everywhere, etc. They seem to attract more students in the chronic-illness-with-disability-as-a-consequence category than in the stable-permanent-disability-but-not-ill category. Which is to say, there’s not a ton of disability community on campus, but they do serve individuals with medical and access needs well on an individual basis.

Stanford is a huge campus where even the bipeds need bicycles to get around, so powered mobility would be a must; but if that’s part of the plan anyway it could be a great choice if you can get in (which is not a slam-dunk for anybody but recruited athletes). Stanford Medical Center is, tbh, not my favorite place in terms of culture and disability-positive attitudes, but it’s certainly top-tier medically.

As suggested above, the Claremont Colleges are quite good vis-a-vis physical access and support. However, they’re not super-close to the best medical care the LA area has to offer. The smaller nearby hospitals are decidedly “meh.”

For schools that are making some meaningful strides in terms of disability inclusion at the med school level (not to say you’re interested in med school, but to me it’s a litmus test of a commitment to inclusion) look at Pitt and UMichican. https://labblog.uofmhealth.org/med-u/a-seat-at-table-why-u-ms-medical-school-wants-more-students-disabilities

What are you hoping to major in? Is it something that will require a lot of accommodations on an academic-engagement level, or is your need for support more just around daily-living and medical-care stuff?