[Paper Review] How Does COVID-19 impact Students with Disabilities/Health Concerns?

Han Zhang, Paula S. Nurius+9 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|May 11, 2020

COVID-19 and Mental Health32 references56 citations

TL;DR

The study surveys 147 students to compare education and mental health impacts of COVID-19 between students with disabilities/health concerns and those without, finding greater online-class anxiety and adversities among the former.

ABSTRACT

The impact of COVID-19 on students has been enormous, with an increase in worries about fiscal and physical health, a rapid shift to online learning, and increased isolation. In addition to these changes, students with disabilities/health concerns may face accessibility problems with online learning or communication tools, and their stress may be compounded by additional risks such as financial stress or pre-existing conditions. To our knowledge, no one has looked specifically at the impact of COVID-19 on students with disabilities/health concerns. In this paper, we present data from a survey of 147 students with and without disabilities collected in late March to early April of 2020 to assess the impact of COVID-19 on these students' education and mental health. Our findings show that students with disabilities/health concerns were more concerned about classes going online than their peers without disabilities. In addition, students with disabilities/health concerns also reported that they have experienced more COVID-19 related adversities compared to their peers without disabilities/health concerns. We argue that students with disabilities/health concerns in higher education need confidence in the accessibility of the online learning tools that are becoming increasingly prevalent in higher education not only because of COVID-19 but also more generally. In addition, educational technologies will be more accessible if they consider the learning context, and are designed to provide a supportive, calm, and connecting learning environment.

Motivation & Objective

• Assess how COVID-19 affects education and mental health of students with disabilities/health concerns in higher education.
• Compare experiences of students with disabilities/health concerns to peers without disabilities.
• Identify accessibility and design issues in online learning tools during the pandemic.
• Inform recommendations for accessible, calming, and connected online learning environments.
• Highlight implications for educational technology design beyond the COVID-19 context.

Proposed method

• Survey of 147 students conducted in late March to early April 2020.
• Participants included both students with disabilities/health concerns and those without.
• Assessment of education-related impacts (e.g., online classes) and mental health effects.
• Comparison between groups to identify differential impacts.
• Analysis focused on perceived accessibility and related adversities due to COVID-19.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 Do students with disabilities/health concerns experience greater worries about online classes compared to students without disabilities?
• RQ2 Are students with disabilities/health concerns exposed to more COVID-19 related adversities than their peers without disabilities?
• RQ3 What accessibility improvements to online learning tools could support students with disabilities in higher education?
• RQ4 How might online learning environments be designed to be supportive, calm, and connecting for all students?

Key findings

• Students with disabilities/health concerns were more concerned about classes going online than peers without disabilities.
• Students with disabilities/health concerns reported more COVID-19 related adversities than peers without disabilities/health concerns.
• The results underscore the need for confidence in accessibility of online learning tools.
• Educational technologies should consider learning context and aim to provide a supportive, calm, and connecting environment.