Complete Resource Guide for College Students with Disabilities

In this article

Top scholarships with upcoming deadlines

Prospective college students with disabilities may feel overwhelmed as they begin looking into their options as they navigate college life. Fortunately, there have been marked strides made with adaptive technology and legislative advances to support college students with a variety of disabilities.

Create a Bold.org profile and use the scholarship search feature to access hundreds of exclusive scholarships.

student with disability in wheelchair playing sports

College Guide for Students with Disabilities

In the not-so-distant past, a prospective college student with a disability would have very limited opportunities to access the myriad higher education options to other students. Fortunately, there have been marked strides made with adaptive technology and legislative advances to support college students with a variety of disabilities.

From the legislative standpoint, there are two primary drivers of the aforementioned changes: Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a broad-based civil rights law enacted to protect individuals against discrimination based on a disability. In fact, the ADA of 1990 provides similar individual protections as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 plus a requirement to make reasonable accommodations as well as accessibility requirements for public accommodations.

What is Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act?

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1998 serves to clarify and strengthen provisions already in place that govern access to information in the Federal sector. The law includes all types of electronic and information technology which includes the usage of assistive technologies.