Number of U.S. college students with disabilities doubles over six years

Mar 30, 2026, Student demand for DSS doubled over six years – The GW HatchetThe number of students registered with Disability Support Services doubled over the last six years.

About 12 percent of students — 3,052 undergraduates and graduates — were registered with DSS by the end of 2025, up from 6 percent, or 1,657 students, in fall 2019, according to University spokesperson Skyler Sales. More than 10 higher education experts said the surge reflects a national trend of students seeking support before college, rising diagnoses and reduced stigma around accommodations, while students noted that filling DSS vacancies this year improved communication and efficiency, prompting more to register with GW’s DSS office.

Sales said demand for these services — including academic and housing accommodations — remains high even after about 500 registered students graduated last May. 3,038 students were registered with the office as of January, an increase of 475 from 2,563 in August, she said.

Sales attributed the growth in students registering for disability accommodations to heightened awareness, improved services and the 2008 Americans with Disabilities Act amendments, which broadened the definition of disability, granting more people eligibility for accommodations. She added that a “national mental health crisis” has driven more referrals from counseling centers to disability resources, which support students with “invisible” disabilities that people may have dismissed in the past. . . .

Chris Parthemos, the director of the Student Disability Access Center at the University of Virginia, said there has been growing support for disabled students through additional federal legislation, like Congress’s approval of the ADA in 1990 and its 2008 amendments, greater access to diagnostic services and decreasing stigma around disabilities. He said K-12 schools have built better systems to accommodate students’ needs earlier, permitting more disabled students to learn how to adapt to their disabilities earlier and pursue higher education, where disabilities have become more socially accepted.

About 15 percent of all public school students in 2022-23 were registered with a disability and received special education or related services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

Just over 11 percent of U.S. undergraduate students reported having disabilities in the 2011-12 academic year, while 2.4 percent of institutions reported having 10 percent or more students registered with disabilities in 2010-11, according to Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System data. In the 2019-20 academic year, 20.5 percent of undergraduate students reported having disabilities, while 11.8 percent of institutions reported having 10 percent or more students registered — a spike GW has also experienced. 

Parthemos said students often apply for testing accommodations, which has led to a significant increase in demand on testing centers proctoring exams. He said testing centers are designed to make resources consistently available for students with accommodations, alleviating the burden on faculty to implement accommodations in the classroom. 

“In my mind, the biggest explanation for the increase we are seeing is a move towards parity in this respect — a larger percentage of students with disabilities are electing to register to receive accommodations,” Parthemos said in an email. .