Graduating high-school students with disabilities are making the decision to pursue a
post-secondary education in greater numbers. While many students with disabilities self-identify
at enrollment as having a disability and thereby qualify for instructional accommodations, few of
them request accommodations to assist with meeting course requirements and assignments.
Several approaches and models have been used to try to identify the factors that influence
to seek accommodations. Few of these studies have used a theoretical
framework including a multidimensional approach that encompasses individual, social,
situational, and environmental factors. The present study delved into instructional
accommodations by testing the influence of attitudes, subjective norms, perceived control, and
behavioral intentions on the requests for accommodations made by students with disabilities at a
two-year and a four-year post-secondary institution. The study used the theory of planned
behavior (Ajzen, 1989, 1991, 2006; Ajzen & Fishbein, 1973, 1973, 1980, 2005) to examine the
relationships among attitude toward behavior, subjective norms, perceived control, behavioral
intentions, and requests for accommodations. The study also examined the influence of a
student����s psychosocial adjustment to disability by including acceptance of disability as a variable
whose relation to accommodation behavior and other variables were studied. The study design
afforded the examination of the direct and indirect effects of exogenous variables on endogenous
variables. The theory of planned behavior provides the ability to expand the model with future
research by examining the influence of other variables.
