A Universal Research Design for Student Affairs Scholars and Practitioners

Research on the experiences of college students with disabilities and the extent to which student affairs practitioners and scholars are meeting their needs is sparse. This article advances the concept of Universal Research Design (URD) by discussing the application of universal design principles to research on college students. Four critical considerations that student affairs practitioners and scholars should address when conducting disability research include (a) language and operational definitions, (b) accessing participants, (c) data collection for both qualitative and quantitative research, and (d) researcher's positionality and just representation. We demonstrate how URD can be used to make research on students with disabilities more inclusive, accessible, and accommodating.