by Heather Krasner and Raffael Singleton

Accommodations have been found to improve academic performance for students with and without disabilities. This study looked at the connection between peer attitudes towards academic accommodations and level of knowledge on the academic struggles caused by environmental limitations within the context of COVID-19. Our surveys measured perceived levels of fairness in regards to accommodations and perceived effectiveness and necessity towards accommodations. Our study consisted of three main conditions. The COVID-19 disruption group read a two-sentence vignette that expressed the problems that were caused for all students due to the disruptions caused by the pandemic. The disability group read a two-sentence vignette that suggested that students with disabilities were significantly more impacted academically by the pandemic when compared to students without disabilities. All participants were then sent to the same survey that measured perceived necessity, effectiveness, and fairness of accommodations. Data has not yet been analyzed. We expect to see a difference between groups in levels of the three dimensions mentioned above. If results differ between groups, we expect to see acceptance levels towards accommodations increase when participants are given more context regarding the struggles students with disabilities experienced during the pandemic.