A Systematic Review of the Literature on Physically Disabled Students in Postsecondary Education: 2013-2021

While early literature in accessibility services in postsecondary education largely focused on physically disabled students, their presence in the peer-reviewed literature from 1951-2012 was described as sparse by Gelbar et al. (2015). The studies that existed were largely descriptive, and no studies investigated the effectiveness of accommodations or services for physically disabled students. The present study extends this prior analysis and examines the professional literature on physically disabled students published from 2013-2021. Results indicated there was an increase in articles during this time that featured physically disabled students in the overall sample, and of articles focused on this cohort specifically. There was also an increase in the number of articles based in countries outside of the United States, Canada, and Great Britain, as well as a rise in the number of articles featuring qualitative designs. However, there remains a minimal number of articles featuring research designs that allow the field of postsecondary education and disability to determine research-based practices in providing access to the population, as well as articles that focus on 2-year and career/technical institutions and on faculty and institutional staff. Implications for research and practice are presented.