Sack, W., Gale, J., Gulati, S., Gunther, M., Nesheim, R., Stoddard, F., & St. John, R. (2008). Requesting accommodation for a disability: A telephone survey of American medical schools . Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability , 20 (2), 92–99. https://www.ahead.org/publications/jped

[no doi reported]; also located on ERIC online database: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ825776

The researchers sought to discover the number of students requesting accommodations for a disability, the time at which the request was made, the type of disability, and the type/s of accommodations offered.

Personnel at 107 medical schools across the nation (U.S.) were interviewed about practices related to students with disabilities and accommodations.

An interview format was used.

The three major findings from the survey were: (a) 2.3% of medical students request accommodations for some form of disability; (b) vast majority of the requests for accommodation come from students with cognitive, rather than physical disabilities; and (c) many students with disabilities delay requesting accommodation until they experience the rigors of the medical school curriculum. Accommodations offered usually consist of extra time and/or a quiet room for examinations. Limitations of the study were reported, and future research possibilities were suggested.