Barnard-Brak, L., & Sulak, T. (2010). Online versus face-to-face accommodations among college students with disabilities . The American Journal of Distance Education , 24 (2), 81–91. https://doi.org/10.1080/08923641003604251

The focus of this study did not specify particular accommodations; rather, the area of inquiry was students' attitudes about requesting accommodations in learning environments.

Participants numbered 83 postsecondary students who reported to have disabilities at a public university in the Southwest (U.S.). This group of students were involved with 23 different academic degree programs, and were fairly evenly spread out across different years of study. Most reported to have one disability (58%), and a substantial minority reported two disabilities (37%). The most commonly reported was learning disability (39%). About 63% reported having hidden disabilities, and 37% reported having visible disabilities. Statistics are available on ethnicity and sex of the participant group.

Students' perspectives were measured by the Attitudes Toward Requesting Accommodations (ATRA) survey, whose 35 Likert-scale items measure these attitudes in traditional face-to-face learning environments. The ATRA was modified to be applied to the attitudes of students participating in accommodations in the online learning environment.

Students with disabilities did not have significantly different attitudes about requesting accommodations in the face-to-face learning environment in comparison to the online learning environment. When focusing in on students with visible and hidden disabilities, attitudes differed: students with visible disabilities had significantly more positive attitudes about seeking accommodations in the online setting over the in-person setting when compared to students with hidden disabilities—whose attitudes about requesting accommodations were similar for both learning environments.