Barnard-Brak, L., Sulak, T., Tate, A., & Lechtenberger, D. (2010). Measuring college students’ attitudes toward requesting accommodations: A national multi-institutional study . Assessment for Effective Intervention , 35 (3), 141–147. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534508409358900

There were no specific accommodations identified; the object of study was participants' attitudes toward requesting accommodations in a higher education setting.

The research participants were 276 postsecondary students who were registered with their campus disability services offices at 10 U.S. public and private universities. Over 65% were female, about 87% self-identified as White, about 4% self-identified as African American, almost 4% as Hispanic/Latino, and less than 1% as Asian. About 58% reported having one disability, and about 26% had two disabilities. The most common disability category was learning disability, with almost 44% of the participants, about 21% had emotional disabilities, and over 18% had physical disabilities. The participant group's average age was about 27 years old.

Participants completed the Attitudes Toward Requesting Accommodations (ATRA) scale, an attitudinal survey which had 32 items with Likert-type items. The subscales measured Academic Integrity, Accommodations Process, Disability Acceptance, and Disability Disclosure.

The results of this study provided support for the stability of the ATRA measure, yet also provided detail about the aspects of the attitude of college students with disabilities regarding seeking accommodations. The ATRA had a maximum possible raw score of 160, indicating a high degree of negative perceptions about seeking accommodations. To this end, this group of participants scored an overall mean of about 87 points, with a range of 34 to 116. Additionally, all four of the subscales contributed relatively evenly to either a lower or higher ATRA score.