Moisey, S. D. (2004). Students with disabilities in distance education: Characteristics, course enrollment and completion, and support services . The Journal of Distance Education , 19 (1), 73–91. https://www.ijede.ca/index.php/jde/jdearchive

[no doi located]; The Journal of Distance Education was renamed the International Journal of E-Learning & Distance Education in 2014, and is now an open-access online academic journal based at Athabasca University (in Alberta, Canada). The article is also available directly from the author at a stable link: http://hdl.handle.net/2149/2081 ​

This study looked at the participation of students with disabilities in distance education programs, and the effect of these programs on the services they receive and the success they experience.

Participants were 604 undergraduate students with disabilities who enrolled at Athabasca University (Athabasca, Alberta, Canada) between April 1998 and April 2001. This group reprented about 1.5% of the total undergraduate population. The majority (52%) of the group were students with physical disabilities, 20% of the students had a learning disability, and an additional 20% had psychological disabilities. Small percentages of students had visual or hearing impairments.

This study examined the services that students with disabilities received and their rate of course completion.

Students with disabilities were found to take more classes than their peers without disabilities, but experienced slightly less success. In addition, the course completion rate was slightly lower for students with disabilities than for the rest of the undergraduate population. Finally, disability-specific support services were found to be helpful for students. Certain types of disabilities seem to more amenable to certain types of assistance. For example, completion date extensions were helpful for students with psychological disabilities, but not for students with learning disabilities. Directions for further research are recommended.