Personal Assistant Support for Students with Severe Physical Disabilities in Postsecondary Education

The purpose of this exploratory research is to document the level of personal assistance support provided to students with severe physical disabilities by disability support services in higher education institutions across the United States. A national survey was conducted of members of the Association of Higher Education And Disability (AHEAD) via an online survey. Of the 326 respondents with usable responses, 36 (14.1%) stated they provided some level of personal assistance services to students with severe physical disabilities, ranging from providing emergency services (25 or 69.4%) to providing residential services with in-house personal assistants (4 or 11.1%). Personal assistance support to students with severe physical disabilities were more likely to be provided at master’s, comprehensive, and research universities and less likely to be provided at bachelor’s, associate’s, and trade/technical schools. Those who provided personal assistant support were more likely to be able to identify students with severe physical disabilities who were negatively impacted by the lack of personal assistance support, were more satisfied with their personal assistance support services, had longer tenure in disability support services, and had greater numbers of part-time staff. Implications for service providers and future research are discussed.