Attitudes towards students with disabilities achieving their educational and work-related goals: a factorial survey experiment among higher education institution employees in Norway

Despite the widespread promotion of inclusive environments within higher education, social barriers and a lack of understanding among university staff continue to hinder students with disabilities in their goals of graduating and finding employment. Using ableism as a theoretical framework, this study aimed to explore attitudes among higher education institution employees towards students with disabilities and their feasibility in different types of education and employment positions. “Employees” in this study included teaching staff, student support, and administration. We conducted a factorial survey experiment in which respondents were invited to evaluate vignettes describing fictional students with and without disabilities. Other factors such as age, gender, ethnicity, and motivation were also included in the vignettes. A total of 2157 higher education employees across Norway participated in the survey and answered four questions regarding the likelihood of the student described in the vignette graduating, finding employment, and being suitable for relevant work tasks. Additionally, respondents were asked to rate how likely it was that they could make arrangements for the student during their studies. Results from multilevel regression analyses suggest that higher education employees are generally positive towards making arrangements for students with disabilities. However, despite this, students with disabilities were considered less likely to graduate, find employment, and less suitable in performing relevant work tasks in comparison to students without disabilities. We argue that ableist expectations continue to dominate perceptions of students within academia, and until ableism is addressed at an institutional level, higher education will remain far from inclusive.