The need for university-provided services by a sample of students with disabilities at the state-supported universities in Pennsylvania

The purpose of this study was to ascertain the needs for twenty designated university-provided services by students with disabilities affiliated with the Pennsylvania Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR) at the fourteen state-supported universities in the Commonwealth. The data used to address the study's three research questions were the 212 OVR students' expressed need for each of 20 selected university-provided services as indicated on the five-alternative extent-of-need response continuum (none, low, moderate, strong, very strong) of the Special Students Services Inventory (SSSI). The chi square statistic was used in comparing need according to student's gender and type of disability. The.05 level was the criterion for statistical significance. The results showed that the preponderance of disabled students (over 53%) had "low" or "no" need for 18 of the 20 selected university services. For 19 of 20 services, the modal frequency was in the "none" alternative and for no service did a majority of the students indicate "strong" or "very strong" need. The strongest need of OVR students in general was for services pertaining to financial aid advisement, academic support, and next step placement assistance. The services least needed were related to medically prescribed diets, library aids, and special communication equipment. These least-needed services seemed to be associated more to students with specific disability types than to all students with disabilities. The need for the 20 services by students classified by gender differed significantly for one service. This seemed to warrant the conclusion that no differentiation needs to be made in the provision of a program of campus services for disabled students because of their gender. Students with certain types of disabilities reported a stronger need for 12 of the 20 services than did students with disabilities in general. This finding supports the conclusion that certain services must be tailored to the disability type more so than to students with disabilities in general.