This manuscript is relevant and meaningful. It is aligned to the focus of JIR. This manuscript is worthy of publication. It is focused, and it addresses a very important topic today centered around special education. This information adds value to existing knowledge. The Disability table provided some insightful information. It helped to support the focus of the manuscript. The barriers for university students with disabilities were directed by the Student Development Theory.

Dear author(s),

Thank you for the opportunity to review your manuscript. Your topic is relevant, insightful and much needed. The manuscript is well written with recent authoritative sources to support the discussion. Some of sources are as recent as 2020. My comments are outlined below.

1. The manuscript is detailed on disabilities and one could deduct that the discussion is on mental disabilities. The word, disability was not specific to whether it's physical or mental. The American with Disabilities Act specified disabilities to be either physical or mental disabilities. A few lines of differentiating if one or both types of disabilities id discussed could be helpful.

2.   Under the sub-heading, "Historical Evolution of Specific Education," the manuscript stated that university professors have not been exposed to the laws of evolution regarding special education. However, the two sources mentioned (U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of Civil Right, 2020) are not directly related to university education. An authoritative source of higher education journal could give a more specific information regarding university professors. 

3. Pg. 6, two questions were asked. However, one one gave the reader an insight of the use of IEP in grade/secondary schools. Explaining if and how the IEP services or its equivalent is applied in colleges and universities will give a comparable discussion.

4. Pg. 15, under "recommendations" - Great to read about the recommendations on how have a collaboration between secondary schools and higher institution regarding students with disabilities transition. Including the recommendation(s) on how higher institutions can navigate disabilities among non-traditional adult students would ensure inclusiveness. 

Overall, excellent paper!

Best,

Stella 

Hi, thanks for your desire to improve student access to education. I've worked as a disability specialist on a college campus and desire to point out a few things that might be helpful for you. 

1. On page 5, you refer to non-disabled peers. This is considered a discriminatory reference. In the field of disabilities, we do not refer to people as able-bodied (p. 16), disabled persons, or non-disabled peers. We use the longer phrase person with a disability or person without a disability. They are people first, and then we identify if they have a disability. 

2. In your section on accommodations, I'd like to explain a bit more. A decision for accommodations is not only based on an IEP. The decision, as determined by law, and adjudicated cases, must be individualized and take into account any historical information (such as an IEP), current data (a neuropsych evaluation within 2-3 years - I'll explain later, or medical evaluation, or other depending on the disability), a conversation with the student about how they best learn, and how that might apply to the college setting. Some accommodations made in K-12, such as retaking tests, are not considered appropriate for postsecondary work.

3. I would encourage you to look at the laws more carefully. There are many differences between IDEA and The Rehab Act. The second is not simply a copy or continuation of IDEA. It does state that students must self-identify. The intention is to value autonomy, foster independence, and transition the person with a disability into adulthood.

4. The evaluations needed are dependent upon the type of disability. For a learning disability, TBI, and Autism, the neuropsych evaluation based upon recent performance is needed. How a student performs on such evaluation at the age of 10 is not necessarily how they perform at the age of 18. For sight and hearing disabilities, a simple medical or audiology report will suffice. For psychiatric diagnoses, a psychiatric or psychologist letter will often suffice.

5. I noticed you do not have information from the resources that postsecondary schools use such as AHEAD, DO-IT, or others. I think using those sources as well would strengthen your work.

Hope this is helpful.

Kathy

The main focus on this purpose of this article seemed to be focusing on recent and current issues for students with disabilities, however the majority of the resources used to support this were not even from the 2020s, and some from the 1990s.  This is an interesting article worth pursuing, but it definitely could be improved by using more up to date resources, especially when we are trying to address current issues.

Hopefully this helps.

Dear Author(s),

"Removing Barriers for University Students with Disabilities" is an interesting article, as it seeks to tackle an understudied area, and as such, it makes a significant contribution, primarily if the Author (s) address some of the recommendations albeit few are important. I am grateful for the opportunity to review and present my comments on your document and the research work you have put into this document.

You said That K-12 teachers are likely to have taken some classes in special education is not correct.

There are specific teachers for special education, and these teachers have had thorough training as special-ed teachers.

Some universities during the COVID-19 pandemic made sure that all services were virtually available.  

Most universities haves "The Center for Disability & Access" designated office that evaluates disability documentation, determines eligibility, and implements reasonable accommodations for enrolled students as guided by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the different University policy.

Some also have the "Access the Online Portal" to complete New Student Intake Forms or Accommodation Request Forms (for existing students).

 Page 8 – last paragraph – Second line:

You said: "Research has shown that only 58 percent of college freshman graduate (Stein, 2018)." 

I suggest the Author(s), as indicated by another reviewer specifying each person with disabilities, making it easier for the reader to understand which group you may be addressing. 

Page 15 – last paragraph – Line two through four. 

"Current students are far from being shunned and institutionalized." 

Generalizing it means others with existing experiences are not considered. You might want to rephrase it to be less of a generalization 

Diagnosed at the age of 16 with schizoaffective disorder, Nicholas was also was diagnosed with Autism when he was two years old. I was devastated by what I perceived as the worst thing to happen to me, but I was determined to advocate for him and children like him. He was institutionalized for almost four years. While in the inpatient hospital, I made sure he attended school and completed his high school diploma; the hospitals came together to celebrate him. He is now in college for the last three years. I have attended workshops and symposiums, and most parents do not have resources or help for their children. 

Line three: You said: "There are multitudes of support and resources available to special needs students from birth forward."

How do general education classroom environments respond to individual differences and needs? How readily do teachers alter their forms of classroom organization; how readily do they modify approaches?

Page 16 – Line One: You said: "Making the transition from high school to college can be a challenge for any student, but when you combine that with a disability, the likelihood of success diminishes."

It will be great to add some facts to go along with this statement for impact.

A recent survey reports that 47% of adults living with schizophrenia drop out of college, compared to the 27% college dropout rate in the U.S. overall.  Another study says that students diagnosed with bipolar disorder are 70% more likely to drop out of college than students with no psychiatric diagnosis.

Overall, the tone and intentions of this paper are qualitative. I am not personally aware of some of the other comments giving to your group, but when it comes to referring to groups that are not on the spectrum or those who are not diagnosed or living with a difference (which we still call disability), you can probably just say something like “...those who are not or do not live with a diagnosis are…”, in place of the non-disabled term.  I completely understand what you mean, but if it proves to be an issue, then just a simple “those without a diagnosis or disability…” will suffice.

    Pg #5 - I do not see any issues regarding the history section describing the disability act and the rehabilitation act. Here is what you can add: more information covering these two points of the discussion.

    I do think that a plethora of opportunities are provided to K-12 teachers to learn more about disabilities, but whether they are made known, accessible, accessed, and used or provided is not to my knowledge whatsoever. SARRC is the Southwest Autism Research & Resource Center, but even though it’s built primarily for those diagnosed on the spectrum, the resource itself might not be used as often as it should be; that is to say, resources are almost never used as often as they should be. 

    Pg #6: Accommodations - I think you can say “...and are universities ensuring that such accommodations are implemented?...”, just for the flow of the speech in the text. Otherwise, disregard this comment.    

    I am not aware of the word limit, but if you have more words to spare in the document, then I think some more on the history and types of accommodations would be good for the usefulness of the paper. To note, more information on the types of accommodations includes their success rates, the rate at which each is used, coupling accommodations, and the like. If there is a research paper that covers an experiment on the effects of accommodations for those diagnosed with disabilities, then that would be great to add in here; if not, then no worries at all. You may focus more on the facts and the actions that were completed with them.

    Lastly, I noticed the words “have been” used for past-tense in the text occurs to a high degree. To my knowledge, in scientific writing, we go ahead and use perfect past tense (e.g., The specimens were perfused in accordance with the humane animal act…) the phrase “were perfused” shows that perfect past tense, since it’s something that was already said and done. To note, and to this commentator’s knowledge, the field of education is approximately 100 years old (i.e., the field of studying education and teaching is the youngest, accepted field of research and higher education); despite the fact that a classroom setting, and learning setting like it, were in use for centuries. The Doctorates of Philosophy is well known; it has been around for centuries. The Doctorates of Education, conversely, is relatively new (Perry, Jill Alexa (2012). "What does history reveal about the education doctorate?". In Latta, Margaret (ed.). Placing Practitioner Knowledge at the Center of Teacher Education. Educational Policy in Practice: Critical Cultural Studies. ). Therefore, it is difficult to make many, if any, far-reaching extrapolations or conjectures regarding the direction for beneficial, disability accommodations in higher education, especially without consulting developmental and social psychology. If the group here wishes, they can explore abnormal psychology texts or developmental texts for further reflection for the intended audience. It’s okay to use papers that range outside of a “3-year mark”; many papers in neuroscience range as far back as the 1930s, and they are still well used. The year of the paper does not matter as much as the quality of the paper and the relevance of the manuscript to the current goal or topic.

Hello--Thank you for sharing your work. This topic is certainly relevant today more than ever. Nice work!

p. 4: "handicapped" instead of "handicap children".

Bottom of p. 4: Americans With Disabilities Amendment Act was signed into law in 2008, but the original Act was signed in 1990.

p. 6: student's diagnosed disability

p. 6: You might share more details about the differences between a school that offers a plethora of supports and services and those that have just the bare minimum of services. What is the required minimum? Who monitors this and how are federal dollars broken down to support the larger vs. the smaller schools?

p. 8: What have you learned in your research about the reasons for the rise in students enrolled with disabilities? It would be interesteresting to know what the theories are.

p. 8: Explain the theoretical perspectives of a developing student. Cite some research are you looking at...the same thing with "studies concerning how collegestudents learn and interact..." Cite one or two of these studies to give your reader a little more context.

Bottom of p. 8: Use only the last names of authors.

p. 12: "The author..." instead of "She."

p. 16: "Professors need to know..." I wonder what training instructors in higher ed. receive. As a former public school principal, special education laws were hammered into our heads, and any errors we made could cost us funding, our jobs, cauase lawsuits/terrible publicity, or all of the above. Do you know what the required training is for college instructors?

This might be for another study, but it would be interesting to find a link between the K-12 schools that involved students (self-advocacy) in their IEP meetings and a stronger success rate in college or university levels.

Very interesting and timely topic!  I noticed the overuse of the filler word  THAT,  used 71 times.  I suggest replacing with which/who or deleting when not required in a sentence. I noticed your several/many of your references are beyond 5 years old.  Best practice is for resources to be within 5 years, as information changes so rapidly.  Some of my comments have already been addressed by other colleagues.  Thank you, Therese Chavaux