INSTRUMENTS AND MEASURES

Student Database

The university’s disability service office keeps electronic records of information for students registered with its office in a student database. The student database contains each student’s list of approved accommodations. The researcher was granted access to the student database to obtain information on approved academic accommodations for students with LD. The student database contains information pertaining to students’

personal and demographical information as well; however the researcher did not obtain any student-identifiable information. Information was provided to the researcher through a secured shared folder service.

The student database was obtained for students registered during the 2017-2018 academic year. Approved accommodations were marked with TRUE while non-approved accommodations were left blank. The researcher was able to determine how many and which accommodations students’ were approved.

Surveys

Each year the university’s disability service office sends out an electronic survey to both students registered with its office and university instructors. The assistant director of the office generates the surveys with the intent to know more about the experiences of students registered with the office, including those obtained in the classroom and around the campus. The information collected helps service providers in the office improve the services provided to students, as well as improve the experiences students have with using accommodations. Surveys consisted of multiple choice, rating scale, and open- ended questions. Survey data was provided to the researcher through a secured shared folder service. See Appendix D for examples of survey questions.

Out of the 84 questions asked on the student survey 22 were included because they pertained to the research questions. The 62 questions that were excluded were done so because it was determined that were not applicable or there was no student response. Three of the 22 questions pertained to demographics, leaving 19 questions for analysis.

Of the 19 non-demographic questions included, 18 were quantitative (i.e., multiple choice or rating scale) while only one was qualitative (i.e., open-ended).

Out of the 32 questions asked on the instructor survey 16 were included because they pertained to the research questions. The 16 questions that were excluded were done so because it was determined that they were not applicable to students with LD or accommodations. Two of the 16 questions pertained to demographics, leaving 14 questions for analysis. Of the 14 non-demographic questions included, 13 were quantitative (i.e., multiple choice or rating scale) while only one was qualitative (i.e., open-ended).

Questionnaire

After the disability service office declined participation in interviews the researcher then requested that disability service personnel voluntarily complete anonymous questionnaires, developed by the researcher to obtain disability service personnel’s perspectives.

The researcher pulled the most pertinent questions from the survey created for disability service personnel. Then, revised questions to be explicit and generate the most precise response for information being obtained. The questionnaire had 16 questions with no identifiable information obtained. The questionnaires were sent to disability services via mail but no questionnaires were returned. See Appendix E for an example of

Interview guide

Interview guides were developed by the researcher to specifically address the research questions. An interview guide is a document containing questions and key words tailored to the specific issues of interest and relevance to interview. The interview guide helps steer the interviewer to obtain pertinent information (Yin, 2016). A slightly different interview guide was developed for each participant group (i.e., student and instructor). Questions on both guides paralleled each other, allowing for the perspectives of participants from each group to be revealed related to the research question.

The researcher developed the interview guides by identify major sections of information to be obtained during the interview based on research questions. Such

sections were: (a) basic information; (b), understanding about use of accommodations; (c) perceptions of the utility of accommodations; (d) facilitators of and barriers; and (e) disability law.

For each interview guide section (per participant group) the researcher identified key words (e.g., disability, diagnosis, facilitators, barriers) that addressed research questions and formulated specific interview questions. Interview questions were narrowed down to those that seem most valuable in steering the interview. Each guide had approximately 25 questions. The researcher organized the interview guide and sections to allow for the most reasonable way to obtain pertinent information to answer research questions. Interview guides were piloted, on individuals similar to those who meet inclusion criteria for each participant group (students, n = 3; instructors, n = 3;

disability service personnel, n = 1), and adjusted to better obtain information-rich responses. See Appendix F for examples of interview guides.

A total of 22 interviews took place over the course of five months (November – February). All instructor interviews took place in participants’ office, whereas all student interviews took place in researcher’s office. Each participant was interviewed one time. A total of 844.13 interview minutes, 14.07 hours, were accumulated. Instructor interviews had a greater range of minutes and higher average time. The number of primary questions asked (i.e., exclusion of demographic, introduction, and follow-up/clarification

questions), from the interview guide, ranged from 18 – 32 across all interviews with students being asked more questions on average.

Table 3.10: Interview Features

Interview Features Range Total Average

Length Students Instructors

Number of Questions Asked Students Instructors 25.53 – 47.30 minutes 20.03 – 54:52 minutes 23 – 32 18 – 32 373.51 (6.23 hours) 470.62 (7.84 hours) NA NA 37.35 minutes 39.23 minutes 28 26

Note. NA = not applicable.