Impact of Online Learning in the Context of COVID-19 on Undergraduates with Disabilities and Mental Health Concerns
Han Zhang, Margaret Morris, Paula Nurius, Kelly Mack, Jennifer Brown, Kevin Kuehn, Yasaman Sefidgar, Xuhai Xu, Eve Riskin, Anind Dey, Jennifer Mankoff · 2022 · ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing · doi:10.1145/3538514
Summary
This mixed-methods study examined how the COVID-19 pandemic's shift to online learning affected undergraduate students with disabilities and mental health concerns at a large US public university. The researchers compared 28 students with disabilities/mental health concerns to 114 peers through surveys administered in March 2020 (pre-term, as classes moved online) and June 2020 (post-term, after a full quarter of remote learning), supplemented by qualitative interviews with 10 students with disabilities. The study used a broad definition of "students with disabilities/mental health concerns" that included those who self-identified as disabled, used disability resources, or met clinical thresholds for moderate-to-severe depression or anxiety on validated scales. This approach captured students who may experience accessibility barriers without formally identifying as disabled—a significant population given that mental health is often under-reported as a disability. The research fills an important gap by examining online learning accessibility beyond just content accessibility (alt text, captions) to consider how the entire learning experience—lectures, participation, peer interaction, office hours—affects students with diverse disabilities. Participants included students with ADHD, depression, anxiety, POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome), and visual impairments.
Key findings
Students with disabilities entered Spring 2020 with significantly higher concerns about online learning than their peers, particularly regarding degree goals, major admission, and graduation timing. They also reported more negative life events, higher chronic discrimination, and greater perceived stress. However, by the end of the quarter, most differences had diminished—actual online learning proved less challenging than anticipated, except that students with disabilities continued reporting more negative life events. The qualitative findings revealed a complex picture of benefits and barriers: **Benefits:** Recorded lectures allowed students to watch at their own pace, pause, and rewind—valuable for students with attention difficulties, visual impairments, or fatigue conditions like POTS. Online office hours eliminated travel barriers and felt less intimidating. Chat features enabled students with anxiety to participate without speaking aloud. Perhaps most significantly, pandemic-era policies created a "shift from ask and approve to a default of accessibility"—accommodations like open-book exams and flexible deadlines became available to all students without requiring formal requests. **Barriers:** Reduced interpersonal interaction intensified isolation and depression for some students. Students with ADHD struggled to focus without the structure of physical classrooms. Breakout sessions often felt isolating when peers kept cameras off. The lack of in-person social cues made connection difficult. Financial stressors, caregiving responsibilities, and crowded living situations compounded these challenges for many students.
Relevance
This research makes a compelling case for retaining flexible learning options beyond the pandemic. The finding that what were previously "accommodations" became beneficial to all students when offered universally suggests that accessibility features should be defaults rather than exceptions requiring formal requests. For practitioners, the study highlights that online learning accessibility extends far beyond WCAG compliance. Students with mental health conditions, chronic fatigue, and attention difficulties may benefit enormously from recorded lectures and asynchronous participation—but may also struggle with isolation and lack of structure. There is no single "best" modality; different students thrive in different contexts, and individual students may experience both benefits and drawbacks from the same features. The concept of "stacked stressors" is particularly relevant: students with disabilities often face intersecting challenges (financial pressure, first-generation status, caregiving) that compound accessibility barriers. Effective accessibility requires considering the whole person, not just accommodating a specific impairment. The authors argue that the pandemic should serve as a "wake-up call" for accessibility researchers to study online learning comprehensively and to ensure that accessibility gains are not erased as universities return to in-person instruction.
Tags: online learning · COVID-19 · mental health · higher education · disability · accommodations · flexible learning · ADHD · depression · anxiety