Sustainability of disability-related services in Canada and Israel: Will the real universal design please stand up?

Abstract

We have examined the sustainability of providing services for students with disabilities in higher education in Canada and Israel. The two countries differ in their approaches: Israel subscribes to the accommodations model of service delivery; Canada, to the universal design approach. Case examples of services to students with disabilities in Canada and Israel are used to illustrate these approaches in a descriptive, illustrative study of 214 students with disabilities in Israel and the 127 in Canada who self-reported a disability and who had or had not registered for disability-related services from their school. Contrary to expectation, the Canadian sample (universal design) had a larger proportion of students with disabilities registered for disability-related services than the Israeli sample (accommodations model). Moreover, in Israel, disability-related services were extended to more diverse populations. While the universal design model has the potential to enhance sustainability of disability-related services in higher education, this has yet to be demonstrated empirically. Recommendations for increasing sustainability through universal design are made.