30 Years (1991 – 2021) Publication Trends on Disability and Higher Education Learning: A Bibliometric Review

Abstract

Research focusing on disability in higher education is gradually receiving the attention from scholars around the world; however, the endeavor still scarce. This study was designed to identify issues which students with disabilities in higher education faced using the bibliometric review. Using Scopus database, 1865 publications on disability in higher education were disseminated between 1991 and 2021, from the perspective of publication trends, research areas, prolific source, most cited documents, co-authorship concerning authors, institutions and countries, and keywords co-occurrence. The review found an escalation of publications from 122 in 2015 to 160 publications in 2020.  It can be construed that the disability in higher education draws a variety of research areas.  United States scholars contributed 43.89% of the overall publications, leading another 89 countries.  Authors’ keywords of “students with disabilities”, “higher education”, “learning institutions”, and “special students” have substantially impacted the online search for information.  This bibliometric study offers a comprehensive and in-depth glance on the subject under study, which could assist academia and industry players.