| Individuals with disabilities have experienced a long history of state-sponsored discrimination, including de jure exclusion from public education. Due to courageous efforts of individuals with disabilities and their families, government officials, and disability rights advocates, individuals with disabilities now possess broad federal civil rights protections against discrimination and exclusion from public entities, including public schools. The findings of this study, however, indicate that several years after the enactment of broad federal civil rights protections for individuals with disabilities, barriers exist which obstruct, make more difficult, or prohibit participation of students with disabilities in high school in-school extracurricular activities.; This study employed a three-prong inquiry to answer the research question, what barriers obstruct, make more difficult, or prohibit participation of students with disabilities in high school in-school extracurricular activities? The first inquiry employed a broad review of legal and educational scholarship to determine what barriers have been examined in the literature. The second inquiry's legal analysis examined what barriers were adjudicated in state and federal court from 1945 to present. It also examined the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the Individual with Disabilities Education Act of 1990, and the federal civil rights of students with disabilities. The third inquiry's qualitative analysis examined what barriers BYU college students with disabilities perceive obstructed, make more difficult, or prohibited their participation in high school in-school extracurricular activities. This three-prong study found that a variety of barriers exist in the nation's public school system.; The findings of this study should be a valuable resource to students with disabilities and their families, advocates for the rights of individuals with disabilities, educational administrators, and other stakeholders in identifying and remedying barriers which obstruct, make more difficult, or prohibit participation of students with disabilities in extracurricular activities. By remedying these barriers, educational officials will more fully comply with state and federal law, protect the civil rights of individuals with disabilities, and effectively serve the needs of all public school students, including students with disabilities. |
