| Students with learning disabilities offer a unique set of challenges to college administrators, faculty, and student affairs professionals on today's college and university campuses. These innate challenges are born out of the individual needs of a richly diverse population and are increasingly acknowledged and asserted by the growing presence of persons with learning disabilities at institutions of higher education.; The purpose of this study was to investigate the experiences of college students with learning disabilities and the meaning these students make of their experience, especially with regard to social adjustment and academic success. Purposeful, maximum variation sampling was used to form a group of nine participants. Each participant was enrolled full-time in an undergraduate program at a large, east coast university, and was registered with the university's office of disability support services. Participants were interviewed three times over the course of one semester, and agreed to provide access to their most recent diagnostic testing and individual education plans. Grounded theory methodology was used to analyze the data collected through in-depth interviewing and document analysis. Open, axial, and selective coding led to the formation of one core category and seven subsidiary categories, which were then related to form the emergent theory.; The core category consisted of a set of reactions formed by each participant and coalesced into what the researcher labeled the self-styled learning disability. The self-styled learning disability was comprised of four main properties: definition of the learning disability, orientation of the learning disability, condition of the learning disability, and impact of the learning disability. Seven subsidiary categories emerged from the data. Four related to the core as causal and/or intervening conditions, and three related to the core as consequences. The categories of condition were time of diagnosis, perceived support, level of stigmatization, and attributes of personality. The categories of consequence were willingness to disclose, ability to self-advocate, and level of self-determination. |
