A Comparative Exploration of Disability Services Websites at Top-Ranked American and Japanese Universities

Abstract

Recent years have seen an increasing focus on issues of equity and inclusion in higher education, as part of a shift towards symbiotic societies (Edyburn 2010). As a result of advocacy and legal changes, there have been significant increases in the number of disabled students participating in higher education in both the United States and Japan (Raue and Lewis 2011; JASSO 2018). In this paper, I report the findings of a preliminary content analytic exploration of the disability services office websites of three American and three Japanese top-ranked universities. The American universities took a primarily individualizing medical approach, that was oriented mainly towards accommodation rather than accessibility, and that drew significantly on language of legal obligation—elements of disability policy which Edyburn (2010) and Hutcheon and Wolbring (2012) find to be particularly problematic. Meanwhile, all three Japanese institutions adopted a greater leaning towards a social model of disability, with little discourse of obligation, and a stronger orientation towards accessibility, though accommodations remained the primary means of support. I close with a discussion of the implications of a model oriented towards accommodation, and the need for a shift to a focus on accessibility.