Supporting students with disabilities in online higher education: The case of the Open University of Catalonia

Students with disabilities have increased their presence in higher education in recent years, particularly in the case of distance institutions. Online universities have advantages for this group of students in terms of accessibility and flexibility. However, students with disabilities continue to be a disadvantaged group that shows lower academic performance and a higher dropout rate than the rest of the student population. The Open University of Catalonia (UOC) gathers a significant part of students with disabilities in Spain with its fully online educational model. The objective of this paper is to describe the UOC’s support to this group of students considering both its history and the users’ profile, the human and material resources allocated, and the measures aimed at promoting their educational inclusion. Recommendations for improvement are proposed. Conclusions highlight the need to reorient support for students with disabilities by developing a specific long-term institutional policy and enabling a specialized service that ensures active and personalized follow-up. The UOC’s experience attending these learners may be relevant in the context of emergent needs of the student body and the progressive adoption of hybrid or online educational models by universities.