Postsecondary STEM Education for Students with Disabilities: Lessons Learned from a Decade of NSF Funding

The Research in Disabilities Education Synthesis Project (RDE-SP), a four-year mixed methods research project, assessed a decade of funded projects (2001-2011) under the National Science Foundation's Research in Disabilities Education program which is aimed at increasing participation and retention of students with disabilities (SWD) in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education and careers. One of the primary goals of the project was to create a collection of challenges, lessons learned, and suggested practices for SWD and those working with SWD in STEM education and STEM fields. This paper presents those findings, which lend first-hand experience to the challenges and successes of working with students with disabilities in postsecondary STEM education programs. The authors relate the findings to current literature in the field.