"Comparable figures for 2008/9 show over 7 per cent (55,245) of UK undergraduates assessed themselves as having a disability. Looking at the breakdown of specific impairments within this group of disabled undergraduates, in 2008/9 dyslexia was the most commonly declared disability (45 per cent), with unseen disabilities (e.g. epilepsy, diabetes, asthma) coming next at 15 per cent. Students who were deaf or had a hearing impairment accounted for 5 per cent, and 10 per cent had multiple disabilities. In 2000/01, 4 per cent declared a mental health disability, which rose to over 6 per cent in 2008/09 (HESA, 2010).
Again these figures should be treated with caution. They may reflect an increase in students’ willingness to disclose a disability, changes in the figures in the general population, changes in support for children in the school system or some other factors. While it is good news that the percentage of deaf students has decreased, that will be of little comfort to an individual deaf student who has to ask yet again for key video material to be subtitled.
If you are working in a country where figures are hard to find or have not been collected, you might consider what other levers there might be for improving or introducing support for disabled students."
Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) (2010) Students and Qualifiers Data Tables [online], http://www.hesa.ac.uk/ index.php?option=com_datatables&Itemid=121&task=show_category&catdex=3#disab (accessed 6 May 2010).