How to Promote Diversity and Inclusion in College: Real Steps Toward Inclusion
This article was originally published on November 5, 2018 was last updated on March 28, 2025.
Editor's Note (March 2025)
By Brendan McDonald, Editor and Co-founder, URevolution
In response to the increasing attacks on DEI in 2025, we are republishing Dr. Christa S. Bialka's crucial 2018 article, "Why College Students with Disabilities Are Too Often Excluded." Dr. Bialka is an Associate Professor of Special Education at Villanova University. The Trump administration has dismantled federal workplace diversity initiatives, and corporate giants like BlackRock are publicly retreating from DEI commitments under mounting legal and political pressure.
At URevolution, we believe the future of DEI is evolving, not disappearing. While the term “DEI” may fall out of favor, companies truly committed to inclusion are shifting from symbolic gestures to measurable impact—using data to demonstrate the real value of diversity in education and the workplace.
In this political climate, representation and inclusion are more vital than ever. That’s why URevolution remains unwavering in our mission to advocate for inclusion through our apparel, storytelling, and community. We encourage you to read our companion article, "What is the Future of DEI in 2025?" for further context.
Promoting diversity and inclusion in college isn’t just a trend — it’s essential for building healthy, respectful, and empowering learning environments. From increasing racial diversity to celebrating people’s differences in many areas, such as race, ethnicity, sex, or spiritual beliefs, colleges and universities have a responsibility to lead the way. In this article, we explore how to promote diversity and inclusion in college through practical strategies, real student stories, and expert insights.
Learn how to promote diversity and inclusion in college by addressing ableism, racial inequity, and the need for inclusive campus cultures.
Discover real student experiences that highlight the importance of diversity in higher education and the gaps that still exist.
Explore why DEI is important in education , especially in 2025, and how institutions can move beyond performative inclusion toward real change.
Understand the benefits of a diverse student body and how students and universities can actively support equity and inclusion in higher education .
Table of Contents: How to Promote Diversity and Inclusion in College
Why College Students with Disabilities Are Too Often Excluded.
"Before colleges and universities become more inclusive they must recognize they have a problem with diversity and inclusion."
Why Is DEI Important in Higher Education?
AnnCatherine Heigl, a sophomore at George Mason University, recently attempted to join all eight sororities at her school. All eight turned her down.
If you ask her sister, who Tweeted about how the experience left AnnCatherine “unwanted and devastated,” the reason the sororities denied AnnCatherine is because she has a disability: Down syndrome.
This kind of outright rejection isn’t the experience of all college students with disabilities. But AnnCatherine’s experience is hardly an isolated case. Since colleges and universities only have so much control over student-run groups, it’s important to consider how disability is viewed within the school community.
All students need to feel included in order to succeed in college. But when a student has a disability, inclusion can be more difficult to achieve. One study shows students with disabilities participate in fewer extracurricular activities, like clubs or on-campus events than non-disabled peers. This is due to a lack of social inclusion, the study states. It also stems from the fact that many colleges and university programs “focus mostly on academic and physical accessibility.”
The social participation of students with disabilities gets less attention. Since many extracurricular activities are student-led and organized, it’s all the more important to understand how peers with disabilities are being excluded.
College students with disabilities are also more likely to drop out of school than their peers without disabilities. Research shows that only 34 percent of disabled college students complete a four-year program. Conversely, 51 percent of their peers without disabilities finish school. This begs the question: how can colleges and universities become more inclusive?
Barriers to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Higher Education
First, teachers at the K-12 level need to develop skills to talk about disabilities. While educators might teach about topics like race, class, gender, or sexuality, disability is often left out of the discussion.
Ask yourself: How many books did you read in school that featured characters with disabilities? How much did you learn about the disability rights movement in your social studies classes? Or was it largely a hidden story?
Some educators have begun to recognize the importance of disability-based lessons. Still, I’d argue that those lessons need to be more deliberately incorporated in school.
By the time students enter college, they might hesitate to discuss disability because they are worried about saying the wrong thing. Awkwardness and avoidance can continue long after college.
Teachers can help by using literature to discuss disability in class. The mainstream success of R.J. Palacio’s Wonder – a book about a boy born with a craniofacial disability – shows how this is possible.
Want to promote inclusion in real life?
💡 Be Inclusive Every Day →
Shop the Inclusive CollectionExplore our collection of inclusive apparel designed to spark change and conversation.
Think About Language: Campus Culture and Ableism
When people do talk about disability, they may default to “disability rhetoric.” This sort of rhetoric casts people with disabilities as either inspirational or pitiable.
Ben Myers, an advocate for people with disabilities, explains the problem with disability rhetoric. When you say that a person can do something “despite” his or her disability, it sets disability up as something that strong people overcome and weaker ones live with. While rhetoric might seem harmless, this kind of speech furthers the idea that people with disabilities are incapable of success.
Inspiration-based language is problematic too. Colleges and universities should examine how disabilities are portrayed in their campus literature. They should also consider using language that reflects the reality of disability. Rather than glorify or pity a person with a disability, talk about them like they would anyone else. Recognize the person and don’t focus on the disability.
"Diversity and inclusion can help create a healthy, positive campus environment."
Equity for Neurodivergent and Disabled Students: Make Disability a Part of Diversity
Many colleges and universities bring individuals with disabilities to campus through community service programs. Partnerships between college students and community members with disabilities often result in mutual learning. However, it is equally important for college organizations to enable students with disabilities to participate as equals. On-campus disability groups can increase disability awareness, promote inclusion, and create opportunities for all students to engage in social activities. It is also important to remember the intersectionality of disabled students with their racial and ethnic identities.
At Villanova, where I teach, LEVEL, a student-run disability awareness group, provides opportunities for students to raise awareness and participate in fully accessible social activities on and off-campus. Similarly, Disability Rights, Education, Activism, and Mentoring, or (DREAM), is a national organization that advocates for campus disability groups and individual students. Groups like LEVEL and DREAM show the way toward greater inclusion. For example, members of LEVEL recognized that “service break trips,” where students travel and work together on a community service project, were not accessible to all students. In response, LEVEL organized the first fully accessible service break trip.
Disabled, Racial and Ethnic Representation: Provide Inclusion Opportunities
Although many colleges and universities have embraced diversity initiatives, disability still gets short shrift.
For instance, in a recent study of the California State University System, researchers found that 66 percent of the websites had minimal information about disabilities on the home pages. Why does this matter? The home site is the “virtual face” of the university. It’s how a university represents itself to prospective students and the public.
The authors of the study argue that visible representations of disability are important to make students with disabilities feel “welcome on campus in the same way that images of racial or gender diversity are used to attract diverse applicants.”
In a recent opinion piece, Rosemarie Garland Thomson, a disability justice leader, and professor at Emory University, said that most people don’t consider people with disabilities as having a shared social identity or a political status.
Given how the disability community has struggled to earn basic civil rights, including access to education, employment, and healthcare, it is important to think about disability in terms of diversity. If you embrace diversity, but ignore disability, you're doing it wrong.
How to Include Disabiliy When Promoting Diversity and Inclusion in College
After the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, colleges and universities had to rethink what accessibility looked like on campus. In many cases, this involved ensuring physical access to previously inaccessible spaces.
Recently, there has been a movement to map the accessibility of colleges and universities. At Penn, a graduate student and his colleagues developed the Accessibility Mapping Project. This project is an effort to digitally map the “emergence of physical and social barriers” around campus. The project shows that a lack of physical access, such as having stairs instead of a ramp, also erects a social barrier, as people with disabilities can’t participate in that space.
It’s important to remember that disability isn’t only physical. In fact, many college students with invisible disabilities, like learning disabilities or autism, still struggle to access appropriate accommodations in their university classrooms.
What AnnCatherine endured is something no individual should experience. While there is no simple solution to address the exclusion of students with disabilities in higher education, colleges, universities and K-12 schools need to do more to provide resources, education, and experiences that include students with disabilities in the conversation.
Want to promote inclusion in real life?
💡 Explore our collection of inclusive apparel designed to spark change and conversation.
Be Inclusive Every Day →
Dr. Christa Bialka
Dr. Christa S. Bialka is the Assistant Professor of Special Education in the Department of Education and Counseling at Villanova University. Dr. Bialka received her M.Ed. in Moderate Special Needs Education from Boston College and her Ed.D. in Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education from the University of Pennsylvania. Her research interests include understanding the development of teacher dispositions, preparation of teachers for inclusive classrooms, and disability awareness. Prior to earning her Doctorate, Dr. Bialka taught English and Special Education in the Boston area.
