Guidelines for Disability Scholarships

There are 49 million people in America who are suffering from one form of disability or another with close to 24 million people suffering from severe disabilities. However, proper education and exposure to the outside world can make a huge difference to the self esteem, confidence and capabilities of such individuals. There are numerous disability scholarships made available by the Federal government, charitable organizations, associations and trust funds to ensure that lack of funds is never a problem.

A visit to the website disability.gov will fetch you some disability scholarships available in America today. As you can see, scholarships for disability coverage ranges from $500 to as much as $18,000 to $20,000 for good candidates. There are different associations that provide disability scholarships for specific individuals suffering from specific disabilities. There also are some non- profit foundations that provide general scholarships for educating students that suffer from disabilities in general. Disability scholarships offered by the National Federation for Blind and National Association of Deaf is an example of the above-mentioned foundations.

Disability Scholarships – The Legal Framework
The 1975 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is a Federal Law that facilitates disability scholarships and also bars educational institutions from segregating such students and treating them as outcasts. This Act was recently amended in 2004 to make sure it operates properly due to the changing technological and social landscape.

The American Association on Health and Disability has set up the AAHD Disability Scholarships Program in 2009 to facilitate disabled people who want to pursue higher education. Preference is given to those planning to study in public health, health promotion and disability studies. This disability scholarship is worth $1,000 per recipient.

Just like poetry scholarships, disability scholarships too are offered by universities and colleges separately. These scholarships for disability are in addition to the numerous programs offered by other agencies.

The severity of the disability does not matter. From those who are near blind and yet want to study, to those who are suffering from asthma – there is hardly any category of disability that has been omitted or left out of purview.

Learning Disability Scholarships
There is a growing realization that those who suffer from learning disabilities too must get access to scholarships for disabilities just like those who suffer from physical disabilities. This is the reason why there are solutions and programs offered to those suffering from autism and other conditions that makes it difficult for the individual to learn and become educated despite being outwardly normal.

Each and every reputed university has a disability resource centre where individuals can easily get the necessary information about scholarships for the disabled. This information can be found online as well.

Apart from disabilities scholarships, there are many organizations that offer grants to educational institutions to make their classrooms disabled friendly. This includes funding for bigger screens, video conference facility and other such technological devices to make learning more simple, fun and popular.

Disability scholarships do not stop at graduate levels alone. The benefits continue for those interested in pursuing further studies as well. This social initiative can make a real difference to the lives for all those who are disabled and want a higher education.

If you suffer from depression their are a few organizations which sponsor depression scholarships for people with this disability. This illness is much more severe then most realize and it’s been misunderstood for years.