Previous studies on postsecondary graduation rates indicated that college students with disabilities have lower graduation rates than students without disabilities. As many college students do not disclose their disability to their institution upon enrollment, the effect of the timing of disability disclosure on graduation rates warranted examination. This study was a quantitative study of 14,401 undergraduate students at one large research university in the years 2002, 2003, and 2004, of which 423 had disabilities. Quantitative methods were used to conduct an exploratory analysis of the effect of disability, disability disclosure, disability-type and gender on graduation rates. A chi-square analysis revealed that students with disabilities had significantly lower six-year graduation rates than their peers. In addition, students with disabilities who disclosed their disability after their first year of enrollment had significantly lower six-year graduation rates than students with disabilities who disclosed within the first year of enrollment. Results of a multiple regression analysis showed that disability disclosure, disability-type, and gender accounted for 38% of the variance in the length of time to graduation. Finally, for every year that a student delayed disclosing a disability, the length of time to graduation increased by almost half a year. The implications of the study were discussed and recommendations for future research were made. / Ph. D.

Magister Commercii - MCom / There is an increase in the number of people with disabilities entering, and in the workplace. Industrialised countries are encountering a workforce that is ageing, which makes the prevalence of disability, due to chronic illness amongst employees, more evident. However, even with legislation and policies that support people in the workplace, such as the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act 53 of 2003 and the Code of Good Practice on Disability in the Workplace, many people still choose not to disclose their disabilities. Therefore, the main purpose of the study is to identify the perceived factors that could possibly prevent the disclosure of disability in the workplace. The study was conducted at one of the universities in the Western Cape. The study was qualitative in nature and made use of semi-structured interviews. Ten participants took part in the study and comprised of two academic staff members from each of the faculties on the main campus. Content analysis was used to analyse qualitative data where various themes and subthemes emerged.