How to Support Students with Disabilities and Health Challenges with Scholarships (+ Full Webinar Transcript)

This webinar, presented by Scholarship America and sponsored by Lumina Foundation, brings together leaders from Wells Fargo, Epilepsy Wellness Advocates, and Elevance Health to discuss how scholarship programs, employers, and healthcare organizations can better support students navigating disabilities and chronic health conditions.

The panelists explore hidden barriers—stigma, inaccessible technology, low expectations—and share concrete strategies for inclusive program design, wraparound support, and cross-sector collaboration. Real student success stories illustrate the life-changing impact of removing even small financial and structural obstacles.

Katy Launius

Strategy Officer for Student Success, Sponsor Representative

Lumina Foundation

Merrill Friedman

RVP, Inclusive Policy & Advocacy, Moderator

Elevance Health

Meghan Hussey Lim

AVP, Institutional Partnerships, Panelist

Scholarship America

Andrew Holbook

Chief Accessibility Officer, Panelist

Wells Fargo

Tanya Fleming

Partnerships Development Manager, Panelist

Epilepsy Wellness Advocates

Please note that the following transcript has been edited for clarity.

Meghan Hussey Lim

Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining us on this webinar today from Scholarship America on supporting students with disabilities or health challenges. My name is Meghan Hussey Lim. I’m the Associate Vice President of Institutional Partnerships here at Scholarship America. A quick accessibility note before we get started: closed captioning is available for this webinar. If you go to the bottom of your Zoom screen and hit the three dots that say “more,” you will have an option to show captions, so please take advantage of that if you need it.

I’d like to turn it over to Katy Launius. We’re very grateful for her and our generous sponsorship from Lumina Foundation, who are making this webinar possible today.

Katy Launius

Thanks, Meghan, and greetings, everyone. I’m Katy Launius, Strategy Officer for Student Success at Lumina Foundation, and it is my honor to welcome you today to this webinar, Supporting Students with Disabilities and Health Challenges.

At Lumina, we believe every person should have access to—and the supports necessary to complete—a credential of value beyond high school that leads to economic prosperity. But that vision means nothing if we’re not honest about who gets left out. Students navigating chronic illness, disability, or complex health needs face barriers that often go far beyond tuition, and our field hasn’t always been designed with these students in mind. This conversation is a step toward changing that.

Today, you’ll hear from four practitioners doing the real work on the ground. I’m joined by Andrew Holbrook, Chief Accessibility Officer at Wells Fargo, where he leads enterprise-wide efforts to embed accessibility and inclusion across products, services, and workplace practices; Tanya Fleming, Partnerships Development Manager at Epilepsy Wellness Advocates, where she’s focused on expanding access to education and support for students and families navigating complex health needs; Meghan Hussey Lim, Associate Vice President of Institutional Partnerships at Scholarship America, whose work centers on building strategic partnerships that expand access for historically underserved learners; and our moderator, Merrill Friedman, who leads inclusive policy and advocacy at Elevance Health, with a focus on health equity, disability inclusion, and partnerships that extend well beyond traditional healthcare settings.

Merrill Friedman

Thank you so much, and thanks everybody for joining us. This should be a fun discussion. We’re going to talk among ourselves, answer a couple of questions, and have a great dialogue, so hopefully everybody will engage with us. I’m grateful to be here with each of you today.

Why Supporting Students with Disabilities Matters: Personal Commitments and Organizational Mission

Merrill Friedman

I want to start with that great opening question: why is this work so important? Why do we personally do it, and why are our organizations so committed to supporting students with disabilities and chronic health conditions? I’ll share that at Elevance Health, our commitment starts from the basic principle that everyone should have the support and access to attain their goals. One of our goals is to improve the whole health of the people we serve—that includes social, physical, and emotional health. Within that, education, employment, and engagement goals are huge. Tanya, do you want to start us off?

Tanya Fleming

Supporting students with disabilities is core to our mission at Epilepsy Wellness Advocates, and it’s very personal. When you think about students with disabilities like epilepsy, you’re talking about kids managing active seizures, medication, medical appointments, and all of that unpredictability. When you layer on financial stress, these students are overcoming challenges that I honestly wouldn’t have been able to face at their age. That’s who we want to show up for. Our philosophy is: if we can remove even part of that burden, we can give these students a real shot at achieving something they might have written off entirely because of a diagnosis.

Andrew Holbrook

I’ve been in financial services for 20 years, and before that I was a college professor at the University of New Orleans, right up to Hurricane Katrina—which explains the career change. One of the things well instilled in me from higher education is knowing the challenges students face just to afford a lifestyle that allows them to get the training they need. That’s even more challenging for people with disabilities, who may have additional costs their peers don’t. I’m hard of hearing—born that way, wearing hearing aids my whole life. Getting into the workforce and seeing less representation from the disability community was a noticeable gap. Scholarship programs and financial services help lower the barriers of entry for a community that wants to, and can, contribute tremendously to the growth of this country.

Merrill Friedman

I’ll add that I have ADHD, and it’s been a huge part of the reason I do this work—getting behind that push to create those supports and access, and bringing intentionality to making sure that so many people like us have the same opportunities with reduced barriers. Meghan?

Meghan Hussey Lim

I have a personal connection here. My sister, who’s not much younger than me, is autistic and has intellectual disabilities. My mom is a career special ed teacher, so this is the world I grew up in. The value my mother always instilled in us is that different is not less. At Scholarship America, our mission is to ensure all students have the resources they need to overcome financial barriers to achieving their post-secondary dreams. We simply cannot achieve that mission if we leave behind the 21% of students who report having a disability. The statistics are stark: only 38% of students with disabilities complete a bachelor’s degree in eight years, compared to over 50% of their peers without disabilities. That’s why inclusive programming—both targeted scholarships for students with disabilities and making broader scholarships accessible—is absolutely critical.

Hidden Barriers Facing Students with Disabilities: Stigma, Inaccessible Technology, and Low Expectations

Merrill Friedman

We know some barriers are visible—physical accessibility, financial cost—but what are the less visible ones? Things like stigma, isolation, low expectations, missed school days due to health appointments. Andrew, do you want to start?

Andrew Holbrook

One hidden barrier is the humble PDF. So much educational material is distributed as PDFs, and when those documents aren’t properly tagged, they’re inaccessible to people who rely on screen readers. It’s one of those things people don’t think about, but it’s a real backstop to equal access. I’m hoping AI can help unlock this, because it’s a hidden barrier affecting a huge number of students.

Tanya Fleming

Stigma leading to isolation is huge in the epilepsy space. Epilepsy is still a very stigmatized, hidden disability. We hear from many young people who feel completely alone—kids in their twenties who had never met anyone else with epilepsy until they found our programs. Once they do, something shifts. My own daughter has epilepsy. She didn’t tell anyone for a long time because she was afraid people wouldn’t want to be her friend. Battling stigma, and in turn battling that isolation and loneliness, is one of the biggest hidden barriers we face.

Meghan Hussey Lim

The attitude barriers are just as significant as the financial and technical ones. A lot of students with disabilities have internalized the assumption that they are not “scholarship material,” because society has told them as much. That’s where targeted scholarship programs make a unique difference—not only do they help break down financial barriers, but there’s something powerful about someone saying, “I see you, I believe in you, I’m investing in your potential.” Many students won’t even go looking for scholarships because they assume it’s not for them. Conversations like this are important because they help redefine that narrative.

Merrill Friedman

Exactly—low expectations are another one of those really painful, not-so-visible barriers that is deeply felt by people with disabilities.

Designing Inclusive Scholarship Programs: From Eligibility Criteria to Application Accessibility

Merrill Friedman

When we look at designing inclusive support, I always start with: talk to people with disabilities. Include them. Do not design anything without them. With that as our premise, what are your thoughts on building better programs?

Meghan Hussey Lim

At Scholarship America, we’re going through a platform upgrade right now, and one thing I’m excited about is our partnership with Submittable, which is best-in-class for digital accessibility. But beyond the platform, scholarship design itself matters enormously. For example, many scholarships require full-time enrollment—which disadvantages students with disabilities who may need to drop to part-time due to health challenges. Can we make part-time students eligible? We also think about selection criteria: are we giving students the ability to bring their whole selves, to tell their whole story? And beyond the scholarship itself, can we layer in emergency aid funds for students who face unexpected health crises? The key is to design inclusively from the start rather than bolting on accommodations afterward.

Tanya Fleming

Talk to the people. The barriers we assumed our students were facing were not the same barriers they were actually dealing with. Once we really started listening to young people—college-age people living with epilepsy—our perspective was completely reshaped. By getting that direct input from students, your scholarship program will better serve the population you’re trying to reach. Don’t craft it from an outside view.

Merrill Friedman

Exactly. Even the questions posed on scholarship applications—if you put those in front of students with disabilities, they’ll tell you exactly how to reframe them so they can be better answered. Every step in this process should be informed by people with disabilities.

Andrew Holbrook

I love this, and I’d add: be intentional about the outcome you want. A lot of financial support for students doesn’t have a defined end goal. I think about what Tony Coelho, co-author of the ADA, always says: the reason for the ADA was paychecks, not pity. It was about getting gainful employment for people who want to and can contribute. So as we think about these programs, it’s not just about the education—it’s also about what the transition looks like. How does this scholarship facilitate greater internship opportunities or a greater probability of getting hired?

Meghan Hussey Lim

I’d also add: be intentional about how the scholarship opportunity is promoted and marketed. Just because an opportunity exists doesn’t mean students will find it. Be intentional about reaching out to organizations serving and advocating for different populations of students with disabilities, meeting students where they are, and helping them overcome whatever attitude barriers they may have internalized. Creating an opportunity is not enough—we have to actively go out and find those students.

Universal Design and Wraparound Support: Building Accessibility Into Every Layer

Merrill Friedman

Beyond scholarships, what else matters? Accommodations, flexibility, emergency assistance, healthcare navigation—these all come into play. What does universal design look like in practice?

Andrew Holbrook

At Wells Fargo, we’ve been working with our branch design teams to embed inclusive design into our physical spaces. We’re rolling out branch designs that are more accessible than ever. Here’s a simple example: if you bolt a PIN pad to a counter, some people in wheelchairs can’t reach it. Add a cord and make it movable—problem solved. Most of these things cost nothing. It’s the intentionality. And we were proud to rename our Wells Fargo Scholarship to the Wells Fargo Stacey Milburn Scholarship for students with disabilities, after Stacey Park Milburn was recognized as part of the U.S. Mint’s Quarters Program.

Meghan Hussey Lim

There are so many layers of universal design. The ability to save an application and return to it without timing out. Color contrast in branding and design. And then there’s the power of bringing scholarship cohorts together—connecting recipients with each other, with alumni, and with others who’ve navigated the same institutional systems. Being able to call someone who’s been through it and ask, “How did you navigate student disability services?”—that mentorship is invaluable. Scholarship programs can be a catalyst not just for the students they serve, but for the broader post-secondary landscape to adopt universal design for learning.

Tanya Fleming

We partner with Young Adults with Epilepsy to create a full support group program for our scholarship recipients. When you receive the scholarship, you get access to this community. The goal is to keep building that network over time—so that eventually, just like in a professional fraternity, you can say, “I know someone in that field, let me connect you.” We’re building that inside the epilepsy community with these young people, and we’ve built it into the program from the start.

Real-World Impact: Student Stories That Bring the Mission to Life

Merrill Friedman

What is an outcome or a story that brings the real-world impact of this work to life for you? I think of a young person we were supporting who wanted to go to school out of state but ran into Medicaid portability issues. We were able to help them—and those are the kinds of experiences that keep us going.

Andrew Holbrook

My parents taught autistic children for over 30 years—at a time when these programs were still in their infancy in terms of understanding the power of neurodiverse individuals. One of their students had cerebral palsy, autism, and other physical and medical challenges. He had eight siblings, but he was the first one to own a home. Why? Because there were programs to help with vocational training that got him a job faster than any of his non-disabled brothers and sisters. And there was mortgage assistance. It didn’t take a lot—just that incremental bit of support when the baseline expectation was nothing. He still gives me a hard time about it. He says, “Andrew, how much is your mortgage?” And I say, “Pete, I rent.” He’s like, “You work at a bank!” A little bit of help, and he became a homeowner. That’s the story I carry with me.

Tanya Fleming

We had a scholarship recipient in his mid-to-late twenties who was in his very last semester of school. He was short just $500—that’s all it was—from being able to pay what he needed to graduate that year. Because we had an emergency fund that moved quickly, he got the money and finished. He has his degree now. He runs his own business. He has a family he can provide for, and he didn’t think he’d ever be able to give them that life. I got to watch him succeed, and he is remarkable.

Meghan Hussey Lim

One of our Dream Award winners was adopted from China and, after arriving, was diagnosed with epilepsy and ADHD. She went through enormous challenges—being told by a principal she didn’t belong in public school, being bullied, navigating multiple marginalized identities. She applied for a Dream Award because her family circumstances meant she needed help paying for college. Because of that award, she was able to focus on her coursework without worrying about financial barriers. She majored in biological anthropology, pursued a passion in medicine, and is now committed to working with marginalized communities on different health issues. The scholarship helped take some of that financial stress away and gave her the validation to take the next step into a more promising future.

Advice for New Funders: How to Start Supporting Students with Disabilities

Merrill Friedman

For new funders and organizations wanting to support students with disabilities and chronic health conditions, what are your key learnings and pieces of advice?

Tanya Fleming

Build in wraparound support from the very beginning. Don’t treat it as a bolt-on add-on later. We have students in trades who wouldn’t even be able to enter the program without funding to cover their personal protective equipment first. That kind of thing has to be built in from day one, or you’ll find yourself scrambling to add it after the fact.

Andrew Holbrook

I’d emphasize the importance of supporting part-time students and vocational pathways—not just traditional four-year college. Those pathways lead to financial success, and for a community with a historic shortage of funding, that’s where dollars have the maximum impact and create opportunities most effectively.

Meghan Hussey Lim

I’d love to see a twin-track approach. We need more targeted scholarships for students with disabilities, because the shortage is real and the population has specific needs that have been historically underserved. But we also need broader, general scholarship programs to become more intentionally inclusive of students with disabilities—incorporating universal design into eligibility criteria, application platforms, and outreach. If we’re going to reach a more equitable place, we need both tracks moving forward at the same time.

Cross-Sector Collaboration: How Healthcare, Employers, and Philanthropy Can Work Together

Merrill Friedman

What opportunities exist for healthcare organizations, employers, and philanthropy to collaborate in creating more access and inclusive environments for students with disabilities?

Meghan Hussey Lim

More conversations like this are needed. All types of organizations—whether healthcare, philanthropy, or private sector—have a role to play. It used to frustrate me when organizations would say, “We don’t focus on disability.” But if you’re reaching students, some of those students will have disabilities. Everyone needs to take this on. The business case is real: investing in this talent makes a meaningful difference in our workforce. As Andrew said, paychecks, not pity. Everybody has a role in opening up these opportunities and helping create a more accessible and inclusive future.

Merrill Friedman

Here at Elevance Health, we have scholarships, business resource groups, and an Advancing Disability Inclusion group. When companies are intentional about creating access and inclusive spaces—flexible schedules, physical accessibility, representation at every level—it changes what’s possible. And the earlier we start, the better.

Tanya Fleming

Resource sharing and collaboration across sectors. We tend to silo ourselves and say, “This is my space, that’s yours.” That doesn’t help the students we’re trying to serve. We all need to come together and realize that together we do more. I’d also say: make sure accommodations are more than just a piece of paper. Accommodations that are actually implemented, consistently and across the board—that’s something we can all work toward for these students.

Merrill Friedman

Accommodations are not nice-to-haves. There are laws that uphold them. That framing matters.

Andrew Holbrook

I’d end where I started: artificial intelligence. The workforce today is going to be very different from the workforce tomorrow. AI education—making it tactical and practical—is important for this community to leverage in ways that level the playing field in ways never before possible. But we have to do the hard work of ensuring the data AI is trained on is inclusive and representative. Collaboration across enterprises, financial services, industry, education, and government—that’s how we get it right.

Merrill Friedman

I’ll add: include people with disabilities in the development of AI. Ensure those disparities are eliminated from the start rather than trying to backtrack later. There is huge opportunity for us to support young people—through education, employment, and lifelong learning. It will take a continued, intentional focus across multiple organizations and disciplines. People with disabilities have all kinds of interests and aspirations that should never be tracked or limited. I hope we see many more companies engaging with Scholarship America and others to create scholarships truly focused on creating access and opportunity for people with disabilities and chronic conditions. We can collectively make this happen.

Next Steps: Creating an Accessible Scholarship

Andrew Holbrook

If you’re not using artificial intelligence right now, start. Train it today, because it’s going to shape every challenge we encounter going forward. Part of helping bring in a broader source of intelligence to the space makes us a better and stronger economy. That’s what this work is all about.

Tanya Fleming

For me, it’s about providing opportunity for students who have been so overlooked. Anything that keeps a student from staying focused, getting an education, and finishing it should be something we’re all working to remove.

Meghan Hussey Lim

Thank you to my co-panelists and to Merrill for the wonderful moderation. For all attendees—whether you’re a student, a parent, or someone interested in this work—please check out the Scholarship America website for information on the scholarships highlighted today. And if you’re from an organization that would like to start a scholarship program for students with disabilities, or make your current program more accessible and inclusive, please reach out to us at Scholarship America. We have a team that would love to work with you on that intentional design.

Merrill Friedman

Access. Opportunity. It is the future, and we are all here to support it. Thank you, everyone. We appreciate all the work you’re doing to learn about and promote access and inclusion.

What percentage of college students have a disability?

Approximately 21% of college students report having a disability, according to data cited in this webinar. Despite this significant share, only 38% of students with disabilities complete a bachelor’s degree within eight years, compared to over 50% of their peers without disabilities.

What are the most common hidden barriers for students with disabilities in higher education?

Beyond visible barriers like physical access and tuition costs, the most common hidden barriers include stigma and social isolation (especially for students with non-visible conditions like epilepsy or ADHD), low expectations from educators and institutions, inaccessible digital materials (such as non-tagged PDFs that screen readers cannot navigate), and a widespread assumption among students themselves that they are not “scholarship material.”

How can scholarship programs be designed to be more inclusive of students with disabilities?

Inclusive scholarship design starts with involving students with disabilities in the process from the beginning. Key design considerations include: allowing part-time enrollment eligibility, building in emergency aid funds, using digitally accessible application platforms, allowing students to share their full story and life circumstances in applications, and using scoring rubrics that are equitable for students with non-traditional paths. Universal design principles—applied from day one, not added on later—are essential.

What is wraparound support in the context of disability scholarships?

Wraparound support refers to holistic, non-tuition resources built into a scholarship program to help students succeed. This can include emergency financial aid for health crises, peer support groups, mentorship from alumni, assistance covering non-academic expenses like personal protective equipment for trade students, and connections to community organizations that provide disability-specific services. Experts recommend building this support in from the program’s launch rather than adding it reactively.

What is the ADA, and how does it relate to scholarship access for students with disabilities?

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), co-authored by Tony Coelho and Lex Frieden among others, was designed to remove barriers to employment and participation in public life for people with disabilities. As Andrew Holbrook noted in this webinar, Coelho’s framing was that the ADA was about “paychecks, not pity”—about creating pathways to gainful employment. Scholarship programs that support students with disabilities are a direct extension of this mission, helping bridge the gap between education and economic opportunity.

How can employers support students with disabilities through scholarships?

Employers can sponsor targeted scholarships for students with disabilities, partner with disability advocacy organizations to promote scholarship opportunities, design application processes that are fully accessible, and commit to inclusive hiring practices that create on-ramps for scholarship recipients into the workforce. Companies like Wells Fargo have also renamed scholarships to honor disability advocates and integrated universal design into their physical workspaces.

What role does AI play in improving accessibility for students with disabilities?

Artificial intelligence has significant potential to improve accessibility—for example, by helping convert inaccessible PDF content into screen-reader-friendly formats. However, panelists caution that AI models trained on non-inclusive data can replicate or amplify existing disparities. They emphasize the importance of including people with disabilities in the development and training of AI tools to ensure these technologies reduce, rather than reinforce, barriers.

Are there scholarships specifically for students with epilepsy or chronic health conditions?

Yes. Organizations like Epilepsy Wellness Advocates offer scholarships and wraparound support specifically for students managing epilepsy and other chronic health conditions. Scholarship America also administers programs such as the Wells Fargo Stacey Milburn Scholarship for students with disabilities, and the Dream Award, which supports students navigating financial barriers including those related to health challenges. Interested students can visit scholarshipamerica.org to browse available opportunities.

How can my organization partner with Scholarship America to create a disability-focused scholarship?

Organizations of any type—corporate, philanthropic, healthcare, or nonprofit—can partner with Scholarship America to design and administer scholarship programs for students with disabilities. Scholarship America’s team works with partners to build inclusive eligibility criteria, accessible application platforms, and outreach strategies that reach underserved students. Reach out directly through the Scholarship America website to start a conversation.