Top 2024 Scholarships for Students with Disabilities
The Importance of Scholarships for Students with Disabilities
Scholarships play a crucial role in supporting the educational aspirations of students with disabilities. These financial aids are designed to address the unique challenges faced by disabled students, which can include cognitive, behavioral, and emotional impediments that make attaining a college degree more difficult. Scholarships for students with disabilities not only help them stay in school and avoid debt but also enable them to achieve their educational and career goals more easily.
Expanding Access to Higher Education
Scholarships for disabled students help tear down barriers that previously made it harder for these students to access the same opportunities as everyone else when pursuing higher education. They are funded by a variety of providers and can be aimed at helping students with specific disabilities or a wider range of students with physical or mental issues. Some scholarships are also aimed at groups that face multiple barriers to education, such as low-income, minority, or female students with disabilities. That’s why we’ve put together this list of scholarships for students with disabilities.
1. American Council of the Blind Scholarship
Description: The American Council of the Blind (ACB) in partnership with other organizations and individuals offers educational scholarships ranging from $2,000 to $7,500 for entering freshman, undergraduate and graduate students, and those attending technical college.
Amount: up to $7,500
Eligibility: Legally Blind, 3.0 GPA, Full-time Student, College or Higher
Deadline: February 14, 2024
2. GLHF Education Scholarship
Description: Great Lakes Hemophilia Foundation (GLHF) provides public policy advocacy on behalf of, and in partnership with, the bleeding disorders community.
Amount: up to $3,000
Eligibility: Bleeding Disorder (Student or Relative), Demonstrate Financial Need, Wisconsin-Based
Deadline: March 1, 2024
3. Jennifer Leigh Soper Cystic Fibrosis Scholarship
Description: The Jennifer Leigh Soper Scholarship was established by Lee Soper, in memory of his daughter.
Amount: $500
Eligibility: High School Senior, Cystic Fibrosis, Kentucky-Based
Deadline: March 4, 2024
4. Team Type 1 Global Ambassador Scholarship Program
Description: Team Type 1’s philosophy is that no one should die from diabetes. No one should suffer hardship or a lower quality of life because they have diabetes. Access to healthcare is a human right. Our vision is a world without poor health or death from diabetes. Without the common stigma that people with diabetes can’t.
Amount: $10,000
Eligibility: Type-1 Diabetes, School with Accredited Sports Program, 3.0 GPA, Use Sport as a Platform for Diabetes
Deadline: March 31, 2024
5. Sertoma Hard of Hearing or Deaf Scholarship
Description: Sertoma’s Scholarship for the Hard of Hearing or Deaf, is the leading scholarship for hard of hearing or deaf students since the program’s inception in 1994. Students with clinically significant bilateral hearing loss, graduating from high school, or undergraduate students pursuing four-year college degrees in any discipline are eligible for the scholarship.
Amount: $1,000
Eligibility: 40dB Bilateral Hearling Loss Minimum, US Citizen, Undergraduate, 3.2 GPA Minimum
Deadline: March 31, 2024
6. Ability Center of Greater Toledo Scholarship
Description: The Ability Center works to ensure that people with disabilities have opportunities to achieve higher education.
Amount: $2,000
Eligibility: Have a Disability with Medical Proof, 3.0 GPA, Undergraduate, Michigan-Based
Deadline: March 31, 2024
7. Millie Brothers CODA International Scholarship
Description: The Millie Brother Scholarship for Hearing Children of Deaf Adults considers an applicant’s academic achievement and his/her ability to succeed in higher education, whether at a technical college, a community college, at a four-year undergraduate institution, or in graduate school.
Amount: $3,000
Eligibility: Child of Deaf Parent(s), HS Transcript, Two Letters of Recommendation, Essay on Experience with Deaf Parents and Career Aspirations
Deadline: April 4, 2024
8. Beth Carew Memorial Scholarship
Description: The Beth Carew Memorial Scholarship Program is an annual competitive educational scholarship sponsored by the Colburn-Keenan Foundation. This scholarship was created in honor of Beth Carew. Beth was an energetic, bright, loving, and caring woman. She was a person with determination and spunk. She was deeply concerned about her family and her community. She was one of the few women to be diagnosed with hemophilia A. Beth Carew died in 1994 of complications associated with Hemophilia.
Amount: up to $6,000
Eligibility: US Citizen, Undergraduate, Hemophilia/von Willebrand Disease/Inherited Bleeding Disorder, Community Service or other Volunteer Work
Deadline: April 14, 2024
9. KFM Making a Difference for Autism Scholarship
Description: KFM Making a Difference offers this scholarship to incoming first-year college students and current college students who have been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder.
Amount: $500
Eligibility: Adult with Autism Diagnosis, Undergraduate, Application, Letter of Reference, Essay Prompt
Deadline: April 24, 2024
10. Organization for Autism Research (OAR) Scholarships
Description: In 2007, OAR introduced the Schwallie Family Scholarship to support the undergraduate education of qualified autistic students. Schwallie Family Scholarships are supported through generous gifts from the family of the late Ed Schwallie, one of OAR’s founders and its only Board member Emeritus.
Amount: $3,000
Eligibility: Student with Autism Diagnosis, Full-Time Undergraduate, Online Application
Deadline: April 24, 2024
Conclusion
Scholarships for students with disabilities are vital in supporting their journey through higher education. They provide financial relief, recognize academic achievements, and contribute to a more inclusive educational system. By reducing the financial barriers, these scholarships empower students with disabilities to pursue their dreams and achieve their full potential, ensuring that education is accessible to all.
The pursuit of higher education is a right, but to afford it is a privilege for many. Those who are disabled - physically or mentally - can receive help in this venture based on the nature of their hardships to help level the playing field. Those who are born without some opportunities may find them waiting in these scholarships specially prepared by groups and organizations who facilitate disabled learners of all kinds.
