Within the general category ‘students with a disability’ there is substantial diversity. Participation, outcomes and student characteristics vary by the type of disability reported, as do the level and type of support required to successfully participate in VET, with some students requiring substantial support and others no support at all. To classify all students into the category ‘students with a disability’ is problematic due to these variations. This point is supported by recent research by Karmel & Nguyen who found:

Overall, the significant point to emerge is that it is not helpful to treat students with a disability as one group. The different disability groups have students with different background characteristics, and the direct effect of the disability on academic performance differs between groups.