As physical and mental handicaps come in many different forms, handicapped scholarships for disabled students are designed around the variability inherent in the category of disabilities. Students who may be blind, deaf, or physically disabled will be able to find scholarships to help them fill their financial needs based on their handicap. In order to better locate scholarships for handicapped students which will meet individual criteria, seekers should be able to identify which form of disability they have.
In many cases handicapped scholarships are segmented into individual types, so knowing which disability an individual has will allow for a more successful search. On top of nationally available handicap scholarships students should always stop by their local financial aid office to see what scholarships or grants may be available through the specific college. It is not uncommon for colleges to receive grant money from the federal level or from private foundations dedicated to making financial aid available to students. If all of these options do not pan out, students with disabilities can often fall back on government grants or social security disability education benefits which are designed to help defray the costs of higher learning. In combination with all of these options, students with disabilities should be able to find the necessary financial aid they need for school. Though the process is not always simple, tenacity will find a student funded well enough that in all hopes should any gap remain it will be relatively small.
Students with a general physical or mental handicap should check in with the Mays Mission for the Handicapped and consider them as a potential source for a handicapped scholarship. Every year the Mays Mission gives out up to seven handicapped scholarships to needy students in the form of a stipend. The amount varies student to student and is not specified by the organization. In order to qualify for a Mays Mission handicapped scholarship students must be able to officially document a handicap or disability, be a resident of the Unites States, score 18 or better on the ACT, be enrolled in a four year college program and be actively working towards a degree. On top of these initial requirements, the Mays Mission requires that every semester students provide proof of full time enrollment, submit grades while maintaining a grade point average of at least 2.3 and compose a letter which updates the Mays group with a status of the student’s life. While it is not stipulated directly, the wording of the requirements suggests that stipends operate in an ongoing basis so long as minimum qualifications are maintained. The deadline for the Mays Mission scholarship is June 30.
Students who are deaf or hard of hearing, as well as those who are blind, have several options available to them in terms of a handicapped scholarship as well apart from relying solely on social security benefits or government grants. The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) provides a series of deaf scholarships through a number of private foundations, the most prominent of which is the William C. Stokoe Foundation. This foundation provides a single $1,000 handicapped scholarship to students who can verify that they are either deaf or hard of hearing of any major or program. Applications for this hard of hearing scholarship are due no later than March 15 of every year and for more information, students should contact NAD directly.
For blind students, the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) offers 30 blind scholarships every year of anywhere from $3,000 to $12,000 to winning applicants. Interested students must be able to show legal documentation regarding their blindness, be a resident of the United States, planning to or currently are enrolled in an institution of higher education and be a participant in NFD scheduled events. Those applicants whom are awarded with these handicapped scholarships for disabled students will also receive separate assistance to help them attend the NFB annual conference in July, allowing them to network with publicly active blind persons. The deadline for the NFB scholarship is March 31, 2011.