This presentation will discuss some of the current statistics regarding distance education in the United States. It will also address how student disabilities (and their associated accommodations) are and should be impacting these online course offerings. According to a recent government study, 66% of US colleges currently offer some form of for-credit distance education (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2008). In 2007 more than 20% of higher education students were enrolled in at least one online course, and the 2007 online enrollments were 245% that of the online enrollment seen in 2002 (Allen & Seaman, 2008). These educational studies have revealed what most educators already knew: online education is becoming increasingly important to colleges nationwide. The number of online courses continues to increase, and larger numbers of students are taking significant portions of their coursework online. Students reporting disabilities (and requesting accommodation) have also been increasing. Eleven percent of undergraduates have reported or registered as having a disability (NCES, 2006). The 11% statistic suggests that at least 2.2% of the online student population are also students with disabilities, and that 2.2% is likely to be too low because the flexibly offered by online courses is likely to appeal to students with disabilities. Ensuring accessibility in online courses, therefore, is clearly a practical consideration. Education studies have also revealed that some schools aren’t doing all that they can or should to ensure accessibility. Schools were asked how commonly they received requests for academic accommodation. Nearly a quarter of the schools responding didn’t know whether or not requests of this type were ever received (NCES, 2008). Another study tracked how closely accessibility guidelines for online course web sites were followed. Nearly half of the schools reported only moderate to minor application of the guidelines while over one-third of the schools either didn’t follow any of the guidelines or were unaware if guidelines were being followed (NCES, 2003).