This study was designed to examine if environmental factors were related to participation in school activities of students with disabilities. No direct relations between environmental variables and participation were revealed. There are, however, indications that specific environmental factors are more important for students’ participation than general environmental factors. Students’ own ratings of availability were the strongest environmental predictor of participation. Environmental factors rated by others did not have strong statistical relations to students’ participation. The result implies that a consideration of the student’s niche potential is needed when measuring the environment–participation relationship, either by letting the students themselves rate their environment or by focusing more directly on the observed niches of the student. It is common in Sweden to have several community-based and school-based supports. Common types of community support were for example; ‘speech therapy’, ‘individual tutoring’ or ‘student counselling’, typical school based supports were ‘personal assistant’ or ‘assistant in classroom’, ‘secluded work space’ or ‘pedagogical aids’. Type or amount of support does not seem to be related to the degree of participation. Other factors than participation restrictions are probably more important when deciding the type of support to provide. Type and number of disabilities are more important than everyday functioning in terms of participation for the provision of support. The second research question investigated the general and specific environment and the relationship to participation. Specific environmental factors had a stronger relation to participation than general environmental factors. The result is consistent with the bio-ecological model [14,15] and niche theory [13], a person is not interacting with all aspects of the immediate setting. The student will interact only with a portion of the environment and general ratings of the environment will, therefore, not be accurate enough to identify the specific niches of the student. Activities rated as available by the students themselves probably contain the niches of the environment in which they interact and, therefore, will give better information of student-environment fit. The portion of the environment that the student interacts with will be the environment that the student perceives as available and activities and situation that the student is not interacting with will probably not be perceived as available. The general environment consists of both activities that the student is active in and activities that the student is absent from and will, therefore, not give information specific enough.