This guide focuses on credentials that are specifically for students with intellectual disability enrolled in inclusive postsecondary programs. Steps are carefully outlined about how to develop a robust and comprehensive course of study that culminates in a meaningful credential approved and awarded by the accredited college or university where the program is located. The process is clearly defined and real life examples and testimonies are provided.
This publication features critical data points highlighting the positive effects of postsecondary education on employment for individuals with intellectual disability. The data show that people with intellectual disability who attend college have higher employment rates and increased earnings.
In this article, published in the British Journal of Learning Disabilities, the authors present findings from 13 years of data on postsecondary education programs for students with intellectual disability. Since 2010, there has been significant growth in the United States in the number of students with intellectual disability accessing higher education, driven by federal legislation and funding. Currently, over 340 institutions of higher education provide programs of study for students with intellectual disability.
Peer mentors provide crucial social, academic, and campus community inclusion supports to students with intellectual disability enrolled in higher education. Research on the perspectives of peer mentors provides valuable insight into the impact that supporting students with intellectual disability has on both the students and the mentors.
Many students, including those with intellectual disability, benefit from explicit campus navigation and acclimation training in their new campus community. This kind of training can help prepare students for campus and community involvement. Learning campus navigation skills can benefit incoming college students, and can generalize to other new environments, resulting in increased independent community access. This publication summarizes the available research on teaching campus navigation and makes recommendations on how and when to teach these skills to students.
Faculty perspectives on teaching students with intellectual disability are important to consider as college programs continue to grow and more students are enrolling. To ensure faculty experiences are considered in program development and improvement, we conducted a brief literature review of postsecondary education-related articles, focusing on those that included the perspectives of faculty who taught students with intellectual disability at colleges or universities.
This Highlights document was created with data from the Annual Report of the Cohort 3 TPSID Model Demonstration Projects (Year 3, 2022-2023) for those who are interested in the most critical statistics from the report, or are sharing with a broad audience. It features bold graphics and brief summaries of program and student data, including exit and post-exit outcomes.
