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.
As we develop and evaluate postsecondary education programs for students with intellectual disability, we must consider students’ perspectives on known program elements that work well and elements that need improvement. To support the consideration of student voices in program development and evaluation, the Think College Inclusive Higher Education Network conducted a brief literature review of articles that included the voices and perspectives of college students or college graduates with intellectual disability.
This resource provides guidance on naming postsecondary education programs for students with intellectual disability. It explains how a program's name can shape perceptions and integration within the academic community. The authors share common mistakes to avoid, like using confusing acronyms or disability-focused terms. They suggest using names that focus on academics, like College & Community Studies, to make programs feel more inclusive. This guide is useful for educators and school administrators who want to create inclusive and empowering program names.
