High-quality inclusive postsecondary education programs strive for authentic inclusion of students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Typicality for students and enhanced integration into the larger institution of higher education are guiding principles outlined in recently developed, national model standards. With these novel and inclusive opportunities, students often need support to navigate and troubleshoot the myriad situations that may arise as a result of this level of inclusion on a college campus.
Plotner, Anthony
College opportunities now exist for young adults with intellectual disability. Because of this, it is common for these individuals' parents to express a desire for increased student agency (Miller et al., 2018). Yet, little is known about how parents feel about how to best support agency development for their young adult child. In the current study, authors surveyed 64 parents with a student attending an inclusive postsecondary education program to examine their perceived level of confidence related to supporting their student in developing agency.
Self-determination, or the freedom to act as the primary causal agent in one’s life, is a well-documented component of enhanced quality of life. Yet young adults with disabilities are often less self-determined than their non-disabled peers. Furthermore, there is an absence of the voices of young adults with disabilities in the literature related to self-determination. This study utilizes photovoice, a participatory method, to understand how U.S. college students with intellectual disabilities understand self-determination.
College programs for students with intellectual disability are designed to provide the same opportunities that all other students have in college: social inclusion, learning, and participation in classes and campus activities.
Project
National Coordinating Center
Staff Perceptions on Factors Affecting Access to Intimacy Education and Intimate Experiences for College Students With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities reveals that a majority of staff members at inclusive postsecondary education (IPSE) programs for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) who participated in a national survey agreed that their students think learning about intimacy is a priority, but feel their students lack confidence to ask for support in learning more about sex and dating.
Postsecondary education (PSE) programs allow for college students with intellectual disability to experience a higher level of autonomy in choice making, which they may not have experienced in their family home or high school. This includes choice making related to romantic and sexual relationships. The Continuum of Support for Intimacy Knowledge in College Survey (CoSIK-C) was used to examine how PSE programs support college students in building their intimacy knowledge.
Project
National Coordinating Center
One of the primary goals for students attending IPSE programs is authentic, competitive employment experiences, and research shows that students with some IPSE experience have better outcomes in securing employment. What has come into focus recently, is that just getting a job is not enough. It is becoming more important that students have access to industry recognized credentials through their IPSE programs so that they can get better jobs, with better pay.
Project
National Coordinating Center
Similar to their typical peers, students with intellectual disability enrolled in postsecondary education programs endure levels of stress that result in the application of coping strategies necessary to navigate various social domains of college life, including romantic relationships, friendships, roommate relationships, and social media interactions. This study utilizes survey and interview data to examine which coping strategies are used by college students with intellectual disability.
This book chapter outlines the experiences in developing CarolinaLIFE, an inclusive postsecondary education (IPSE) program at the University of South Carolina. The authors reflect upon the challenges and outcomes of program development, including the initial challenges of starting an IPSE certificate program at a Carnegie Research Level One institution, the shifting roles of parents, and policies and procedures that have been refined since the program's inception.
Financial, legislative, and philosophical support for postsecondary education (PSE) programs for individuals with intellectual disability has resulted in great increases in the number of such programs across the country. Directors of new PSE programs have few research-based guidelines to provide direction for integrating programs within colleges or universities. In this study, we survey administrators of PSE programs for individuals with intellectual disability across the United States in order to identify perceptions of supports and barriers encountered during program development.