Vanhorn Stinnett, Chelsea

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.