This toolkit is designed to help people (e.g., parents & caregivers, teachers, siblings, service providers) who support teens and young adults on the autism spectrum as they set and pursue self-determined goals. Teens and adults on the autism spectrum may also find this toolkit helpful. This toolkit may also be beneficial to people who support individuals with a range of disabilities.
Guide / Manual
This guide, developed by the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy, is to inform researchers and communicators of research to use language that affirms the existence, experiences, and rights of individuals with disabilities. It contains concrete suggestions and rationales for making language more respectful and inclusive.
This guide answers questions like what is the ADA?, why is it important for me?, what protections does it provide?, as well as sharing information about the Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act and the Olmstead Act. This toolkit is available in an easy read version as well as a plain language version with fewer graphics; both can be found attached to this resource.
Esta es una guía universitaria para estudiantes con discapacidades del desarrollo y sus familias. Después de la escuela secundaria, los programas de educación de escuela post-secundaria (denominados en esta guía
This guide, thoughtfully developed by The Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities at Rutgers University, is designed for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities to choose a college that's right for them. There are 4 main categories ("Gold Medal Categories") that represent really important features of a college program, and the guide goes on to describes the characteristics of each category. Then the student has space to answer some questions about what he or she wants, considering those Gold Medal categories.
This helpful resource from ACHIEVE at Highline can be used by a job coach, support staff, or supervisor to evaluate a student's potential or current internship work.
This useful worksheet from ACHIEVE at Highline can be used to identify a student's career interests and experience.
This checklist/rating sheet from a college program in Florida lists possible competencies in five domains that students may work on within the program, with a place to indicate the date the student begins working on the skill, the date met, and notes. Focus areas include Employment, Academics, Campus and Community Engagement, Self-Determination, and Independent Living.
In 2018, a student at Kent State University conducted a project to learn promising practices that support the development of a well-functioning and useful advisory board that can serve college programs for students with intellectual disability. In this document, she shares her findings - 15 tips to forming an effective advisory board.
This assessment tool was developed by the Alberta Assocation for Community Living. It provides questions and XX to determine the level of meaningful and authentic inclusion. The authors note that "while the level of ... satisfaction with an initiative is important to note... it is the level of rigorous and coherent promotion of inclusion that this assessment intends to bring into focus."