Transition Research

Few students with disabilities from high-poverty backgrounds attend college. We discuss the effects of disability and growing up in poverty on expectations for postsecondary education attendance. We describe the limiting effects of attending high-poverty high schools on student achievement followed by challenges faced by low-income students with disabilities in accessing and completing college programs including the role of federal student aid programs.

The article compares how post secondary education (PSE) for persons with intellectual disabilities (ID) is implemented in the U.S. under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and abroad under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). Topics discussed include suggestions on how the CRPD could be amended to offer better PSE outcomes for persons with ID, opportunities and inclusivity in PSE in the U.S. and brief information on CRPD.

Postsecondary education programs have increased opportunities for students with and without intellectual disabilities to study abroad as inclusive classes. Using open-coding qualitative techniques, the authors examined an inclusive study abroad group’s daily reflective journals during a study abroad trip to London and Dublin. Three shared categories emerged from analysis: personal development, bonding/social inclusion, and learning from English and Irish adults with intellectual disabilities. Each group reported two distinct categories as well.

There is a growing trend toward including adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) in further education. However, there is a lack of literature on the preparation of students with ID to attend further education. This article, by James Wintle of Queen's University, Ontario, describes how a non-profit organisation, CALC Prep, prepares adults with ID to audit university courses. Eighty hours of observations were conducted over the course of one term at this organisation. A grounded theory approach was used to identify themes within CALC Prep's curriculum.

The purpose of this study was to examine the use of an emerging technology called augmented reality to teach science vocabulary words to college students with intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorders. One student with autism and three students with an intellectual disability participated in a multiple probe across behaviors (i.e., acquisition of science vocabulary words) design. Data were collected on each student's ability to define and label three sets of science vocabulary words (i.e., bones, organs, and plant cells).

As increasing numbers of students with disabilities access postsecondary education, research studies and literature reviews have investigated the needs of these students who chose to pursue postsecondary education. These articles included studies that (a) asked students with disabilities to identify needs and (b) summarized needs in literature reviews about students with disabilities in postsecondary education. This article summarizes needs and recommendations from college students with disabilities and authors who reviewed related literature from 1995–2006.

Forces including legislation, policy, standards-based educational reforms, and changing economic and social conditions have dramatically altered the conversation and practices around postsecondary transition. This article traces the development of postsecondary transition as it is reflected in the professional literature and federal legislation since 1975.

Introduction to special issue of Exceptionality, which focuses on transition. In the introduction the author proposes that transition and transition outcomes have become a primary accountability measure after the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. 

Staff from the Institute for Community Inclusion, at the University of Massachusetts Boston, asked 50 students with intellectual disabilities who have participated in inclusive college experiences to share how they perceive they have benefited from attending college. This article compiles some student responses on six different aspects of college life.

This article highlights the importance of postsecondary education for young adults with disabilities. It notes the increasing demand for postsecondary qualifications in growing career fields and the earnings gap among education levels. Additionally, this article discusses the importance of not only access to postsecondary education for students with disabilities, but also persistence and program completion. 

Article includes sidebar, Postsecondary Education: A National Priority.