| Coming Events |
Think
College Capacity Building Institute
In
association with the Annual Meeting of the Association of University Centers on
Disabilities
Sunday,
November 8, 2009
Renaissance
Hotel, Washington, DC
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TASH 2009 Tech WorkshopsNovember 18, 2009Pittsburgh, PAhttp://www.tash.org/2009tash/TASHTECHWorkshops.htmThink
College is doing a TASH Tech Workshop that will feature a presentation of early
results from the participatory action research being conducted at UMass-Boston
with students that are attending college who have intellectual disabilities as
well as another presentation by a college student with intellectual
disabilities and her mother.---
Twelfth International Conference on Autism, Intellectual
Disabilities, & Other Developmental DisabilitiesJanuary 20-22, 2010Sheraton Maui Resort & Spa, Maui, Hawaiihttp://www.dddcec.org/conferences.htmConsortium
partner Bob Stodden, Director, Center on Disability Studies, University
of Hawaii at Manoa will present on Preparing Youth with Significant
Disabilities for Postsecondary Education and Adulthood: Policy to Practice.---
The
Pacific Rim International Conference on DisabilitiesApril
12-13, 2010Honolulu,
Hawaiihttp://www.pacrim.hawaii.edu/PAC
RIM will be followed on April 14, 2010 with a Capacity Building Institute on
Transition to Postsecondary Education for Individuals with Intellectual
Disabilities and Autism. This workshop is recommended for college and
university faculty, disability support personnel, high-school personnel,
vocational rehabilitation counselors, DOE administrators, and persons with
disabilities and their advocates. Debra
Hart and Cate Weir from ICI-Boston will lead the CBI.---
Council
for Exceptional Children 2010 Convention & Expo, DDD Showcase Session Nashville, TNApril 21-24, 2010http://www.cec.sped.org/Content/NavigationMenu/ProfessionalDevelopment/ConventionExpo/Bob Stodden will serve as the session leader for a panel discussion on intellectual
disabilities and autism and postsecondary education. Panel participants will
include Paul Wehman, David Mank, and Debra Hart.
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Think College Mini-Grant Competition 2009
Promoting Inclusive
Postsecondary Education Options for People with Intellectual/Developmental
Disabilities
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BACKGROUND
Think College, at the Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI) at
the University of Massachusetts Boston, with funding from the Administration on
Developmental Disabilities, conducts a comprehensive national training
initiative designed to increase the participation of individuals with
intellectual and other developmental disabilities in postsecondary education.
Think College will be awarding up to FIVE (5) mini-grants to five different
University Centers of Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDDs) to
develop a statewide team that conducts planning for inclusive postsecondary
education for individuals with developmental disabilities.
The emphasis of this competition is to increase opportunities
for postsecondary education for students with Intellectual / Developmental
Disabilities within the University Centers of Excellence in Developmental
Disabilities (UCEDD) network, in partnership with their respective
Developmental Disabilities Councils and other key state partners, such as Board
of Higher Education. The project priority area is state level collaborative
planning resulting in an action plan to increase opportunities for inclusive
postsecondary education for people with intellectual/developmental
disabilities.
The overarching goal is a plan that will result in measurable
increases in participation of students with intellectual/developmental
disabilities in inclusive postsecondary education.
The lead applicant must be a University Center for Excellence in
Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD).
PURPOSE
Think College will award five mini-grants of $15,000 each for a
9-month period for UCEDDs to support statewide strategic planning to implement
an inclusive postsecondary initiative statewide. To be successful, applications
must:
1. Identify key stakeholders in your state and describe plans
for engaging in a collaborative strategic planning process with them to
identify project goals, tasks to achieve goals, timelines, responsible
entities, and milestones.
2. Describe plans to sustain and continue project activities
after the funding period.
This competition will not support projects that propose to
develop a separate or segregated postsecondary education program only for
students with intellectual / developmental disabilities. For more information,
visit http://www.aucd.org/template/news.cfm?news_id=4700&parent=16&parent_title=Home&url=/template/index.cfm
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| College Faculty: Frequently Asked Questions about Working with College Students
who have Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities |
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By
Cate Weir
Below
are some questions that college faculty often have when there is a student with
an intellectual disability in their classes, along with answers to those
questions.
Q: Will federal program funding also carry with
it documentation standards such as schools have with IEP documentation, IEP
audits, etc.?
A:
There is no indication at this time that the availability of federal financial
aid, as has been recently approved by the Higher Education Opportunity Act of
208, will bring with it the level of documentation standards required by the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). However, it is best practice for programs
serving students with intellectual disabilities to track outcomes of their
students to be able to address the effectiveness of the initiative.
Q: Am I required to modify my course for
students with intellectual disabilities?
A:
In college, course work is not modified for students with disabilities, as it
might be in K-12 education. Students who
take a college course for credit will complete all work, with appropriate
accommodations for disability.
Accommodations may be such things as use of assistive technology,
extended time for tests, use of books on tape, and so on. For some students with intellectual
disabilities, college courses may be audited rather than taken for credit, and
in that case, modifications such as reduced assignment load and so on may be
allowed.
Q: If the curriculum is not to be modified,
which academic courses would be best suited to the students' ability?
A:
Students with intellectual disabilities vary from each other in terms of their
strengths, interests and abilities, so it is hard to say exactly what courses
may be best suited to them as a group.
However, courses with more hands-on learning, courses that are related
to the career goals of the student, or those that tap into a particular
strength or interest of the student may be recommended.
Q: Is job placement something Vocational
Rehabilitation solely does, or do your participating colleges work to find
these students employment after taking college classes?
A: Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) is an
important partner in job placement for students in postsecondary education
initiatives. For students still in high
school, the job placement activities are the responsibility of the school
district. In the case of dual enrollment
programs, when students are still in high school and participating in a college
experience, the program staff work with students to obtain employment, and then
once they graduate Vocational Rehabilitation takes over. We believe that it is best practice that all
college initiatives for students with intellectual disabilities have a strong
focus on employment outcomes for students, and therefore would recommend that
for all programs, both staff of the college program and VR, when appropriate,
support students to get and maintain competitive employment.
Q: Will instructors have the same rights/responsibilities
for students with ID as with other students? (e.g. If a student is disruptive
can they be dismissed from class?)
A: Students with intellectual disabilities who
are attending classes at a college are first and foremost students of the
college, and as such are responsible for abiding by the code of conduct of the
college. Students with ID do not have a
different set of expectations for behavior, and faculty should apply rules for
student behavior in their classrooms equally to all the students. Put simply, a student who was disruptive in
class could be dismissed if that is the procedure utilized by that professor
for disruptive students.
Q: Please delineate between learning disability
and an intellectual disability.
A: An intellectual disability (ID) is defined as
characterized by significant limitations both in intellectual functioning and
in adaptive behavior as expressed in conceptual, social, and practical adaptive
skills. This disability originates before age 18. Individuals with intellectual disabilities
can and do learn, but at a slower pace than others, and learning across all
domains may be affected.
In
contrast, a learning disability (LD) is a neurological disorder that affects
the brain's ability to receive, process, store, and respond to information. The
term learning disability is used to describe the difficulty a person of at least average intelligence has inacquiring
academic skills.
A learning disability is often characterized
by test scores that indicate highs in one area, with lows in another. An intellectual disability will present as
lower scores across all domains.
Q: How do you ensure being able to find jobs for
students with intellectual disabilities when people nationwide are struggling
to find jobs?
A: It is true that a recession and high
unemployment affect all citizens, including those with intellectual
disabilities. What is also true that
even in good economic times, individuals with disabilities still experience
higher than average unemployment rates.
So in good times or bad, individuals with disabilities may need support
to obtain employment, but often prove to be exemplary employees, with lower
attrition and absenteeism. All citizens
deserve a good job so that they can support themselves, and become a tax-paying
citizen of their community, state and country.
Q: Instructors in developmental courses (as well
as others) currently and in the past have had students with intellectual
disabilities with no help/support and are often at a loss with what to do - can
you give us a few first steps?
A: First, it is important to remember that
students with intellectual disabilities can and do learn, although it may be at
a different pace and with more outside of class support.
That
being said, there are several things you can do as the professor in the
class. First, it can be helpful to talk
to the student about how they learn best.
Ideally, the students have been learning ways to describe their learning
style and needs.
Students
may benefit from material being offered in various ways, for example with
pictures and diagrams as well as words.
Encouragement and support from faculty for students to use technology
can be very helpful. Many students may
prefer electronic text so that they can use technology such as read-aloud
programs (Kurzweil, for example) to read text so that they can see and hear it
at the same time. Repetition helps, so
if you create podcasts of lectures that students can listen to again, or allow
tape recorders in your classroom, that is very helpful. Structured handouts that help students take
notes from a lecture can work well.
These are just a few examples of how diversifying class content and
material can help many of the learners in the classroom, including students
with intellectual disabilities. Some
professors have agreed to have a student audit their class, thereby opening the
door for modifying some class assignments.
This way, students can learn some of the material, and participate in a
rich academic environment.
Faculty
should also refer students to the supports that may be available outside of
class. Colleges offer a rich array of
support services for all college students, such as learning labs; disability
services offices, and tutoring services.
For students with intellectual disabilities, there may be additional
supports such as educational coaches and other program staff that can assist
with homework outside of class. Take
advantage of these resources.
Please
contact us for more information!
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An Article Worth Revisiting
From the National Center on Secondary Education and Transition,
December, 2006 |
Transition Services
for Students Aged 18-21 with Intellectual Disabilities in College and Community
Settings: Models and Implications of Success
By Meg Grigal, Amy Dwyre, and Helena Davis
Recently in the field of special education
there has been a call for the development and expansion of services for older
students with intellectual disabilities outside of the high school setting. In
response, local school systems across the country have begun to provide
transition services to students ages 18 and older with intellectual
disabilities in postsecondary settings such as two- and four-year colleges or
other community settings. This brief provides an overview of some successful
models of transition services being implemented in postsecondary settings,
describes one such model implemented by the Baltimore City Public School System
in three local colleges, and presents some of the implications and strategies
for success of this model.
To read the rest of the article, visit http://ncset.org/publications/viewdesc.asp?id=3395
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