2.6 Assignment Critical Reflection Journal – Blog

Educational Inclusion of Students with Intellectual Disabilities

Write a reflective blog post on this week’s readings, Roundtable dialogue, and/or action research learnings. The blog writing may be your choice, but it must be substantive, including outside scholarly works.

Educational Inclusion of Students with Intellectual Disabilities

For hundreds of years, students have been attending colleges and universities to increase their knowledge, debate and research new existing and new ideas and develop their skills in preparation for the workforce post-college. Many students have seen the college experience as a place to get experiences beyond the classroom to better prepare them for adulthood, such as socialization with others, financial independence, time management, and personal independence necessary to survive.  These experiences are vital and transformative but have only sometimes been available to all students. 

As was discussed in last week’s blog post, education should be accessible and equitable to all who seek to pursue it.  Just as it is essential for there to be equity and inclusion for students with technology and financial resources, it is equally vital that equitable access includes those individuals with Intellectual Disabilities (ID).  Traditionally individuals with ID have been excluded from the opportunities afforded to other students who chose to pursue a college education and the social experiences associated with it that leads them to greater independence and success. 

Inclusive Post-secondary Education Programs (IPSEs) were first developed in Canadian universities in the late ’80s and ’90s (Thomas et al., 2020).  The outcomes were positive for students socially and academically.  They also had a positive impact on the employability of students with ID.  These programs became popular in the ‘90s in the United States, and advocates gained traction at the state and federal levels to make more opportunities available for these students.  Legislation to include individuals with ID in post-secondary education dates back to 1975, now called IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. 

Increasingly, students and parents expressed a strong desire to receive an education closely aligned with the general education curriculum, just like other students. As students began being included in the traditional classroom with their peers and increasingly thriving, conversations began to surface as the expectations grew for them to live and work in their local communities as every other productive citizen.  This started a national discussion and led to a reauthorization in 1990 of IDEA.  Other federal court decisions and additional legislation have expanded educational opportunities for students with intellectual disabilities (ID).

Postsecondary education (PSE) programs serving students with intellectual disabilities (ID) strive to improve student life outcomes by developing skills in three crucial areas.  These areas include academics, independent living, and employment (Agarwal et al., 2021).  According to Winsor et al. (2017) a significant gap in employment between people with disabilities and those without, with 74% of individuals without disabilities being employed and only 34% of individuals who are working age who have disabilities.  Hiersteiner et al. (2016) state that “individuals with an intellectual disability (ID) experience even a lower employment rate,” and because of these even lower rates, they experience a higher level of poverty which then impacts their integration into the community, social belonging, productivity, satisfaction, empowerment, independence, and quality of life.

Universal design for transition (UDT) though a relatively new term for the field of special education, is designed to provide a framework for special education teachers, transition specialists, and administrators who want to revise instructional design and delivery so that they not only meet required academic standards but also better prepare students with disabilities, including students with intellectual disabilities, as they successfully attempt to transition to adult life (Craven, 2015).  Just as it is crucial to consider the impact of equity and inclusion when incorporating technology into the educational setting, it is equally important to use a framework like UDT to meet the learning needs of students with Intellectual Disabilities (ID) to serve this student population best as they prepare for adult life by linking academic and transition learning.

References

Agarwal, R., Heron, L., & Burke, S. L. (2021). Evaluating a Postsecondary Education Program for Students with Intellectual Disabilities: Leveraging the Parent Perspective. Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders, 51(7), 2229–2240. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04676-0

Craven, R. G. (2015). Inclusive Education for Students with Intellectual Disabilities. Information Age Publishing.

Thomas, E. V., Schram, B. M., & Crimmins, D. (2020). College as Community for Students with Intellectual Disabilities. Journal of Legal Medicine, 40(1), 53–61. https://doi.org/10.1080/01947648.2020.1731332