Date Presented Accepted for AOTA INSPIRE 2021 but unable to be presented due to online event limitations.
Young adults with intellectual disability experience key educational disparities compared with peers without disabilities as a result of stigma, a lack of opportunities available to them, and a lack of adequate accommodations in higher education. This session will present data gathered to inform development and implementation of an inclusive postsecondary education (IPSE) program on a university campus. The integral role of OT in IPSE program implementation will be discussed.
Primary Author and Speaker: Meghan Blaskowitz
Additional Authors and Speakers: Rachel Carretta, Alia Pustorino-Clevenger
PURPOSE: As structured supports and services taper after high school, young adults with intellectual disability (ID) have few postsecondary options and experience educational/employment disparities when compared to peers without disabilities. While 69.7% of US youth without disabilities attend college and have 7,000 options to choose from, only 28.7% of young adults with IDD enroll in college, with only 295 inclusive post-secondary education (IPSE) options (National Center for Education Statistics, 2016; Think College, 2020). Because the number of programs does not meet current demand, a private university in Western PA piloted an IPSE program in Academic Year 2019-2020. This project aims to answer the following research questions: 1) What are faculty, staff and student perceptions of IPSE on a university campus? 2) What impact does an IPSE pilot program have on the life skills and self-determination of students with ID? and 2) What is occupational therapy's (OT) role in development of an IPSE program?
DESIGN: This study utilizes a longitudinal design to track outcomes of an IPSE program. Convenience sampling was used to gather faculty, staff and student survey respondents during the first phase of the project, while purposive sampling was used to gather students with IDD for the second phase.
METHOD: The first phase of the study used a 42-item survey (adapted from a Texas A&M instrument; Gilson et al., 2020) to gather faculty, staff and student perceptions of IPSE to inform development of a pilot program. Descriptive statistics and a series of multivariable logistic regressions will be presented. The second phase of the study measured life skills and self-determination outcomes for two students with mild-moderate ID and Down syndrome who were enrolled in the IPSE pilot program using a researcher-created Campus Life Skills Assessment and the AIR Self-Determination Scale. An OTR and OT doctoral student provided on-campus support to the students 2-4 times/week.
RESULTS: Survey data on perceptions of IPSE on the university campus included faculty (n = 72), staff (n = 76), and student (n = 200) responses. 96% of respondents believed that IPSE would have a ‘positive’ or ‘extremely positive’ influence on the campus community. However, some faculty specified they were unwilling to make course modifications for students with ID (18%); those faculty tended to be female, tenured, had incomes greater than $120,000/year, with no prior disability awareness training. 67% of students perceived being a ‘peer mentor’ for a student with IDD favorably. In the second phase of the study, students with ID demonstrated marked improvement in on-campus ADL and navigation skills from pre- to post-test, as both required maximum assistance before the program and only minimal assistance with the use of video modeling supports, after their first semester. Students’ self-rated AIR Self-Determination scores decreased slightly from 110.0 (14.1) to 109.0 (15.6) points (out of a total 120), while their parents’ rating of their self-determination improved from 55.0 (11.3) to 59.5 (9.2) points.
CONCLUSION: These data identify a myriad of areas in which OT can support IPSE program development and implementation. The data also help establish IPSE best practices, which can be replicated across university campuses in hopes of closing post-secondary education gaps for students with ID. OTs are integral IPSE team members as they provide unique supports in: building person-centered assessment processes, student pre-orientation and peer mentorship programs; providing campus life skills training, assistive technologies and AAC devices to students with ID; and training faculty to make course modifications for students with ID using universal design for learning (UDL) principles.
References
Gilson, C. B., Gushanas, C. M., Li, Y., & Foster, K. (2020). Understanding faculty and student attitudes regarding inclusion and postsecondary education for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 58(1), 65–81.
National Center for Education Statistics. (2016). Digest of Education Statistics: Number of educational institutions, by level and control of institution. https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=84.
Think College. (2020). Think College Search. https://thinkcollege.net/college-search.
