College Is Possible for Students With Intellectual Disabilities
New support programs and federal funds can help students with intellectual disabilities
Reader Comments
IN THIER SHOES
To those of you who believe our intellectually disabled sons and daughters do not deserve what you take for granted, I challenge you to walk one day in their footsteps.
I am the mother of not one, but two daughters with intellectual disabilities. Not for one moment in my life did I expect even one child with a disability, nor do you. I am intelligent, educated, never smoked nor consumed drugs or alcohol during pregnancy. My first child was a son with an extremely high IQ and gifted in math, my second child was born normally but slowed developmentally during her first year. She is 26 years old and spends 3 days a week in a sheltered workshop and that is her life. She must rely on family support the rest of her life.
My 17 year old has an intellectual disability related to reading and auditory processing but is not related to IQ nor ability. She simply learns at a different pace and in a different way. What are your suggestions? Should she work at Walmart and live below the poverty level for the rest of her life? Should she accept the SSI she would be eligible and sit home and watch tv? Or should we give her the same opportunity you or your childrent have, the same rights afforded to evey American? I have worked my entire life and I believe I have contributed enough to this society to acquire the right to have some extra support for my daughter in a college program.
We must educate every member of our society to their fullest potential and all to often, high schools are not a measure of that potential. Only when we do so will we be the greatest country on earth.
College is possible for students with intellectual disabilities
Persons with disabilities (physical and intellectual) hopefully represent the "last frontier" for equality for all citizens. Why is it that we think these people need to be locked in institutions, and unable to contribute to society? Some of them have gifts that we will never know about because they are never given the chance. I would surely love to see my daughter attend some college classes (degreed or not) to help her get a better paying job. As someone said already,"Why should she have to wait on me at McDonald's"?
Why should we place her in a "community service provider" situation where she will not have the ability to decide if she wants to attend a "program" or not on a particular day? Why should she not have a job to make almost enough money to support herself with little governmental support? There are so many un-knowns in this world and we all think we know best. The world is meant to be explored and lived in and for people to care for themselves and each other. It is not here for us decide who gets to participate and who doesn't. Can you imagine if persons with itellctual disabilites ran the country? There certainly wouldn't be the financial mess we are in right now - they see with their hearts and love, as apposed to those who only see "What's in it for me?" and who care about the others....
College is possible for students with intellectual disabilities
Persons with disabilities (physical and intellectual) hopefully represent the "last frontier" for equality for all citizens. Why is it that we think these people need to be locked in institutions, and unable to contribute to society? Some of them have gifts that we will never know about because they are never given the chance. I would surely love to see my daughter attend some college classes (degreed or not) to help her get a better paying job. As someone said already,"Why should she have to wait on me at McDonald's"?
Why should we place her in a "community service provider" situation where she will not have the ability to decide if she wants to attend a "program" or not on a particular day? Why should she not have a job to make almost enough money to support herself with little governmental support? There are so many un-knowns in this world and we all think we know best. The world is meant to be explored and lived in and for people to care for themselves and each other. It is not here for us decide who gets to participate and who doesn't. Can you imagine if persons with itellctual disabilites ran the country? There certainly wouldn't be the financial mess we are in right now - they see with their hearts and love, as apposed to those who only see "What's in t for me?" and who care about the others....
wow
wow, it is scary to read the thoughts of one person (EmCee of CA) that people with disabilities should be segregated and are not able to be educated. WOW! wake up buddy, this is 2009 and you obviously have no idea or ANY experience with anyone with a 'disability' and the ENDLESS possibilities and skills they do have and can achieve. I truly feel sorry for you and your obviously ignorant thinking. I am BLESSED to have a son with a "disability" and am so happy to read the article and see that the rest of the world is coming around to all that people with disabilities can achieve if just given the chance. Thanks to all the wonderful people who put the time and effort into this....and not to mention that obviously the government also must recognize the potential of people with disabilities by helping to fund such program to get off the ground. The future is bright!!!
to EmCeeof CA
Maybe you should research a little better before writing such things. It is because of people like you that the world really does not know what these individuals are capable to do ON THEIR OWN. It is truly a gift to have these people in my life and to see what they can do.
honesty
honestly the fact that any human being would not give another human being a chance at life is a very sickening thought to me, i hope everyone who is out there trying to dilute the thoughts of people that people with disabilities dont have the potential to make it in college really examine themselves and realize that they are wrong. anybody and everybody should get the chance at a better life no matter what your situation. we live in the land of the free not the place where only the strong survive so f*** everybody else... love god love life and thy fellow man no matter what.
realistic
Doesn't 'intellectually challenged' indicate that someone is NOT a likely college student? If you can't make it through a class without an extraordinary effort on the part of several people, not just yourself...then you just do not belong in college. We need to get over this idea that everyone is entitled to, or even should, attend college. Vocational school might be an option.
What happens to these students who are finally awarded a degree that perhaps took many years and many people to finish? No employer is going to give them a workplace environment where their co-workers tutor them, their counselors coddle them and they are allowed extra time to finish their work.
Special ed students belong in separate classes in K-12, if they are in fact educable at all, and do not belong at all in college. Stop pretending that you can make a learning disabled child 'normal' simply by insisting they be treated in a similar (and yet 'enhanced') manner as regular students.
DISabled doesn't mean UNable
My daughter is 28, disabled, and working on her Professional Certificate in Early Childhood Education at a Community College. She attended the Threshold Program at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA--a college-based program for students with disabilities. At Threshold students learn independent-living skills, receive vocational training, and learn to put into practice the independent living skills they have learned. The Threshold Program has been around for 20+ years, thanks to those who--long ago--understood that students with disabilities REALL DO HAVE potential. As was explained at a parents' meeting at Threshold by Mr. Jim Wilbur, director of the program, "Just because someone is disabled, it doesn't mean they can't do most of the SAME things you and I do. It just takes them longer"...
Do we truly know a person potential?
I am, to say the least, disturbed by the number of negative outlooks posted here. Before anyone jumps, yes, I am the parent of a child with Down's Syndrome. Yes, I want her to go to college. Frankly I could care less if her attendance takes resources from other students. If I am paying for her degree, she deserves the exact same as any other paying student. Should the academic requirements for the degree be the same for developmentally delayed students, absolutely. The value of the degree should not be diluted, else it means little. Should they receive additional tutoring and learning adjuncts (visual aids, hearing aids, etc.), absolutely. Any student needing these should have access. Do I expect my daughter to take more than four years, absolutely. I seem to recall several college friends who took 7 years to get a standard four year degree.
Who are we to pass judgment as to a persons potential.
There are numerous examples of people who were, "written off" by others only to triumph in the face of bigotry, adversity, and those supporting human devaluation. I
Developmentally delayed persons are not OJT only people. They are not here to clean up after the rest of us through janitorial services nor serve you your McDonald's lunch. They are people with abilities, all be it varying across a wide spectrum, but like all of us, they deserve the right to succeed or fail. But the option none the less.
We (parents of children with developmental delays) don't want your sympathy or money. We want our children to succeed. Succeed to the maximum level they are capable. To have the same opportunities as others. If that means they have a counselor at a school that guides them through an academic program, or they go slower, or they get a student volunteer "buddy" to help them study, find their way around for the first few weeks, so be it. Gee, sounds like the same thing I want for my developmentally normal child.
One thing these kids have that most people don't, is an unconditional acceptance of others. Why not try wearing that hat for a while. I can't even come close to my daughters level of kindness. She is my role model.
Best to you and your son Tex Ritter. WE ARE PENN STATE!!!!!!
Assuming potential
Providing the opportunity for a college-level education to students with intellectual disabilities may seem cutting edge and risky, but 100 or so years ago - perhaps even more recently - providing the opportunity for a college-level education to students who were poor, or non-white, or female was not the norm.
My daughter's goal is to graduate high school with a diploma and go to college. She has autism, and high school is challenging, but with determination and a willingness to work hard along with the support of family and friends AND an appropriate level of support from the school, college could very well be in her future.I get criticized for having ihgh expectations, but why should I? I don't tell her that her plans are definitely going to happen, but I also don't tell her that they aren't possible, because how can I truly know what is possible? In the same way, how can you set low expectations when you can't be sure it's not possible?
It's time to stop focusing on all the things people 'can't' do, and instead focus on tapping the sometimes-untapped potential that exists in each person. We may not all have the ability to learn in the same way, at the same pace, and to the same extent - and that's OK - how boring life would be if we were all the same!
