Future Research: Areas to Explore Further

Helping Bridge the Gap between High School and College

• Adding Community College "transition" programs

  • Some community colleges are doing great things right now to support students with disabilities in their pursuit of a postsecondary education. For example, check out Foothill College's Tools and Transition to Work Program! The hope is that more community colleges create similar programs to help bridge the gap between high school and college.​

• Transition portfolios

  • Special education teachers should help their students create portfolios throughout their middle school and high school experiences to help build self-advocacy and self awareness. An example of what some schools are doing can be found here.​

• Parent support

  • One way to improve outcomes is to provide parents with more training and support, especially once their child enters high school.  Parents have shared time and time again that receiving more support and guidance in the area of transition has helped them help their child better and improved overall post-secondary outcomes.​

Improving College Disability Support Services/Programs

• Programs vary widely by school and available resources

• Schools with minimal support systems could look to schools that have a higher success rate to see what they are doing and how to improve their own programs

Ending Misconceptions

• Education and awareness helps a lot

• Empowering students more

• De-stigmatizing the "disability" label

Raising Awareness in Higher Education

• Lack of awareness and understanding about disabilities, especially hidden disabilities, leads to students with disabilities being treated poorly or even being misunderstood. Therefore, providing instructors in high education with more specific training about Section 504, the ADA, and their responsibilities towards students with disabilities would make a significant difference in the lives of young adults with disabilities.