From The Chronicle of Higher Education, via Patricia Bauer鈥檚 blog, comes about a new program at Vanderbilt designed to offer a postsecondary experience for students with disabilities.
Sean C. Faulkner, a student at Vanderbilt University, likes proving people wrong when they expect him to fail.... Mr. Faulkner, 22, enrolled at Vanderbilt in spite of a speech-comprehension impairment that makes it difficult for him to understand questions and social cues. He and five other students are the first to participate in the university's pilot educational program for the intellectually disabled. Intended to ease the transition between high school and the working world, the Next Step certification program, which enrolled its first class in January, gives students something many of them thought was beyond their reach: a college experience.
It鈥檚 a challenge to develop an appropriate postsecondary transition plan for students with disabilities, so that they can get to a program like the one offered at Vanderbilt. Last March, I wrote an article on postsecondary transition for students with disabilities that explored some of the issues. I also hosted a web chat about transitioning students with disabilities to life beyond high school, with experts in that field.