Intellectual Disabilities in the College Setting: Challenges and Opportunities

1. Utah AHEAD Semi-Annual Meeting December 3, 2010 Utah Valley University Intellectual Disabilities in the College Setting: Challenges and Opportunities

2. Definitions • In the past, the term used was typically Mental Retardation • Qualifiers such as Mild, Moderate, and Severe gave a sense of degree of impact • It is important to look at both IQ scores and adaptive capabilities/impacts when determining fit

3. Criteria for Diagnosis • Typically, the criteria (DSM-IV-TR) are: • “significantly subaverage intellectual functioning that is accompanied by limitations in adaptive functioning in at least two of the following skill areas:

4. Diagnosis (cont.) • Communication • Self-Care • Home Living • Social/ Interpersonal Skills • Use of Community Resources • Self-Direction • Functional Academic Skills • Work • Leisure • Health and Safety

5. Connections to Our Systems • Frequently individuals with these descriptors will enroll at open-admission/open-enrollment institutions • What are people seeing across the state? • Prevalence? • Challenges? • Opportunities? • Solution Approaches?

6. One Model • At both of the institutions I’ve worked at, we’ve done the following: • In some ways, no different approach • In other ways, we do all we can and then let consequences emerge • Try to work with programs and professors • Orient student and parents to transitional issues

7. Higher Education Opportunity and Affordability Act • Designed to create opportunities for individuals with intellectual disabilities • Encourages and provides grant funding for programs designed to support and assist students with these diagnostic criteria • Work with grant programs at your schools