This year’s theme, “Celebrating 40 Years of Progressive Leadership,” acknowledges TASH’s 40 years of generating change within the disability community and anticipates a brighter, more inclusive future for people with disabilities in all aspects of life. Each year, the TASH Conference impacts the disability field by connecting attendees to innovative information and resources, facilitating connections between stakeholders within the disability movement, and helping attendees reignite their passion for an inclusive world.
We encourage you to explore this website, connect with other attendees, and build your personalized schedule. You can also download the mobile app version of the website by visiting the App Store and Google Play and searching for "TASH 2015".
The passage of the Higher Education Opportunities Act in 2008 further opened the door to higher education for individuals with disabilities. A number of authors have described programs advancing access and success of students in post-secondary settings (Getzel, 2008; Ludlow, 2012). Studies have most often focused on cohort groups of students with high incidence disabilities within post-secondary settings in specialized programs. This presentation will describe a unique program serving 52 primarily Hispanic students who experience autism or intellectual disabilities. The program serves communities along the Texas-Mexico border and participants come from primarily first generation, Spanish speaking households. Participants enroll in standard (non-modified) certificate programs. Program support structures include paid and volunteer educational coaches. Academic counselors employed by the community college participate actively with program decisions and guide students to success through deliberate course and instruction selection, and crisis intervention. Program participants are also afforded business mentoring in their selected fields of study. Results (based on graduating and matriculating students) indicate that students are able to maintain satisfactory academic progress, persist at rates approximating the general population, and graduate in nearly the same average time frame as the general population. The interactive presentation will describe the program structures, academic outcomes (curriculum paths, GPA, and retention), and employment outcomes. These findings will be compared with the college population as a whole to evaluate the efficacy of the support structures and conference participants’ experiences with similar programs. A case study will also be presented to illustrate similarities and differences of interventions and outcomes based on disability type, familial characteristics, and curriculum choices. Conference participants will also discuss with the presenters common obstacles and solutions for full integration of students with autism and intellectual disabilities into post-secondary settings.
