As inclusive postsecondary education (IPSE) programs emerge and expand across the United States, many young people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) have access to higher education for the first time. To support growth and identity development, students with IDD should have access to all aspects of college life (e.g., activities, relationships, opportunities). Furthermore, students with IDD should have the freedom to take emotional, physical, and intellectual risks relative to those of their peers without disabilities. This leading edge article is written by practitioners and researchers with and without disabilities associated with the University of Missouri St. Louis IPSE program, Succeed. To center the voices of persons with disabilities, any direct quotations are in italics. In this article, we advocate for increased dignity of risk in IPSE, present a model to assess and make programmatic decisions regarding dignity of risk in IPSE, and highlight five philosophical values that guide our work toward “messy inclusion.”
More students with intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) are attending post-secondary education than ever before. As more students with IDD enter college, inclusive post-secondary education programs (IPSE) will be required to make important decisions about the types of services and supports they provide. IPSE program staff should aim to provide supports and services that honor students’ dignity of risk and facilitate opportunities for students to take risks. The purpose of this article is to describe a conceptual framework IPSE program staff can use to assess the extent to which the supports and services they provide enable risk-taking opportunities for students in their program. The framework includes five steps: identify areas for growth, understand risks and rewards for students and stakeholders, evaluate natural supports and determine appropriate supplemental supports, identify and enable access to natural consequences, and reflect and plan for more authentic risk. An example of how to use the framework in the context of residential housing will be described.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.