Inclusive Post-Secondary Education

Second Wave on Facebook

dsobsey — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 13:56:17 +0000

The Second Wave Facebook page describes itself as follows:

Second Wave – USA. This page is for support and sharing information for families and individuals with disabilities ages 14 – 26 years of age. This group will address transition, community access, secondary education, supports and services, etc.

It includes lots of links and info on Inclusive Postsecondary Education including links to the Marshall University College Support Blog. Both are great resources and particularly useful on the topic of supporting students with Asperger syndrome in college or University.

Loyalist College Ponders Inclusive Postsecondary Ed

dsobsey — Sun, 23 May 2010 12:47:48 +0000

The Inclusive Post Secondary Education Committee of Hastings and Prince Edward has been formed in Ontario to develop programs in the Belleville area. They are working with Loyalist College to develop a program and brought Bruce Uditsky (Alberta Association for Community Living) and Anne Hughson (University of Calgary) out from Alberta earlier this month to discuss program development. Uditsky and Hughson each have more than two decades of experience in developing Inclusive Postsecondary Education programs and there are currently programs in 17 Alberta Colleges and Universities. The Belleville Intellingencer published an article on the work to develop a program there on May 22nd.

Friendship III: Emily & Alethea

dsobsey — Wed, 05 May 2010 22:44:10 +0000

This is a another video that was created by Lorna Sutherland as part of a Master’s degree thesis at the University of Alberta that studied friendships between students with and without disabilities in inclusive postsecondary education. This video describes the friendship between Emily, a student with a physical disability, and Alethea, another student.

Producer: Lorna Sutherland

Camera: Rick Gustavsen

Editor: Katrina Beatty

Friendship II: Alex & Jollean

dsobsey — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 13:44:35 +0000

Here is another short friendship video produced by Lorna Sutherland. This video is about the friendship between Alex and Jollean that developed through a high school program

Friendship I: Shani & Aimee

dsobsey — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 23:00:18 +0000

This video was created by Lorna Sutherland as part of a Master’s degree thesis at the University of Alberta that studied friendships between students with and without disabilities in inclusive postsecondary education.

Shani & Aimee

Producer: Lorna Sutherland

Camera: Rick Gustavsen

Editor: Katrina Beatty

Budget 2010 Alberta

dsobsey — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:01:56 +0000

9 February 2010 – Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Finance Minister Ted Morton released Alberta’s budget for the coming year today. According to the Edmonton Journal, the budget included cuts to 15 ministries but included a substantial rise to health spending and some increased spending in education. Funding for PDD (Persons with Developmental Disabilities) programs was unchanged from the previous year.

On the positive side, this news could have been worse. The large cuts applied in some ministries could have been applied to PDD programs. Furthermore, many pundits were expecting many more cuts

On the negative side, the no-change budget does not solve the problem of programs that were already underfunded, does not allow for increasing costs in existing programs, and does nothing to compensate for the increase in numbers of clients served as more children with developmental disabilities become adults. Overall, Provincial spending increased 6.6%, so with no increase in PDD funding, PDD funding fared that much worse than average.

The Government of Alberta provides the following summary of budget considerations for people with disabilities in What’s in the Budget 2010 for Albertans:

People with disabilities

Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped (AISH):

$733 million to provide supports to 40,000 disabled adults. This is an increase of $18 million, or 2.6%, from 2009-10.

This budget maintains the maximum monthly income benefit of $1,188 and the average monthly health benefit of $350, and also provides for some caseload growth.

Since 2005-06, AISH funding has increased by over $240 million, or 50%, as benefits have been enhanced and caseloads increased.

Supports to Persons with Developmental Disabilities (PDD):

$597 million for 9,200 clients with developmental disabilities.

Since 1999, funding for the PDD program has grown by 100% while caseloads have increased by 21%.

So, overall, this is not good news for Albertans with developmental disabilities, but all things considered, it could have been worse. What is your opinion of Alberta’s new budget?

Also see: Alberta Association for Community Living Press Release

One Week on the World Wide Web

dsobsey — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:05:49 +0000

8 February 2010 At 2PM today, The Inclusive Post-Secondary Education Blog celebrates its 1 week birthday. Here is a summary of the week so far.

There were 2,927 visits to pages on the site.

February 3rd was our busiest day with 489 page views on that day.

By February 4th, the Inclusive Post-Secondary Education Blog was listed on WordPress’ Top 100 fastest growing blogs.

We came in as number 51 on the top 100 but that is not bad considering that there are approximately 9,000,000 wordpress blogs and about 15,000 new blogs created every day.

Networked blogs also listed the site in second place among the top 16 blogs on inclusion

23 people subscribed to the site by e-mail.

Another 24 people are following the site via facebook.

Of course, the real test will be whether we can maintain some success.

Best of all, we have gotten great supportive comments on saving Inclusive Post-Secondary Education from people around Alberta, across Canada, in the United States, Australia, Japan, and the Ukraine.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the success of this site.

U.S. News & World Report on IPSE

dsobsey — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 08:20:21 +0000

13 February 2009 Here is an interesting story in the mainstream media on college students with developmental and intellectual disabilities. What do you think? Does this story to a good job of covering the issue? The story by Jessica Calefati in U.S. News and World Report is titled College Is Possible for Students With Intellectual Disabilities. Here is a short quote from the story:

Lee’s daughter also has Down syndrome, and, like Apostolides, she expressed interest in attending a “regular college, just like the one her older brother (who is not disabled) attended,” Lee says. But 10 years ago, when her daughter would have been enrolling, no programs existed in the Washington metro area that would support students with intellectual disabilities interested in an inclusive college experience, so Lee helped create such a program at George Mason University. Her daughter attended George Mason through this program for four years, and the program is now nationally recognized as one of the country’s best.

College of Charleston Announces New IPSE Program

dsobsey — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 05:31:54 +0000

4 February 2010 – Charleston, SC, USA A joint press release form the College of Charleston and the National Down Syndrome Society today announced that the College will open an Inclusive Post-Secondary education program in fall 2010. The R.E.A.C.H. (Realizing Educational and Career Hopes) will provide a four-year program for students with intellectual disabilities with funding from the state of South Carolina. According to the press release:

The four-year inclusive program is designed to provide students with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities the opportunity to participate in the academic, residential, social and professional experiences offered by the College, with appropriate support for success. REACH students will participate in regular classes and a career development program and will receive a certificate upon program completion.

“The College of Charleston’s leadership in developing innovative, inclusive postsecondary education opportunities, coupled with financial support from the College Transition Connection and the State of South Carolina, will result in long-term benefits for students with and without disabilities and will serve to transform the education and employment of students with intellectual disabilities within a state that is developing a comprehensive system of such opportunities,” said Stephanie Smith Lee, NDSS Senior Policy Advisor.

Congratulations to the State of South Carolina and to the College of Charleston! For more, see R.E.A.C.H. (Realizing Educational and Career Hopes)

Great Literature Resource

dsobsey — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 23:43:11 +0000

Think College has some great resources for Inclusive Post-Secondary Education. One of them is their Literature database that provides access to a wealth of articles on IPSE. It is great resource! …. And if you have suggestions for other articles to add, you can suggest them to Cate Weir, who updates the site and whose e-mail address can be found when you go to the database site.