From the Washington Post, AP/Newsday:

Gallaudet University students welcomed the announcement of T. Alan Hurwitz as the school’s new president this weekend with a round of signed applause. Hurwitz, who will take over in January, is currently the president of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, a college of Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, N.Y.

The response was markedly different from the student protests that erupted three years ago when the school’s board selected Jane K. Fernandes as president. More than 100 students were arrested as they occupied the administration building, barricaded the gates of the school, and burned the new president in effigy.

Fernandes was criticized for her management style and for not learning sign language until she was an adult; the school was criticized for a selection process that was closed to students and faculty.

(RIT photo from the Washington Post)

Theo Emery writes in the New York Times: The Choice Blog that applying to college can pose more hurdles for students with learning disabilities than for their nondisabled peers.

After attending a workshop titled, “Supporting the Transition to College for Students with Learning Disabilities,” at a conference of 5,000 admissions officers and counselors in Baltimore, Emery offers some suggestions for applicants with disabilities including dyslexia, ADHD and Asperger’s Syndrome.

• Decide whether you want to disclose your disability and take advantage of campus disability services. While it is illegal for admissions officers to ask, applicants may benefit if their disability status is known.
• Assess a college based on accommodations it is willing to make, services it will provide, and availability of programs for people with disabilities.
• Be aware of the contents of your transcript and psychoeducational evaluation, and let that information help guide your choice of where to apply.

From the Orlando [FL] Sentinel:

The College Internship Program in Melbourne, Florida, helps students with autism spectrum disorders succeed in college by working on social skills, independent living skills and time management.

The program, which costs between $30,000 and $40,000 a year, was created eight years ago by psychologist Michael MacManmon after he was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome. “I thought, ‘What would someone with Asperger’s who’s going to college need to be able to function in life?’” said McManmon.

The program is also available in Massachusetts, Indiana and California.

Michael Bernick writes in the San Francisco Chronicle that California State University’s East Bay campus in Hayward is launching a college experiment for people with autism, beginning this fall.

Bernick says it is hoped that the program will help people with autism find productive work. Presently, an estimated 70 percent of adults with autism in California are unemployed.

Imagine Raymond Babbitt of “Rain Man” in college. Might it not be a better alternative for him, and much less expensive for society, than institutionalization or the SSI/SSDI government system? Might he even bring unusual skills that can enrich university life for others?

Michael Bernick, former director of the California Employment Development Department, is the chair of the advisory board of the CSU East Bay autism center.

From NBC Nightly News with videos:

Two years after it began, UCLA’s pioneering Pathway Program has produced its first graduating class. The two-year postsecondary program gives students with intellectual disabilities an opportunity to gain independent living skills. At the same time, they experience college life and explore vocations through UCLA Extension.

“I feel like I accomplished a lot during my time here,” said Andrew Kramer, a member of the 12-person graduating class.

Earlier post here.

See also: A special graduation — NBC blog

Pathway’s blog is here.

(Full disclosure: I’m a member of Pathway’s Advisory Council.)

From the Washington Times:

Twenty-three-year-old Melissa Gurman (left) says she “accomplished her college dream” when she graduated in May from George Mason University’s Learning Into Future Environments (LIFE) program, a postsecondary program for students with intellectual disabilities.

Students in the LIFE program learn independent living skills and take courses for basic literacy, math, and other subjects. The program costs $16,000 per year, not including room and board. The 2008 Higher Education Opportunity Act will soon help students with intellectual disabilities offset the costs of postsecondary education with federal loans or scholarships.

Debra Hart of the Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI) at the University of Massachusetts-Boston says some 200 similar programs have sprung up across the nation, most within the past 10 years. She says research suggests that students like Gurman who receive some form of postsecondary education are more likely to find a job and earn higher pay than peers who don’t.

(Washington Times photo)

From the [Memphis, TN] Commercial Appeal:

Colleges are increasingly welcoming students with disabilities. A national survey of college freshmen last year by UCLA found that 3.3 percent reported having a disability, up from about half a percent in 1983.

New technology, federal laws and increased awareness are helping colleges support students with such conditions as autism, Asperger’s, attention deficit disorder, hearing deficits and other learning and behavioral disabilities.

… Professors are slowly altering long-held teaching methods to ensure that class lectures and assignments are accessible. These adjustments may be as simple as printing handouts on light blue paper, because some autistic students with visual sensitivities find black text on white paper jarring.

Maxine Ford, the recently retired director of disability services at Southwest Tennessee Community College, said the college has seen a “tremendous increase” in the number of students with disabilities such as attention deficit disorder (ADD), hearing impairments, and autism.

Students with disabilities typically require more tutoring and take longer to earn their degrees, according to the University of California, Los Angeles, which tracks college trends nationwide. Its national freshmen survey found that last year 3.3 percent of college freshmen reported having a disability. In 1983, only a half percent of freshmen reported having a disability.