People With Intellectual Disability Experiencing University Life: Theoretical Underpinnings, Evidence and Lived Experience

This book will introduce the reader to international perspectives associated with post-secondary school education for students with intellectual disability attending university settings. Examples of students with intellectual disability gaining their right to full inclusion within university settings are outlined, as well as the barriers and facilitators of such innovation. The four parts of the text will act as a reader for all stakeholders of inclusion at the university level. The first part examines the philosophical, theoretical and rights-based framework of inclusion. The second part provides evidence and insight into eight programs from across the globe, where students with intellectual disability are included within university settings. The third part consists of six chapters associated with the lived experiences of stakeholders in the programs profiled in Part 2. These stories are represented through the voices of former students of inclusive tertiary education initiatives, parents of adult children with intellectual disability who have participated in tertiary education, and lecturers who have taught students with intellectual disability as members of their courses. In the fourth part, critical issues are examined, including the role of secondary school counsellors, sustaining post university outcomes, transition from university to employment, inclusive university teaching approaches, and decision-making approaches to successfully implement a tertiary education initiative. The text concludes with a synthesis of the book themes and proposes calls to action with specific tasks to move the rhetoric of human rights into reality for adults with intellectual disability through an inclusive tertiary education.

Contributors are: Kristín Björnsdóttir, Michelle L Bonati, Bruce Chapman, Amy L. Cook, Deborah Espiner, Friederike Gadow, Meg Grigal, Debra Hart, Laura Hayden, Anne Hughson, John Kubiak, Niamh Lally, Lorraine Lindsay, Jemima MacDonald, Kathleen J. Marshall, Kerri-ann Messenger, Lumene Montissol, Ray Murray, John O’Brien, Patricia O’Brien, Barrie O’Connor, Molly O’Keeffe, Clare Papay, Anthony J. Plotner , Parimala Raghavendra, Fiona Rillotta, Michael Shevlin , Roger Slee, Natasha A. Spassiani , Guðrún V. Stefánsdóttir, Josh Stenberg, Kimberley Teasley, Lorraine Towers, Margaret Turley, Bruce Uditsky, Chelsea VanHorn Stinnett, Stephanie Walker, Thea Werkoven, Felicia L. Wilczenski.

Patricia O’Brien, Ph.D., University of Queensland, is Professor of Disability Studies and Director, Centre for Disability Studies (CDS) affiliated with The University of Sydney. At CDS Patricia promotes research that is inclusive of people with intellectual disabilities as co-researchers.

Michelle L Bonati, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, is an Assistant Professor in Teacher Education at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Plattsburgh and an Honorary Associate in Special and Inclusive Education in the Sydney School of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney. She is also an Associate of the Disability Research and Policy Centre in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Sydney.

Friederike Gadow is the Co-Leader of Education & Training and a Research Fellow at the Centre for Disability Studies, Affiliate of the Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney. Friederike is working on a PhD thesis which examines social support for people with intellectual disability who live in a home of their choice.

Roger Slee holds the Crossing the Horizon Chair in Education at the University of South Australia. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Disability Studies in the School of Sociology and Social Policy at The University of Leeds. He is the Founding Editor of The International Journal of Inclusive Education (Taylor & Francis) and The Journal of Disability Studies in Education (Brill). He formerly held the Chair of Inclusive Education at The Institute of Education – UCL and was Deputy Director-General of the Queensland Ministry of Education.