{"id":455,"date":"2015-01-10T15:36:32","date_gmt":"2015-01-10T20:36:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/?post_type=post&p=455"},"modified":"2025-03-17T14:09:52","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T14:09:52","slug":"rethinking-college-for-students-with-intellectual-disabilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/rethinking-college-for-students-with-intellectual-disabilities\/","title":{"rendered":"Rethinking college for students with intellectual disabilities"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, more than 40 members from the UCF Downtown committees discussed how a new program could make college fully accessible for students with intellectual disabilities.<\/p>\n

Such a program is a cornerstone of UCF Downtown – but likely would start with a pilot program on the main campus in the coming academic year.<\/p>\n

Thursday’s workshops were led by an Education Committee (formerly the Students With Intellectual Disabilities Committee), which is looking at how UCF with its partners from Valencia College<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Orange County Public Schools<\/a>, along with parent advocates and community agencies, can create a first-of-its-kind program in Orlando for students with intellectual disabilities to attend college courses, live in university housing and immerse themselves in college life through student organizations and other social activities.<\/p>\n

The committee is working with renowned advocates like Debra Hart (in the photo below), who leads Think College<\/a>,\u00a0a national organization dedicated to developing, expanding and improving higher education options for people with\u00a0intellectual disability<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"DebraHart_1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“You can’t go if you don’t know,” Hart told the UCF committee members Thursday. Creating a college program for students with intellectual disabilities provides these students, who are typically excluded from higher education, and their parents the choice to attend college and create a pathway to employment.<\/p>\n

What’s incredible, Hart added, is how successful these students are when they can attend one of the 200-plus college programs around the nation for students with intellectual disabilities. More than 30 percent of these students held jobs, and nearly 90 percent were paid at or above minimum wage.<\/p>\n

You can read more about UCF creating a new program in the Orlando Sentinel’s coverage of one of Thursday’s workshop.<\/p>\n

And, you can watch a film that Think College put together<\/a> that explores the growing movement to include students with intellectual disabilities in higher education.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This week, more than 40 members from the UCF Downtown committees discussed how a new program could make college fully accessible for students with intellectual disabilities. Such a program is a cornerstone of UCF Downtown – but likely would start with a pilot program on the main campus in the coming academic year. Thursday’s workshops…","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nRethinking college for students with intellectual disabilities | UCF Downtown<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This week, more than 40 members from the UCF Downtown committees discussed how a new program could make college fully accessible for students with\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/rethinking-college-for-students-with-intellectual-disabilities\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rethinking college for students with intellectual disabilities\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This week, more than 40 members from the UCF Downtown committees discussed how a new program could make college fully accessible for students with\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/rethinking-college-for-students-with-intellectual-disabilities\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"UCF Downtown\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UCFDowntown\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-01-10T20:36:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-17T14:09:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/21\/files\/2015\/01\/DebraHart_1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2764\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2056\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Roger Wolf\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@UCFDowntown\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@UCFDowntown\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Roger Wolf\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/downtown\\\/rethinking-college-for-students-with-intellectual-disabilities\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/downtown\\\/rethinking-college-for-students-with-intellectual-disabilities\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Roger Wolf\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/downtown\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/61f347e78a32a7e3b72a1855c0149e57\"},\"headline\":\"Rethinking college for students with intellectual disabilities\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-01-10T20:36:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-17T14:09:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/downtown\\\/rethinking-college-for-students-with-intellectual-disabilities\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":310,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/downtown\\\/rethinking-college-for-students-with-intellectual-disabilities\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/downtown\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/21\\\/files\\\/2015\\\/01\\\/DebraHart_1.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2015\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/downtown\\\/rethinking-college-for-students-with-intellectual-disabilities\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/downtown\\\/rethinking-college-for-students-with-intellectual-disabilities\\\/\",\"name\":\"Rethinking college for students with intellectual disabilities | UCF Downtown\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/downtown\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/downtown\\\/rethinking-college-for-students-with-intellectual-disabilities\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/downtown\\\/rethinking-college-for-students-with-intellectual-disabilities\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/downtown\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/21\\\/files\\\/2015\\\/01\\\/DebraHart_1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-01-10T20:36:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-17T14:09:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/downtown\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/61f347e78a32a7e3b72a1855c0149e57\"},\"description\":\"This week, more than 40 members from the UCF Downtown committees discussed how a new program could make college fully accessible for students with\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/downtown\\\/rethinking-college-for-students-with-intellectual-disabilities\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/downtown\\\/rethinking-college-for-students-with-intellectual-disabilities\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/downtown\\\/rethinking-college-for-students-with-intellectual-disabilities\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/downtown\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/21\\\/files\\\/2015\\\/01\\\/DebraHart_1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/downtown\\\/wp-content\\\/blogs.dir\\\/21\\\/files\\\/2015\\\/01\\\/DebraHart_1.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/downtown\\\/rethinking-college-for-students-with-intellectual-disabilities\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/downtown\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Rethinking college for students with intellectual disabilities\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/downtown\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/downtown\\\/\",\"name\":\"UCF Downtown\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/downtown\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/downtown\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/61f347e78a32a7e3b72a1855c0149e57\",\"name\":\"Roger Wolf\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/2b9c5891e7ac9301a01e2f35487fb5756b1b6057aa83724932e2fa44f1f1402b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/2b9c5891e7ac9301a01e2f35487fb5756b1b6057aa83724932e2fa44f1f1402b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/2b9c5891e7ac9301a01e2f35487fb5756b1b6057aa83724932e2fa44f1f1402b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Roger Wolf\"}},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ucf.edu\\\/downtown\\\/rethinking-college-for-students-with-intellectual-disabilities\\\/#local-main-organization-logo\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\",\"caption\":\"UCF Downtown\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Rethinking college for students with intellectual disabilities | UCF Downtown","description":"This week, more than 40 members from the UCF Downtown committees discussed how a new program could make college fully accessible for students with","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/rethinking-college-for-students-with-intellectual-disabilities\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Rethinking college for students with intellectual disabilities","og_description":"This week, more than 40 members from the UCF Downtown committees discussed how a new program could make college fully accessible for students with","og_url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/rethinking-college-for-students-with-intellectual-disabilities\/","og_site_name":"UCF Downtown","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/UCFDowntown\/","article_published_time":"2015-01-10T20:36:32+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-03-17T14:09:52+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2764,"height":2056,"url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/21\/files\/2015\/01\/DebraHart_1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Roger Wolf","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@UCFDowntown","twitter_site":"@UCFDowntown","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Roger Wolf","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/rethinking-college-for-students-with-intellectual-disabilities\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/rethinking-college-for-students-with-intellectual-disabilities\/"},"author":{"name":"Roger Wolf","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/#\/schema\/person\/61f347e78a32a7e3b72a1855c0149e57"},"headline":"Rethinking college for students with intellectual disabilities","datePublished":"2015-01-10T20:36:32+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-17T14:09:52+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/rethinking-college-for-students-with-intellectual-disabilities\/"},"wordCount":310,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/rethinking-college-for-students-with-intellectual-disabilities\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/21\/files\/2015\/01\/DebraHart_1.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US","copyrightYear":"2015","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/rethinking-college-for-students-with-intellectual-disabilities\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/rethinking-college-for-students-with-intellectual-disabilities\/","name":"Rethinking college for students with intellectual disabilities | UCF Downtown","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/rethinking-college-for-students-with-intellectual-disabilities\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/rethinking-college-for-students-with-intellectual-disabilities\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/21\/files\/2015\/01\/DebraHart_1.jpg","datePublished":"2015-01-10T20:36:32+00:00","dateModified":"2025-03-17T14:09:52+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/#\/schema\/person\/61f347e78a32a7e3b72a1855c0149e57"},"description":"This week, more than 40 members from the UCF Downtown committees discussed how a new program could make college fully accessible for students with","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/rethinking-college-for-students-with-intellectual-disabilities\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/rethinking-college-for-students-with-intellectual-disabilities\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/rethinking-college-for-students-with-intellectual-disabilities\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/21\/files\/2015\/01\/DebraHart_1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/21\/files\/2015\/01\/DebraHart_1.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/rethinking-college-for-students-with-intellectual-disabilities\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Rethinking college for students with intellectual disabilities"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/","name":"UCF Downtown","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/#\/schema\/person\/61f347e78a32a7e3b72a1855c0149e57","name":"Roger Wolf","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2b9c5891e7ac9301a01e2f35487fb5756b1b6057aa83724932e2fa44f1f1402b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2b9c5891e7ac9301a01e2f35487fb5756b1b6057aa83724932e2fa44f1f1402b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2b9c5891e7ac9301a01e2f35487fb5756b1b6057aa83724932e2fa44f1f1402b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Roger Wolf"}},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/rethinking-college-for-students-with-intellectual-disabilities\/#local-main-organization-logo","url":"","contentUrl":"","caption":"UCF Downtown"}]}},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5802,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455\/revisions\/5802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/downtown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}