The Continuum of Support for Building Intimacy Knowledge in College for Students With Intellectual Disability.

Postsecondary education (PSE) programs allow for college students with intellectual disability to experience a higher level of autonomy in choice making, which they may not have experienced in their family home or high school. This includes choice making related to romantic and sexual relationships. The Continuum of Support for Intimacy Knowledge in College Survey (CoSIK-C) was used to examine how PSE programs support college students in building their intimacy knowledge. Types of resources and services used to build intimacy knowledge and the frequency and context in which support was provided were identified and varied across programs. Implications for practice and future research are provided.

Postsecondary education programs for students with an intellectual disability: facilitators and barriers to implementation.

Financial, legislative, and philosophical support for postsecondary education (PSE) programs for individuals with intellectual disability has resulted in great increases in the number of such programs across the country. Directors of new PSE programs have few research-based guidelines to provide direction for integrating programs within colleges or universities. In this study, we survey administrators of PSE programs for individuals with intellectual disability across the United States in order to identify perceptions of supports and barriers encountered during program development. We also investigated if these supports or barriers changed over time or varied according to type of program. Results suggest that most perceived barriers and supports, with the exception of funding issues, improved over time. Further, there was a significant difference in perceived support from six of the nine identified institutions of higher education IHE collaborative partners from the inception of the program to the present time.