Parents’ voices: inclusion of students with intellectual and developmental disabilities in higher education

Abstract

Making Higher Education more inclusive for students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities can bring significant benefits for the students themselves and for the academic community, in general. Family involvement is essential for the successful transition to post-scholar life, namely Higher Education. This paper presents and discusses the research and results of a study conducted with four Focus Group interviews involving 22 Portuguese parents of students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. The main goal was to understand the perspectives and expectations of parents about the inclusion of their children in Higher Education. This study was carried out within the HiLives project scope, which includes, among its goals, to create strategies and provisions to facilitate and promote the inclusion of students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in Higher Education, and the transition to an active and independent life. The results showed the prevalence of parents’ positive perceptions about the possibility of their sons/daughters attending Higher Education and allowed them to identify their preferred teaching models and methods, needs for support, barriers and incentives in this transition. This paper brings up some final recommendations for improving the processes of transition to Higher Education Institutions and their organization to be able of including students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.