A Resource for Transitioning to College

by Dora Raymaker

Published February 15, 2009 @ 12:24PM PT

The site Going to College: A Resource for Teens with Disabilities is a great resource for building self-advocacy skills for students who are transitioning to college. And while it's geared toward high school students, frankly this site would have been helpful to me when I was embarking on my most recent graduate school stint in my mid-thirties, so the information may be useful to a wider audience.

College for folks on the spectrum is a particular area of interest of mine so I'm always looking for an excuse to blog about it. I've had to trial-and-error my way through post secondary education, learning about my rights and picking up self-advocacy skills by myself, and unfortunately mostly through making (sometimes terrible) mistakes. I'm old and have had a strange life, and the transition programs available for kids today were not available to me. The struggle was well worth it though. Finally getting proper accommodations was the difference between flunking about a third of my classes and barely graduating, and succeeding at my coursework with a GPA of 3.8. It was also the difference between never communicating with a single student or teacher, and finishing up a program with a wonderful bunch of friends and professional contacts. I don't, however, recommend the "trial and error" method to get there! Real self-advocacy training is a must, and happily more available today.

Back to the Going to College site which provides that sort of training, the "My Place" section is all about building self awareness and self-advocacy skills. The "Campus Life" section is all about disability accommodations, including disclosure issues and assistive technology. The "Planning for College" section is about some of the college stuff most people have to deal with such as standardized tests, and strategies for dealing with them. The site is easy to navigate, even I understood all the language on it, and all video media is captioned and has transcripts available. Best of all, the site is written to target the actual audience of self-advocates.

On the downside, the site is by necessity limited and may not include specifically some of the things of most use to autistic students; for example the assistive technology page does not mention any AT for communication. Students on the spectrum may need to use the site as a place to get examples rather than specific idea.

[As a side-bar to a lot of things, check out the site's definition of "self-advocacy" as it is the one that is always in my mind when I write about self-advocacy or refer to myself by that term (using the term "speaking" to really mean "communicating" of course as speech is not the only way to go!).

What does self-advocacy mean?

It means speaking up for yourself and communicating what you need to others. It involves knowing your strengths and weaknesses, knowing what your rights are and effectively communicating through speaking and listening.

Critically important in college, in employment, in the community, and even among friends, family, and just doing stuff by yourself!]