by Melanie Panitch

The drive to develop integrated post-secondary education is part of a historical and continuing struggle to include people with disabilities in their natural communities with full rights of citizenship. They have the same needs as everyone else to further their education, to enhance their personal competencies and to contribute to society. Post-secondary education is one of the means by which their needs can be met.

However, in many ways both subtle and overt, some students have been told that they don’t belong on campus. College and university courses and programs were, until very recently, completely overlooked as potential opportunities for persons with a mental handicap. This lack of expectation has repercussions. When the situation does arise that a person has an opportunity to select courses, the act of choosing becomes a problem because the person likely has never been asked to think about what he or she wants to do after high school. Career councelling is not available to all students in secondary school and certain students are not among the targeted group that colleges and universities work to attract.

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