Opening Jesuit education to people with intellectual disabilities
By Jeanine Coleman
Everyone will experience disability within their lifetime, especially due to the fact that we are living longer because of health, wellness, and medical advances. Those disabilities may be temporary like a sprained ankle, or permanent due to accident or illness. Regardless, disability is a human experience, and so it stands to reason that higher education institutions have placed increasing emphasis on serving and supporting people with a full range of disabilities.
Still, few colleges and universities have yet found their footing in serving and supporting people with intellectual disabilities, such as Down Syndrome and Autism Spectrum Disorder. We know that students with an intellectual disability have the same desires as their peers without disabilities. They want to have a college experience, meet new people, learn new things, and develop new skills that lead to meaningful work.
They aspire just like anyone else.
Here is the difference — students with intellectual disabilities have more significant learning differences than their peers without disabilities and need more and distinct types of support to be successful.
Those of us who work in higher education recognize that there are many students — and have always been many students — with disabilities. That is why we have offices dedicated to disability services. But it’s time for us also to recognize that these offices primarily serve students with mild and invisible disabilities such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, sensory processing, or anxiety.
With this in mind, in 2022 Regis University opened The GLOBAL Inclusive Program, a two-year postsecondary certificate program, to serve and support students who have intellectual disabilities that change the way they communicate, move, and interact. GLOBAL Inclusive aims to fill a gap for these students who need more frequent and intensive support to engage and experience success.
Historically, individuals with intellectual disabilities have lived on the margins and have been denied the opportunity to do the things their peers without disabilities do, like attend college.
It’s time for those of us in Jesuit higher education to do better in serving them.
What are some good first steps? First, recognize that people with an intellectual disability aspire and seek meaning just like everyone else. Second, pay attention to opportunities within the existing programs and spaces at our institutions where we can include people with intellectual disability in meaningful ways.
Jeanine Coleman is director and associate professor in the GLOBAL Inclusive Program at Regis University
How does the GLOBAL Inclusive Program exemplify Jesuit values?
Cura personalis — Care of the person
Our program leans into cura personalis by focusing on the whole person with the five pillars of our program — academics, social engagement, emotional regulation, career development, and self-determination.
Individuals with intellectual disabilities are often reduced to what they cannot do, or their limited cognitive disability (e.g., IQ), but that does not tell the whole story about them. What we have learned from our students is that limits cannot be placed on what they can do or what they know. When looking at the whole person, we are seeing a person’s strengths and areas of need — how they communicate, interact with others, regulate their emotions, think and process new information, and dream about their future. By only focusing on one part of them — for example, how they complete an assignment or speak to others — we are missing important parts of them and limiting their ability to thrive.
Men and women for and with others
Just by making the GLOBAL Inclusive program accessible for individuals with intellectual disability, we are acting on creating equitable access to higher education, which they have been historically denied.
Walking alongside those who are marginalized/minoritized
We walk alongside our students every day as they navigate the campus, go to class, each lunch in the student center with friends, study at the library, and workout at the fitness center.
Contemplatives in Action
We are acting every day to address the inequities of students with intellectual disabilities in higher education, we are not merely thinking about and talking about how to address the historical exclusion of individuals with intellectual disabilities. We are creating an inclusive program so our students are meaningfully included within the fabric of our University.
