Recommended by Christina Gunther.

This is a co-written piece by an educational developer and their legally blind daughter highlighting the barriers encountered in their educational experience. The piece includes a video to help exemplify the student’s experience of navigating the campus. This is both a powerful piece and an example that any institution could draw from and replicate with students on their campuses.

This is a short publication and tool to switch your classroom from deficit-based thinking to strength-based thinking around differences and disabilities. It invites students to identify differences and disabilities that can then turn into resources within the classroom community.

This publication is by neurodivergent students of various academic stages that, with a parent advocate, provide recommendations for higher education campuses to be more supportive and inclusive of neurodiverse identities.

This article uses the Disability Identity Development Scale (DIDS), which is a useful tool to understand identity in disability populations. This can be used by campuses to understand self-advocacy, disability advocacy, wellness, and inclusion. Dr. Forber-Pratt is a scholar to search for, as her work and her current role as Director of the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) are leading this work in many realms.

Authors start by defining pedagogy, andragogy, and heutagogy. This is moving from content repetition, to adult centered, to student centered teaching strategies. They interview faculty to identify how they mix these approaches to create neuro affirming class experiences for neurodivergent learners. Putting these concepts in front of a classroom of adult learners and playing with possibilities could be really powerful. Recommended by Kieran Higgins.

This article highlights the benefit of universal design for learning (UDL) framework for students with barriers, as well as a critical analysis about why implementation of UDL on its own can create additional barriers for access and inclusion.

This article is a conceptual article. Its focus is on the appropriate role of compassion by higher educators in various levels of responsibility for neurodiverse students. It points to a wise compassion that considers anxiety and distress and looks to UDL for strategies for all learners. Recommended by Jeni Dulek, Christina Gunther, Kieran Higgins, and Tara Ronda.

Recommended by Corinne Woodfine.

Recommended by Kimberly Dickman.

This article connects the living experience of disabled students to the sense of community and inclusion on a college campus. There are specific insights to how community-building initiatives support these students and their college experience.

This article is a systematic review of work that examines the employability and transition to employability for graduates with disabilities. This topic is important for both neurodivergent and disabled populations, and the article covers how universities can facilitate successful matching and transitions.

This study is one that is worth reading and has many applications with our work through the CEL project. Fourteen neuro-diverse individuals aged 18-50 were interviewed about firsthand experiences in transition. There is an interesting graphic on page 2639 to summarize the findings.  They include interpersonal and system concerns; not to mention compound concerns. There are several subthemes worth reading to learn more about real life experiences; which have wider applications. Recommended by Anne Kresta.

This paper investigates identity formation and self-acceptance of students at an institution that serves neurodiverse students. They look at the connections between strength of identity with wellness and social justice advocacy around neurodiversity and disability.

This article highlights the need for intentional intersection of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and pedagogical practices to be inclusive of neurodiversity and universal design of learning practices. There are very concrete recommendations that can be implemented into any course and curriculum.

This article focuses on the areas of anxiety, uncertainty, and opportunity for young adults with autism, particularly in the UK, in placements that are part of the higher education experience. Researchers used survey, interviews, and focus groups for college students and for supervising staff. The value of the article is reading staff and students’ specific in placements. The comments will give you pause to think more deeply about these issues and begin to contemplate how planning and implementation of placements could be done better in the future. Recommended by Corinne Woodfine.