Like many of his classmates at Squirrel Hill’s Allderdice High School, senior Colton Vazquez has toured colleges in a handful of states, awaited acceptance letters and is now envisioning how he will adapt to his new college home — with one small, but critical difference.

Colton, an 18-year-old resident of Regent Square, is among a new generation of students with intellectual disability taking the leap from high school to college by way of “inclusive higher education” programs. These programs are now available at many colleges across the nation, including some in Pennsylvania.
This fall, Colton, who has Down syndrome, will be one of a few thousand high school graduates attending college in a non-traditional yet quite regular way. These students will commute to their campuses or live in dorms, audit classes or take them for credit, become more independent and self-reliant, explore career interests and make new friends. In other words, they’ll be doing exactly what their fellow college students are doing.
Of course, the presence of students with disabilities on college campuses is nothing new. About 11 percent of the nation’s college students have disabilities, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Whatis new is the opening of the doors of higher education to non-degree-seeking students with intellectual disability.
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