Promising Practices: Improving the Quality of Higher Education for Students with Disabilities

Abstract

A program improvement cycle for increasing the quality of postsecondary programs for students with disabilities is described. Nine promising practices were selected from a review of promising practices submitted by 21 model demonstration projects that have been charged with improving the quality of postsecondary education for students with disabilities. These nine practices were divided into three phases of the program improvement cycle: (1) assessing the climate of the institution; (2) delivering professional development activities to administrators, faculty and students; and (3) building capacity for institutional change. Focus group comments from faculty and students are infused throughout the article to illustrate the beliefs and recommendations of these two primary stakeholders.