Perkins School for the Blind Transition Center

Supporting Families to Prepare Students to Be Participating Members of Their Community

For over five decades, I’ve had the privilege of serving students with autism and developmental disabilities and their families. I’ve been employed as a teacher, administrator, professor, consultant, and advocate in public, private, nonprofit, and for-profit settings, working in preschools,...

Research-Based Recommendations for Building Self-Advocacy Competence

Self-advocacy, an essential ingredient in our quest for satisfaction and fulfillment in life, is a learned skill that involves self-awareness, social and communication strategies, and behavioral competencies. Self-advocating involves communicating a person’s needs so that another person is able...

Supporting Students with Autism Through Evidence-Based Employment Intervention

Unemployment rates for people with disabilities currently are hovering around 80%, with even higher rates for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2017). Over the past several decades, employment outcomes for students with autism have remained consistently poor...

Integrating Evidence-Based Models to Educate Adolescents with Autism

Educating adolescents with autism spectrum disorder require specialized programming that takes into account their complex learning characteristics. While certain practices have been shown to be effective in educating students on the spectrum; historically, the field has been vulnerable to claims of...

Employment for Persons on the Autism Spectrum: Examination of the State of the Field and the Path to Pursue

Despite evidence of the potential of individuals with autism to perform competitive jobs, employment rates for people on the spectrum remain extremely poor. Approximately 75% of adults with autism are unemployed or underemployed (Autism Society, 2011; Van Laarhoven & Winiaski, 2012). In 2013,...

Executive Functioning Enhancement for High School Students with ASD

Educators have made great strides in integrating students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) into general education over the past several decades; however, at the secondary school level, these students still often experience serious difficulties. A major obstacle to success for adolescents on the...

Helping Students on the Autism Spectrum Succeed in College

Over the past few years, an increasing number of students on the autism spectrum have begun to consider college a viable option. In response to the growing interest in postsecondary education for students with disabilities, many universities are developing special college support programs. We have...