Special Needs in Education (E241): Education for Adult Life? Unit 4.

Overview & Synopsis

The fifth of 16 booklets designed for use in an Open University course in special education in the United Kingdom, this document focuses on life as a handicapped adult. Experiences of adults are presented to illustrate obstacles to becoming independent and overcoming low expectations. Programs within schools to prepare handicapped students for life after school are described, as are community work preparation courses and adult training centers, where clients learn specific job skills and more general work-related skills. Special programs in higher education are considered, and examples of curricula noted. Issues of responsibility for the post-school handicapped student are briefly examined. Information on employment addresses the prospect for jobs, the bureaucracy associated with the employment of disabled people and alternatives to competitive employment. Larger social questions of the alternatives to competitive employment. Larger social questions of the relationship of education to the labor market are considered. Suggested readings and activities are listed throughout. (CL)