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The Federal government is finally taking a step towards helping those with developmental disabilities have an easier path towards a college education.
Respond, Innovate, Succeed, Empower, or RISE Act, S.1585 would make it so that students who already have a documented disability can now use that same documentation at the post-secondary level. If the bill, introduced by a bi-partisan group, is passed, it would mean the end of additional diagnostic testing for students with disabilities entering college or universities.
Those that introduced this bill should be applauded for writing a wrong too many years overdue.
“The RISE Act will help eliminate unnecessary barriers for students with disabilities and ease their transition to higher education,” said U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., the bill’s sponsor, according to Disability Scoop. “No student with a documented disability should have to jump through extra hoops or incur extra costs to prove their disability.”
Higher education is something that many with developmental disabilities struggle with. I know as someone who attended college before anything was known about autism in anyone other than infants, I struggled for years to try and get even an associates degree.
There were no hoops for me to jump through because there was no such thing as help for those with autism since we hadn’t yet been diagnosed. Today there are many hoops to jump through and too many of us with developmental disabilities get burnt out and overwhelmed with the current process and simply give up on college.
If this bill is passed, it would mean an end to the hoop jumping and would clear the path for us to not only get into the schools we want to but to also succeed and thrive in the college environment.
That may sound great to you, but you have no idea what that would mean to us. It would take away a ton of stress and help us focus on what’s most important and that’s getting an education and becoming a productive and hopefully, accepted member of society.
If you suffer from a developmental disability or know someone who does, keep an eye on this bill and contact your federal legislator and ask them to support the RISE Act.
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Photo courtesy Pixabay.
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