Teach students to make their own decisions about accommodations.

DCDT International Conference 2025

October 10, 2025 3:00 PM-3:50 PM Mountain Time

Plaza Exhibit Hall Poster Presentation 5

Get involved!
Preview Unit 1

Summary

This program aims to empower secondary students with disabilities by preparing them to understand, select, and use accommodations, including assistive technology. Targeting students with IEPs or 504 plans in their junior or senior year, the program focuses on increasing self-efficacy, self-evaluation, and self-advocacy skills to help students achieve their academic and career goals. The curriculum includes eight units covering career planning, understanding the effective use of accommodations and technology, and self-advocacy.

How does it work?

  • Free access to web-based platform
  • Self-paced lessons with videos – follow Sarah and Mark as they work through the lessons with you!
    • GET READY
    • LEARN
  • Activities that involve parents or school professionals as guides
    • DO

The screenshot below shows the layout of a lesson as it might appear on a computer screen. A navigation panel on the left shows where you are in the unit. Each lesson starts with a video of Mark and Sarah working through the lessons and talking about the concepts with their guide, Laney. Below the video is a short lesson text. LEARN lessons end with a short five-question quiz with instant feedback. View this sample lesson in a separate tab.

Screenshot of lesson page as it might appear on a computer screen. Content navigation panel on left, animated video on right side with text underneath.
Screenshot of Unit 4, Section 1, Lesson 3

How can I get involved?

  • Provide expert review of the content
  • Participate in pilot studies

We are currently looking for participants to pilot the prototype curriculum during academic year (2025-2026)

  • Participate in a live orientation through Zoom.
  • Work through the curriculum with several students in the target range.
  • Deliver curriculum as direct instruction during prototype pilot for maximum feedback.
  • Report in-depth feedback from the student’s perspective.

Questions? Email Dan Cochrane, QIAT-PS project director

Curriculum Details

Vision

Empower young people with disabilities to achieve their personal goals.

Mission

Prepare secondary students with disabilities to understand the purpose, selection, acquisition, and use of accommodations (including assistive technology devices) and advocate for their legal right to accommodations (including assistive technology) in postsecondary settings.

Target audience

Students with disabilities (IEPs or 504 plans) in junior or senior year or school-district provided transition programming who plan to attend a traditional 4 year college, a traditional 2-year community college, 4-year college with structured support programs, fee-for-service college program for students with disabilities, bridge program to college, college alternative programs (TPSID), vocational trade/certification programs, or students who plan to work competitively in an environment that requires a significant amount of onboarding, job orientation and ongoing training.

Long-term outcomes:

  1. Increase the self-efficacy of high school and transition students with disabilities to use accommodations (including assistive technology) to achieve their academic and career goals
  2. Increase the self-evaluation skills of high school and transition students with disabilities to determine the effectiveness of their accommodations (including technology) across different activities and environments 
  3. Increase self-advocacy skills of high school and transition students with disabilities for accommodation needs and rights (including assistive technology) across environments and systems 

Short-term outcomes

  1. Increase student’s ability to articulate career goals.
  2. Increase student’s ability to self-assess the difficulty of functional task demands.
  3. Increase student’s ability to explain how accommodations help them reach their goals.
  4. Increase student’s ability to explain how accommodations might change in the future.
  5. Increase student’s ability to decide what technology to use.
  6. Increase student’s ability to self-advocate for accommodations.

Curriculum outline

  • Unit 1: What is my career destination?
  • Unit 2: What is my career profile?
  • Unit 3: How do I match up with my career profile?
  • Unit 4: How do I adjust the demands of my career?
  • Unit 5: How well do my accommodations work?
  • Unit 6: How do my accommodations change over time?
  • Unit 7: Do I need technology?
  • Unit 8: How do I use self-advocacy to navigate my future?

Curriculum development team

  • Daniel Cochrane, MA, MS, ATP – assistive technology specialist
  • Sayard Bass, M.S. CCC-SLP/L, ATP – assistive technology specialist
  • Kirsten Kohlmeyer, OTD, OTR/L – assistive technology specialist
  • Taryn Chrapkowski, M.Ed. – transition specialist
  • Cara Brown, M.Ed. – transition specialist

Content development team

  • Daniel Cochrane, MA, MS, ATP (project director, lesson content)
  • Gus Budiarta, MS (all videos, Unit 8 content)
  • Auden Granger (Unit 8 content)
  • Monica Thomas (Unit 8 content)

Research

The curriculum is based on the Quality Indicators for Assistive Technology in Postsecondary Education.

Gould, R., Heider, A., Parker Harris, S., Jones, R., Peters, J., Eisenberg, Y., and Caldwell, K. (2022). Self-Determination and Quality Indicators for Assistive Technology in Postsecondary Education. Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability. 35(1). 45-80.