The transition to the active life of young adults with disabilities: expectations, achievements/reality and challenges (Invited Paper)

Author: Eliana Maria de Pinho Nunes	Afiliation: Agrupamento de Escolas Dr. Serafim Leite
Author: Manuela Sanches-Ferreira	Afiliation: ESEP

Abstract: International organizations have been dedicating, for the last years, special attention to the transition from school to active life of young people with disabilities, since, for several reasons, this transition is not always successful. Being Portugal one of the European countries with the highest percentage of students included in regular education, with this study we aim to analyze and understand the process of transition of five young adults with disabilities - who left school for about two years -, through interviews conducted with their parents, neighbours, former teachers and with themselves, specifically in terms of: (1) the expectations for the active life, (2) their daily lives, and (3) the supports for the transition to active life. This study aims to contribute to the visibility of this issue through the crossing of perspectives from five young people with disabilities, their parents, neighbors and former teachers with regard to their current life. When crossing the responses of 20 participants it becomes evident the (non)participation of the young in the community life, which is not limited to the absence of work, but covers all areas of life (e.g., home life, community life, education, social life and employment). The expectations, tendentiously positive when finished school, are, in a short time, converted into hopelessness regarding social and professional integration of young people. The results point to the need for interdisciplinary work between school, local community and support services, to ensure a holistic and coordinated intervention with young people and their families, which, at the end of a process of more than 15 years in school, are again the main, if not the only, existing support to the social and professional integration of young people with disability.
Keywords: Transition, Services and Supports, Community

The transition to the active life of young adults with disabilities: expectations, achievements/reality and challenges (Invited Paper)

Author: Eliana Maria de Pinho Nunes	Afiliation: Agrupamento de Escolas Dr. Serafim Leite
Author: Manuela Sanches-Ferreira	Afiliation: ESEP

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