Many students with disabilities graduate successfully from North Dakota campuses. Colleges in North Dakota offer a variety of supports for students with disabilities. Sometimes there is a gap between what colleges offer and what students need.

There is no specific program offered for students with cognitive disabilities. Although a few such students have entered college, their success rate is unknown.

North Dakota has an interagency agreement that allows students to take courses from several colleges within the University System. Agreements as to which college pays for the accommodations have not been finalized. If you are planning to go to college and you have a disability, you may want to check on the following resources.

College Career Preparation - The ND Pathfinder Family Center has an excellent listing of resources for persons considering higher education. The information is disability specific and includes scholarship resources. To find the site, click on this link and go to "Links" and then "Education".

Vocational Rehabilitation (VR)- The ND Department of Human Services, - Disability Services Division operates the state VR program. VR sometimes assists with education that leads to employment if it is not a reasonable accomodation that the post secondary institution should be responsible for providing.

Questions to Ask - The ND Center for Persons with Disabilities offers a comprehensive list of questions to use when checking out a campus to see if it is really accessible and right for you. 

Realtime Captioning -  A program offered by the ND Center for Persons with Disabilities. This is a service being researched through a Federal grant.  It works like this:  The instructor wears a microphone and his or her  words are broadcast over the Internet to a transcriptionist who types them out and relays them back to a student in the same classroom who has a hearing impairment. The lag time is about 3-5 seconds. 

Disability Service Council - A web site is under construction to provide transition information and list accommodation options available on each campus in North Dakota. Contact the local university nearest you to find out more about it.

Interagency Project for Assistive Technology (IPAT)  -  A program that assists persons with disabilities and their families to assess assistive technology needs and to test equipment or obtain loans.