Everyone should get a good education. A good education helps you get a job, helps you learn how things in the world work, and prepares you for living life. Kids with disabilities have the right to an education too. Sometimes, laws, programs, policies, or prejudice make it hard for kids with disabilities to get a good education. ASAN fights for the rights of autistic people. This includes the right to have a good education. 

Read more about education, key laws, and our work on education rights here.

Resources

Books

• Navigating College: A Handbook on Self Advocacy
• Autism and Safety Toolkit
• Empowering Leadership: A Systems Change Guide for Autistic College Students and Those with Other Disabilities
• Roadmap to Transition: A Handbook for Autistic Youth Transitioning to Adulthood Plain Language
• ASAN Higher Education Programming

Reports and Briefs

• Benchmarks to Inclusion: Creating Core Principles to Facilitate Autistic Student Success in Higher Education
• The Transition to Adulthood for Youth with I/DD: A Review of Research, Policy and Next Steps

Accessibility Resources

See more details about all accessibility resources at our main Accessibility Resources page here.

• Inclusive Meetings: The Autistic Self Advocacy Network’s Community Living Summit
• Planning Accessible and Inclusive Organizing Trainings: Strategies for Decreasing Barriers to Participation for People with I/DD
• Color Communication Badges
• Holding Inclusive Events: A Guide to Accessible Event Planning
• Increasing Neurodiversity in Disability and Social Justice Advocacy Groups
• Autistic Access Needs: Notes on Accessibility

Higher Education

What We Believe

All disabled students should get the chance to go to college. College helps teach young adults about how to live independently. It also teaches important skills for jobs. Colleges should make sure they have the resources to support students with disabilities. They should offer programs to make sure disabled students succeed. These programs should make sure disabled students are in the same classes and social spaces as non-disabled students. ASAN supports programs like TPSIDs (Transition and Postsecondary Programs for Students with Intellectual Disabilities), that let more students with disabilities get the support they need to go to college. The government should put more money into making TPSID programs at more colleges.

Internships

ASAN has openings for internships starting in Spring 2023! This Spring 2023 semester, we’re opening up applications for an internship in policy, as well as an internship in programs and communications. Interns will work with ASAN staff to figure out what professional skills they would like to work on, and how we can best support them. Interns will work remotely. For more information, check out our internship descriptions here.

Autism Campus Inclusion (ACI) Leadership Academy

ACI helps autistic students learn to make their college campuses better for people with disabilities. ACI participants learn about making student groups, understanding disability policy, and talking to people in power. During ACI, all participants go to the U.S. Capitol to talk to their Senators and Representatives about policies important to the disability community.  After the Academy, students get help from ASAN to meet their advocacy goals at their college.

Watch the video of our alumni sharing their experiences!

ACI takes place in the summer in Washington, DC. Applications open at the beginning of each year for that same summer. You can learn more about ACI and how to apply here.

Affiliates

College student organizations can join as ASAN affiliates! ASAN affiliate groups receive technical assistance, peer support, and advocacy alerts from ASAN, while retaining flexibility to focus on whatever issues are most relevant to them. To learn more about becoming an affiliate, see here.

COCOA

COCOA (Coalition of Campus Organizations for Autism) is a coalition of student-led neurodiversity college and university student organizations that share resources, strategies and encouragement with one another and with those who wish to start new organizations. ASAN and the College Autism Network (CAN) are developing the framework together. Email lee@collegeautismnetwork.org to join!