Transcending the Transition Plan
Problem Statement:
The moment individuals on the spectrum age out of high school (typically around age 22), the support provided to families through the Individual with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) just... ends. Parents have compared it to falling off a cliff. Most of the options presented to parents in their child’s transition plan include postsecondary vocational, educational, and residential programs, all of which suffer from a lack of public funding, extremely long wait lists and limited spaces. In Illinois alone, there are nearly 20,000 people with developmental disabilities that are on a wait list for an adult program with no affordable alternative in the meanwhile. Needless to say, there is a significant gap between the transition options presented to families and the reality of this transition period.
Research Question:
How might we adapt existing solutions to provide adults with autism with fulfilling and productive lives past schooling, and develop self-sustaining, integrated support systems for individuals and families?
Timeline:
February 2020- present
In response to the research question posed above, I am currently designing a digital service that can consolidate necessary resources for parents and families in this transition period, while also generating customizable alternatives to the current system.
See my first iteration below and stay tuned for updates!
Interested in helping out? Reach out to me at abenatar1@gmail.com!
Understanding the problem space
In beginning this project, I immediately dove into a four week sprint of secondary research in order to form a comprehensive problem statement and determine a design direction. As an important part of my research, I chose to analyze an existing integrated community in Chicago, IL that represents a relatively successful but still inaccessible model for postsecondary transition programs.
You can find this analysis in my research paper here.
Reframing the problem
Moving into the generative research phase, I utilized my findings to then reframe my problem statement.
Families of young adults with autism transitioning out of high school are met with very few viable and accessible options, and little external support.
Transition resources are present, to some extent, within education, but the information is not consolidated, nor individualized to the needs of the student, making the planning process more inaccessible.
After shifting my focus slightly in order to narrow my scope into something more manageable for a design intervention, I developed this initial visual as a re-introduction to the problem space. A parent cited in an article I came across compared the transition process to "falling off a cliff", which I utilized as a guiding framework for visualizing the system.
Visualizing the system
The next important step in the process was to visually represent and begin mapping the intricacies of the system I was analyzing, in order to be able to quickly pinpoint the gaps and potential spaces for intervention.
In my final stakeholder map (and later in my journey map), I utilized a broken ladder to symbolize the parts of the system that become harder and harder to access for families, with policy serving as an all-encompassing screen surrounding and, to some extent, controlling the system.
User research
Since the start of this project, I have conducted around 15 stakeholder interviews with educators, subject matter experts, parents, and students. Key insights from these interviews are available upon request.
Based on my first phase of interviews, I pieced together the typical user journey and user pathways in order to visualize at which points in the process the system fails and at which points an intervention could occur.
Intervention Planning
Moving into the ideation phase, I determined the most feasible starting point for an intervention would be a digital service that could:
Consolidate transition resources for students and their primary caregivers
Customize resources and information to meet the needs of the individual as indicated in a central profile
Provide accessible, home-based alternatives for common long waiting periods post high school (i.e waitlists for funding or assisted living programs)
The service
My final intervention, which I hope to keep iterating upon and take to full development, is a digital service meant to guide parents and families through the transition period by compiling state-specific resources, networks, programs, and employment options specific to the individual's needs and demographic information. In addition, the service would provide the option to populate a customized day program for individuals living at home post-school while on a waitlist for waiver funding or a postsecondary program.
As I continue to develop some of the details of the service and begin conducting user testing, feel free to explore my initial proposal below!
