Apple products help SC universities improve lives of individuals with intellectual disabilities

Clemson University, Coastal Carolina University and University of South Carolina Aiken are working with Apple to explore how technology can help individuals with intellectual disabilities be successful in gaining employment and living independently. Each of the universities operate a post-secondary education program called LIFE (Learning is for Everyone), teaching vital skills to improve students’ ability to participate in employment and independent living.

Individuals with intellectual disabilities experience the lowest employment and independent living outcomes among all disabilities, with rates as low as 16%. These outcomes result from a wide range of intellectual and adaptive functioning that can impact conceptual, social and practical domains.

To address these support needs, the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education awarded these three South Carolina LIFE programs $512,862 last year to investigate how technology can help improve the life outcomes of individuals with intellectual disabilities. This funding covered the purchase of Apple products including iPad and Apple Watch, with 30 days of professional instruction to help students and staff make the best use of the products and resources to help students succeed in college and beyond.

The LIFE programs utilize Apple products and resources in a variety of ways to meet the specific needs of their students, including:

• creating interactive ePub books for students in Pages that include recipes, instructive videos, and forms to help students with cooking, cleaning and other important tasks.
• creating Mood Journals in Notes on iPad and iPhone, where students chart their feelings throughout the day to develop self-awareness and to share with the program counselors.
• creating interactive digital forms for sign-in and completion using Markup in Notes, along with budgeting activities to assist students in managing their living expenses using Numbers, providing valuable real-world experience.
• using Apple Watch to track daily activity and workouts in conjunction with the Fitness and Health apps to monitor overall progress.
• using the Reminders app to deliver daily prompts to Apple Watch and iPhone, which increase task completion for students.
• using Apple Wallet to store digital student IDs and medical cards for quick and easy access to important information.
• exploring ways each program can easily capture video content and produce it in Clips for ongoing use in assisting students with daily routines, chores, cooking and other essential activities.
• creative expression of student learning through digital tools like Apple Pencil and shared whiteboard spaces in Freeform.

This collaborative partnership between several of South Carolina’s LIFE programs has been a tremendous success and continues to build upon their already impressive graduate employment rates which range between 85% to 97%. These successes have led to further replication with other post-secondary education programs across the nation interested in working with Apple to incorporate assistive technology into their curriculum and daily training.