Students with disabilities find going gets tougher after high school. Collectively, students with physical or developmental disabilities. make up the University of Montana’s largest single minority group

Madison Langston, who has a learning disability, received her diploma on June 9 from Hellgate High School and will attend the University of Montana. “When you’re in the special education system, you have a team behind you,” she says. “They work to make accommodations for you. In college, you don’t have your parents at meetings making decisions.”

Langston will join more than 900 UM students with physical or developmental disabilities. Collectively, they make up the university’s largest single minority group, with 6.5 percent of the enrollment. Later this week, she’ll attend a transition seminar designed to highlight those challenges and how to overcome them.

Alliance for Disability and Students at the University of Montana http://www.umt.edu/dss/default.htm

Services http://www.umt.edu/dss/current/expect_access/expect_access31.html

UM’s Disability Services for Students Transition Seminar takes place June 21-23. Registration has closed for overnight lodging and meal service, but local families may attend the campus workshops. For information about the transition seminar and other resources of the DSS office, call 243-2373.

By ROB CHANEY of the Missoulian