The Perfect College Resource for Autistic Students

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I am thinking about creating an online resource that provides information about colleges specifically for autistic/ special needs students.

However I don't want to spend a lot of time creating something that no one will use.

Do you think this is a good idea?
Would it be helpful?
What would you like to see included in the resource?

I am looking for as much feedback as possible - thanks.

I think it is a good idea. On more than one occasion I have seen a post here about Aspie friendly colleges.

I would also add information on colleges that while may not be specifically for Apsies, are known to be very accommodation of us and other people with needs. I would think that would make a long list of colleges to choose from.

Thank you for your help. Right now I have a excel spreadsheet of about 84 colleges with website, links to their support services, and location information.

I am going to try and turn it into a searchable database, but I wasn't sure what else to include to make it useful.

Perhaps contact information to the disabilities services of each college would be good as well, so no one has to dig through an unfamiliar site to find it. Maybe even contact information to the admissions offices would help too.

I thought I would give an update on what I have done so far.

I have an excel spreadsheet of over 5000 colleges and universities across the country with their basic address, phone and website information.

I am working through this and adding a link to any additional services they provide, either themselves or through a 3rd party vendor (I am only including those that have links.)

I am going to upload this spreadsheet into my website using software that will turn it into a searchable database.

Obviously I only want to have to do this exercise once if possible, so I am wondering what other information to include?

Tentatively I plan to include:
Majors
Degrees available (i.e. certificate, associate,bachelors, masters)
On Campus Housing; Yes or no
Public or Private college
Link to financial aid for the college

What else is important to include?

Thanks for your help.

Perhaps what these schools cost on average would be a good idea.

Also regarding the housing you might want to specify (if possible) what kinds of rooms or residences they are, like doubles, triples, suites, singles, medical, apartment, off campus, etc.

The college will depend heavily on whether their DSS people "get it". In that case, there are only three of those in the entire state of New York. I've been to nine SUNY schools, and sued three times.

For some more ideas of data to list, I'd suggest looking at the college profiles at collegeboard and seeing what data you could easily include that would be helpful - example: https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/coll ... university

One thing that would probably be hard to get but would be super-useful would be if you could have a column for current or recent students who provide contact information to give personal feedback. When I was picking a college to go to, finding a current student to talk to (that wasn't paid for or approved by their admissions department) was invaluable in getting a feel for what life would really be like going to that college. So, if, for example, members of this forum could say "You can list me as a contact for XYZ University, my email address is ____ " and then you put that up with the university name, then a future student could talk to them and get a more full picture.

LillaA I was thinking about this kind of thing too. However I am struggling just to get the basic information loaded right now. Rather than including people's contact information I think I will add a feedback/rating option kind of like Yelp does where people who have attended the college can give feedback on their experience.

However that won't be included until at least the second version. I am planning on launching a preview of the first version April 1 (if anyone wants to sign up just go to my website www.asd-dr.com) Then take the feedback I get to make some upgrades and launch the first public version in May.

I am sure there will be more changes and suggestions as people use the resource so I plan to upgrade with suggestions and changes quarterly or as often as needed until I have a final version 80% of the users are happy with. ( I know I won't be able to please everyone)

Information on what kind of assistance for independent living is available to students of that school (either through the school or through other providers).

I can't live independently, so unless I get the right kind of assistance, I'm limited to schools within commuting distance of my parents' home. Which is only one school. And I was forced to change schools when my parents moved.