Figuring out your financial situation for school can be a scary time for everyone, but there are scholarship opportunities and resources out there to help remove some of the financial barriers that come with pursuing post-secondary education. There are also an assortment of scholarships, programs, and online resources dedicated entirely to assisting students with disabilities take the next step in their education. Thompson Policy Institute has compiled the following to simplify your scholarship search and make applying a little less daunting.

Business scholarships

An increasing amount of businesses are offering scholarships for students with disabilities. We’ve selected 3 scholarships from Microsoft, Google/Lime and NBCUniversal to help get your search going.

  1. Microsoft disAbility Scholarship: This scholarship is for senior’s in high school with plans to attend a 2-year, 4-year or Technical Program with an interest in engineering, computer science, computer information systems, law or business.
  2. Google Lime Scholarship: For undergraduate, graduate or PhD students with disabilities who are pursuing a degree in computer science or technology. The Google Lime program offers networking opportunities and additional support for those who qualify.
  3. NBCUniversal Tony Coelho Media Scholarship: This scholarship is for any college student interested in entertainment and media. The 2016 application process resulted in 8 students receiving $5,625 towards their education, so keep an eye out for the 2017 application.

Non-profit scholarships

There are also a number of non-profit scholarship programs for students with disabilities pursuing community college, a 4-year university or vocational program.

  1. The Incight Scholarship: The student must have a registered home address in Washington, Oregon or California and have plans to attend some form of continued education the following year. Sign up for email updates on Incight’s page for more details on the scholarship.
  2. The Student Award Program of FSD: The Foundation for Science and Disability offers a $1,000 research grant for incoming and current graduate students with disabilities. Read about past grant recipients and view the application on their page.

Local Southern California resources 

As we are based at Chapman University in sunny Orange County California, we wanted to isolate some programs for students with disabilities in our local community.

  1. College to Career (C2C): The C2C program is through the North Orange County Community College District, School of Continuing Education. It’s a three-year program designed for students with intellectual disabilities (ID) to obtain academic and vocational training at the Anaheim, Cypress, and Wilshire campuses.

Additional resources

The following are helpful resources in seeking extra support from established state and federal programs for students with disabilities.

  1. The University of Washington’s Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking and Technology (DOIT) program: This resource from DOIT has additional information on state and federal programs to support four-year or vocational programs alike for people with many different types of disabilities.
  2. ThinkCollege: ThinkCollege is a fantastic resource that helps demystify post-secondary education for students with disabilities and advocates for inclusive education programs. If you or your student are curious, or even have doubts about pursuing college, then be sure to check this resource out before you decide!

We will continue to update this resource as we find more scholarships and programs to support post-secondary educational opportunities for students with disabilities.