Teaching Travel Skills with a Ridesharing Application to Young Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

Teaching travel skills is an important aspect of special education transition services to overcome barriers to community integration for young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Ridesharing applications are a viable transportation option to consider to promote independence. In this study, four young adults with IDD, ages 20-22, used a ridesharing application to travel to community-based locations of their choice. We used a multiple baseline across participants design to evaluate the effects of classroom instruction and community-based instruction. The dependent variable was steps completed independently on a task analysis for a ridesharing application. Graphed data indicated an effect for two participants. The performance of two other participants showed ascending baseline trends, making it difficult to establish a functional relation. Implications and suggestions for future research related to travel skills for young adults with IDD are discussed.