UCF center is making a difference to help educate students with disabilities across the state

Florida Center for Students with Unique Abilities (Website)

Florida is leading the charge to give students with intellectual disabilities an education after high school, education leaders said.

“We are the envy of the country. Everyone wants to be like Florida,” said Kelly Southmayd, who runs a program to educate disabled students at Lakeland’s Southeastern University. “We are just so thankful that the Legislature sees the need for these programs.”

Southmayd and leaders from a state center run out of the University of Central Florida (UCF) briefed lawmakers on their progress at a hearing in front of the Senate Appropriate Committee on Higher Education.

Students don’t gain traditional degrees but receive credentials to help them find work and develop their careers in culinary, hospitality or other fields while joining the rest of the student body on campus. So far, 375 students have completed the programs held at 35 institutions, including UCF, the University of South Florida and several state colleges and technical colleges.

It’s come a long way since the UCF started an innovative pilot program in 2016 to help people with intellectual disabilities go to college so they could experience dorm life, make new friends and grow as young adults. 

UCF is now the home of the first-of-its-kind Florida Center for Students with Unique Abilities budgeted for $12.5 million in state funding in 2025-26 to help schools with the programs and give out scholarships to students. The center had been a passion project by former Senate President Andy Gardiner. Gardiner is the father of a son with Down syndrome and had pushed for disabled students not to get left behind during his time in the Legislature.

Across the country, only about 19% of people with disabilities are employed, while the employment rate is about 90% for Florida’s graduates in the new program, said Drew Andrews, the center’s director.

Andrews added the median hourly pay rate was $14 an hour, up from $10 in past years.

Lakshmi Singh’s daughter, who has autism, watched her friends and family members go off to college, feeling left out.

Through the state center, Singh’s daughter ended up enrolling at Southeastern, where she learned the soft skills college teaches you, like how to plan your time and navigate living in close quarters with others in the dorms. Singh’s daughter landed a paid internship that helped her launch a fashion line that she is presenting at New York Fashion Week next month. 

“The impact of the program, of course, has been life-affirming, not only for her, but also for us as parents,” Singh told lawmakers.