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This study investigated transition, or school leaving, as experienced by young adults living in Aotearoa New Zealand who had significant intellectual and developmental disabilities.To investigate t...

This paper is a methodological reflection drawn from a study on the transition from school into young adulthood in Aotearoa New Zealand. During this process, the personal priorities of young adults...

Transition from school involves different perspectives. Those most silenced in the process are transitioning students with significant disability, and similarly, they are alienated from the conduct of research. In this empirical project, three young men with complex autism conditions in Aotearoa New Zealand reclaimed their position as experts on their own transitions, and moreover, their contributions to research on the subject. Over a six-month ethnography, unique methodological adaptions were used to access personal insights and capabilities through emancipatory partnerships. The research forged collaborations that have the potential to be mirrored in future practices applicable to a transition with dignity.

Transition out of school is more than an administrative procedure, biological life stage, or public policy issue; transition is a human right. Yet, community participation in post-school life is challenging, particularly for those with significant disability. Findings from this 6-month ethnographic study confirm that two issues—silos, or breakdowns in collaboration, and trialling post-school options—were impediments to a transition with dignity. Deep examination into the experiences and perspectives of 3 young men demonstrated the challenges they faced in moving from schooling to a life in the community. Their experiences were analysed in a disability studies framework using the capability approach (Nussbaum, 2006; Sen, 1985) to prioritise opportunities to transition with dignity.

Early work from a number of laboratories has demonstrated the low frequency with which peripheral human B cells secreting specific monoclonal antibodies can be rescued by cell fusion (Olsson et al., 1983; Kozbor and Roder, 1983b, 1984). Use of spleen and lymph node tissue only marginally improved these results. The development of new human fusion partners (Larrick et al.,1983; Glassy et al., 1983; Kozbor and Roder, 1983; Chiorazzi et al., 1982; Abrams et al., 1983), mouse—human heteromyeloma cell lines (Teng et al., 1983), mouse—human fusion partners (Kozbor and Roder, 1984, 1983b), and optimization of fusion protocols (Buck et al., 1984; Truitt et al., 1984) has slightly increased the frequency of specific antibodies, but the efficiency is still far less than that of immunized mice or rats. Even with a greater understanding of the postimmunization kinetics of immune B-cell precursors in peripheral human blood (Callard et al., 1982; Butler et al.,1983; Astaldi et al., 1982), production of antibody-producing human hybridomas is still an uncommon event.