One important aspect of special education research that makes it complex is the variability of the disability categories being studied. This study used the context of individualized education program (IEP)/transition planning and National Longitudinal Transition Study 2012 (NLTS 2012) student and parent survey items associated with this context to illustrate the challenges of grouping disability categories. We examined how disability groupings are treated similarly with respect to their transition planning experiences across different survey items. Findings illustrate that the 12 transition-related disability categories can be empirically formed into four clusters according to their IEP/transition planning meeting experiences. Results indicate that regardless of the scale used, these groupings are relatively consistent (e.g., autism, multiple disabilities, and orthopedic impairments were always together), but different from groupings based on theory or another set of items (e.g., self-determination). Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

使特殊教育研究变得复杂的一个重要方面是所研究的残疾类别的可变性。本研究使用个性化教育计划 (IEP)/过渡规划和 2012 年全国纵向过渡研究 (NLTS 2012) 与此背景相关的学生和家长调查项目来说明分组残疾类别的挑战。我们研究了如何在不同调查项目中对残疾群体的过渡规划经验进行类似处理。调查结果表明，根据他们的 IEP/过渡规划会议经验，12 个与过渡相关的残疾类别可以根据经验分为四个集群。结果表明，无论使用何种量表，这些分组都是相对一致的（例如，自闭症、多重残疾和骨科损伤总是在一起），但与基于理论或另一组项目（例如，自决）的分组不同。讨论了对实践和未来研究的影响。