Preselect toggle checkbox and show filtered results

Open Q&A
1

We have a bunch of filters, and we’re looking to try and preselect some of the filter items on page load based on a JS variable. So for instance we have this:

$('#college-search-filter .filter-element-group.group-2').append('<div class="filter-element hbcu"></div>');
        search.addWidget(
          instantsearch.widgets.toggle({
            container: '#college-search-filter .hbcu',
            attributeName: 'hbcu',
            label: Drupal.t('HBCU'),
            values: {
              on: true,
            },
            autoHideContainer: false
          })
        );

How can we preset this filter and the results to already be filtered by this value?

2

Anyone? is this even possible?