Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation

Steve Savage, who passed away recently, was a trainer, mentor, advocate, and leader in the disability field. This tribute highlights his professional accomplishments as a pioneer and champion for the rights of citizens with disabilities, as well as his personal zest for life.

BACKGROUND: The United States Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) initiated the Employment First State Leadership Mentoring Project (EFSLMP) to assist states to align policies, regulations and funding priorities to encourage integrated employment as the primary outcome for individuals with significant disabilities.

OBJECTIVE: This paper describes the activities undertaken by two states designated as Protégé States of the Employment First State Leadership Mentoring Project of the United States Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP).

CONCLUSION: Protégé states received mentoring from the identified mentor state as well as training and technical assistance by Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). While five aspects of system change were shared by the states, the efforts undertaken to effect change were individual to each state. Lessons learned are also noted.

BACKGROUND: In April 2009, the Florida Center for Inclusive Communities (FCIC) conducted a two-day training on the Discovery process for the Brevard County School System as part of the Supported, Competitive, Integrated Employment Training Teams (SCIETT) project. The Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) representatives at the training came up with a plan to integrate Discovery into the public VR system. They presented the information to the State VR office and requested support to conduct a pilot project to test the feasibility of this idea.

OBJECTIVE: This article describes a systems change project initiated by the Florida Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) to build the capacity of the public VR system to effectively serve individuals with complex disabilities by adding Discovery, a component of the customized employment process, as an alternative to traditional vocational evaluation.

CONCLUSION: A collaborative effort between Florida VR, Marc Gold & Associates, Southeast TACE, and the University of South Florida resulted in a certification process to train community-based providers to provide Discovery as a billable service for VR customers who have not been successful in obtaining competitive, integrated employment through traditional strategies. The article includes an overview of this innovative project and lessons learned to assist other states and communities in replicating the process.

BACKGROUND: Rates of integrated employment among people with IDD receiving services are low and have remained essentially unchanged for the past ten years. National Core Indicators ^© (NCI) data provide an important window on the employment and employment outcomes of people with IDD receiving services.

OBJECTIVE: To use NCI data to describe the employment status of individuals supported by state IDD agencies, to compare outcomes of those in and those not in integrated employment, and to propose policy suggestions to increase the numbers if individuals with IDD receiving services in integrated employment.

METHODS: NCI data from 2012-13 were analyzed to look at the demographics, outcomes and employment status of NCI respondents.

RESULTS: The data highlighted in this article illustrate the employment, employment support, employment type, wages, hours and selected employment outcomes of individuals with IDD who receive public services.

CONCLUSIONS: Improving the level of participation of people with IDD in integrated employment and the quality of employment outcomes in terms of choice of job, individual or group supports, rate of pay and type of work must continue to be a priority for states.

BACKGROUND: Research has consistently shown that self-determination, a person’s authority and opportunity to make life choices, is a key element for a meaningful and independent life. Nevertheless, many young adults with disabilities are placed in overbroad or undue guardianships – guardianships imposed on people who have the capacity to make their own decisions or who can use less-restrictive alternatives to guardianship – denying them their right to make fundamental choices about where they live, what they do, and with whom they interact.

OBJECTIVE: This article gives an overview of the negative implications of overbroad or undue guardianship, the benefits of self-determination, and ways Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) supports and services can provide employment-based education and training to help young adults with disabilities develop and demonstrate self-determination, gain independent living skills, and overcome any perceived need for guardianship.

CONCLUSION: People with disabilities who are encouraged and supported to make their own decisions are better employed at higher salaries and more independent. VR supports and services focused on employment-based self-determination and independent living skills can empower young adults with disabilities.

BACKGROUND: Family Employment Awareness Training (FEAT) was developed and implemented in Kansas for the purposes of raising expectations for employment and increasing knowledge of resources to support the employment of people with disabilities. In 2012 we developed and piloted a survey to assess seven key constructs related to the content taught in FEAT and other findings in the literature. The seven constructs assessed by the Community Employment Survey are: (a) expectations for competitive employment, (b) knowledge of employment resources, (c) barriers to attaining competitive employment, (d) access to and use of resources, (e) competitive employment outcomes, (f) and perceptions of FEAT, and (g) demographics. In 2013, we field-tested the survey as a pre-test measure (without the items related to the perceptions of FEAT) and preliminary analysis of this first year of data indicated that we maintained or improved reliability with the larger sample used in the field-testing.

OBJECTIVE: In this manuscript, we provide a description of the development and testing of the Community Employment Survey and share implications and future uses for this survey.

INSTRUMENT DESCRIPTION: The Community Employment Survey measures seven constructs (i.e., expectations, knowledge, resources, barriers, employment outcomes, demographics, and perceptions of FEAT), each of which is relevant to those interested in competitive employment for individuals with disabilities.

CONCLUSION: The Community Employment Survey is a valid and reliable instrument that can be adapted to meet the needs of multiple stakeholders, including those interested in evaluating training programs.

BACKGROUND: A group of persons explored concepts of normalization, poverty, inclusion, supported employment and individuals with I/DD through an interactive dialogue in a network cafá. The question driven dialogue captured the group consideration of what is currently most effective, ineffective and future hope.

OBJECTIVE: Dialogue with a group of persons to discover is community has a role in the culture of self-sufficiency.

METHODS: Network Café and open dialogue. The conversation was lead by the presenters and 5 pre-determined questions with discussion opportunity of effective, least effective and future hope.

RESULTS: The results are posted in Table 1 with a discussion of most effective, least effective and future hope. The dynamics appeared to be centered on early inclusion, inclusive minded and trained education system as well as adult supports, benefit planning and self-advocacy.

CONCLUSIONS: The dialogue was strong that persons with I/DD do not experience life in the same manner as others. Normalization of poverty has been embraced by culture. Culture needs to shift.

BACKGROUND: Employment outcomes for people with disabilities continue to be significantly worse than those without disabilities. Government-based employment services and supports continue to face major challenges in reaching the full population of people with disabilities and the outcomes have not shown notable positive changes in last decade.

OBJECTIVE: This article discusses a potential solution to this problem, to increase the support infrastructure by exploiting the abundance of local communities.

CONCLUSION: Community development to solve local unemployment for all people, including people with disabilities, is necessary to increase economic opportunities and lead to more sustainable efforts to improve employment outcomes. Capacity building through neighborhood networks that include faith-based organizations, business associations, advocacy groups, job clubs, and other community groups can be a low cost but effective way to connect people with jobs outside of the traditional disability system.

BACKGROUND: Project SEARCH is a successful job readiness program for high school students with disabilities, ages 18– 21, and is recognized for its innovative approach and collaborative efforts between business, education and vocational rehabilitative services. Project SEARCH employment outcomes far exceed the national average rate of employment for people with disabilities, with a 68% success rate in transitioning students from high school into competitive employment. However, little is known about the long term employment outcomes for the young people who have completed the training program.

OBJECTIVE: This study, that includes longitudinal data collected from three Project SEARCH sites in Upstate New York that have an impressive 83% success rate overall, provides the first longitudinal analysis of the impact of Project SEARCH.

CONCLUSION: Data collected as part of this 5-year evaluation project indicate promising trends; and support the notion that the Project SEARCH model is successfully preparing young students with disabilities with the skills necessary to both obtain and retain employment in integrated work settings. While these findings are promising, further research is needed to substantiate the reported outcomes.

BACKGROUND: Despite disability rights advocacy and the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, people with disabilities continue to be under employed in America. For the past 20 years vocational rehabilitation agencies have developed effective strategies to better prepare people for employment however, employment outcomes have not increased.

OBJECTIVE: This article examines common employment strategies as they related to the medical model of disability and asserts that perhaps it is time to shift the focus of our efforts to examine and address employers’ misconceptions and bias’ regarding people with disabilities.

CONCLUSION: The social model of disability is presented as an alternative that seeks to target change in attitude and awareness of those without disability through employer and inclusive education.

BACKGROUND: Historically, individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) have been chronically un- and under-employed. To address these poor vocational outcomes, federal law in the United States requires that transition services be provided to special education students by their sixteenth birthday. Part of these services should be the referral to adult service agencies, such as the state-federal vocational rehabilitation (VR) programs.

OBJECTIVE: This research examined the rate at which applicants were referred to VR services by their high schools. It attempted to determine whether the rates of referral of transition-aged youth (ages 17 to 25) with ID were decreasing over a ten-year period (2004 to 2013). It also examined demographic differences between applicants to VR who were referred by high schools and those referred from all other sources.

METHODS: Utilizing the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA). RSA’s Case Service Report (911) database, this study examined the referral source of all 286,663 transition-age youth with ID who had their cases officially closed by VR from 2004 to 2013. Two groups were compared, 158,114 individuals referred by their high schools and 128,548 who were referred by other sources.

RESULTS: Data presented here indicated the rate of referral from high schools decreased steadily from 62.3% in 2004 to 50.0% in 2013 and that this trend was evident in forty-two of the fifty U.S. states. Individuals who were referred to VR by their high schools tended to be younger (18.3 v. 20.9 years old) and less likely to have multiple disabilities (34.0% v. 48.6% ) than individuals referred by any other source.

BACKGROUND: Veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have low employment rates and the job interview presents a critical barrier for them to obtain competitive employment.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the acceptability and efficacy of virtual reality job interview training (VR-JIT) among veterans with PTSD via a small randomized controlled trial (n = 23 VR-JIT trainees, n = 10 waitlist treatment-as-usual (TAU) controls).

METHODS: VR-JIT trainees completed up to 10 hours of simulated job interviews and reviewed information and tips about job interviewing, while wait-list TAU controls received services as usual. Primary outcome measures included two pre-test and two post-test video-recorded role-play interviews scored by blinded human resource experts and self-reported interviewing self-confidence.

RESULTS: Trainees attended 95% of lab-based VR-JIT sessions and found the intervention easy-to-use, helpful, and prepared them for future interviews. VR-JIT trainees demonstrated significantly greater improvement on role-play interviews compared with wait-list TAU controls (p = 0.04) and demonstrated a large effect for within-subject change (Cohen’s d = 0.76). VR-JIT performance scores increased significantly over time (R-Squared = 0.76). Although VR-JIT trainees showed a moderate effect for within-subject change on self-confidence (Cohen’s d = 0.58), the observed difference between conditions did not reach significance (p = 0.09).

CONCLUSIONS: Results provide preliminary support that VR-JIT is acceptable to trainees and may be efficacious for improving job interview skills and self-confidence in veterans with PTSD.