Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation

This article introduces the special issue on self-determination and vocational rehabilitation by defining the self-determination construct and examining its relevance to vocational rehabilitation services.

The demands of today's workforce include advanced training and high standards for productivity, problem solving, and teamwork. While several studies report that the enrollment rate of persons with disabilities in postsecondary education is increasing, they are experiencing limited success. Numerous authors suggest that the poor post-school outcomes of youth with disabilities are due to their limited development of self-determination and career decision-making skills. This paper provides a brief discussion on the relationship of self-determination to career development, a review of model transition programs that capitalize on the expertise of school and agency personnel who collaborate and share resources, the role of the rehabilitation counselor in promoting self-determination and career development skills, and recommendations for practice and policy issues affecting both vocational rehabilitation and education professionals.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of a model to enable Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) counselors and others to support VR consumers to self-regulate problem solving to enable them to set career and job goals, and design, implement and evaluate progress toward their goal(s).

Study design: The study occurred in the context of a local VR office with five consumers with disabilities who were receiving VR services. The study utilized a multiple-baseline across subjects design. Participants worked through the support model to set a job or career goal and to design an action plan to reach that goal. Once baseline data were collected, all participants implemented their action plan and data were collected to determine progress toward that goal.

Results: All participants, except one, made progress toward his or her goal and indicated satisfaction with the process.

Conclusions: Findings support the potential of this model to increase VR consumers' capacity to self-direct problem solving and goal setting activities related to getting a job.

Promoting self-determination is now widely recognized in the literature as a best practice in special education services, particularly in relation to facilitating students' transition from high school to adult life, and, increasingly, in vocational rehabilitation. The present study reports a survey of rehabilitation counseling preservice students in two states to determine: 1) what rehabilitation counseling students know about self-determination; 2) where they learned to facilitate self-determination; 3) what strategies (curricula, assessments, and/or person-centered planning tools) they heard about and/or used to facilitate self-determination; and 4) how important the core competencies of self-determination were in their own lives. The results of the survey are highlighted and implications for professional development in vocational rehabilitation, research, and dissemination of further research related to self-determination are noted.

Objectives: To conduct a preliminary study investigating the application of a self-directed video and audio software program to assist individuals with intellectual disabilities to express their vocational job preferences. A working software prototype, called WorkSight, was developed and field tested.

Study design: The effectiveness of the WorkSight approach was assessed by comparing it to currently used career assessment tools via ratings by educators and agency professionals. WorkSight was also tested in terms of its efficacy to match the job preferences that were predicted by the same educators and agency professionals. A total of 25 adults with intellectual disabilities participated in this study.

Results: Adults with intellectual disabilities were able to use the computer-based job preference assessment to determine career and job priorities.

Conclusions: The use of technology providing multimedia-based work information has promise to enable persons with intellectual disabilities to express preferences and to improve job placement and matching activities.

This paper describes two new policy initiatives currently underway – the Benefits Planning, Assistance, and Outreach (BPAO) Projects and the use of Report Cards for community rehabilitation providers – and their potential effect on influencing choice and self-determination for populations of individuals with disabilities. We provide quality indicators that suggest promising practices for enhancing consumer self-determination in utilizing Benefits Planning programs and selecting a community rehabilitation service program. Finally, we review examples of how some components of current employment policy initiatives can actually limit consumer choice and self-determination. We conclude by emphasizing the importance in today's employment policy environment for individuals with disabilities to use quality indicators, such as those presented in this paper, in making fully informed choices about work and service providers.