Career Assessment and Planning Strategies for Postsecondary Students with Disabilities.

Abstract

Career assessment and planning services that enable students with disabilities to make successful transitions from higher education to careers are an important component often missing in the postsecondary educational experience. Comprehensive services in this regard involve students in considering how to incorporate their preferences, assets, and disability-related limitations in career and accommodation planning. In this article, one such technique for doing so is demonstrated in four case studies with both undergraduate and graduate students. The career assessment and planning approach includes reliable and valid measures of vocational interests, barriers to productivity, strengths, and disability-related limitations, culminating in an accommodation plan that specifies the technology and/or modifications students need to perform essential functions of desired jobs. Important outcomes of the career planning experience are also discussed. A critical need exists in postsecondary educational programming to assist students with disabilities in their efforts to link their accomplishments in postsecondary education with their future career goals. Too often the transition experience is viewed more in terms of moving from secondary school to work or higher education rather than in terms of moving from postsecondary education to careers and the supports needed to maintain those careers (Carroll & Johnson-Bown, 1996; Kundu, Dutta, Schiro-Geist, & Crandall, 2003). Certainly both perspectives on transition are integral to improved quality of life for young people with disabilities, but the emphasis of this paper is on proper preparation for career development, i.e., on the transition from postsecondary education to the world of work. Preparation for the transition from higher education to career is not simply about identifying and securing supports for vocational success; it is also about identifying interests and assets and matching those characteristics to activities in and demands of the world of work. Therefore career assessment and planning strategies are needed at the postsecondary level that address multiple goals which include (a) identifying the student’s interests, assets, and disability-related limitations; (b) helping the student develop vocational goals consistent with those interests, assets, and limitations; and (c) creating problem-solving or accommodation strategies consistent with personal career goals and perceived barriers. The purpose of this paper is to describe such a career assessment and planning methodology in terms of four case studies, two undergraduate students with disabilities and two graduate students with disabilities. Postsecondary Education and Employment Outcomes Explication of a career assessment and planning approach is particularly timely. Enrollment of students with disabilities is at an all-time high in postsecondary education. The National Center for Educational Statistics

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