This chapter reviews how the practice of Vocational rehabilitation (VR) counseling has facilitated or encouraged employment of people with disabilities since the establishment of a national policy on employment of people with disabilities. It examines the intent and the impact of Ticket to Work and Self-Sufficiency Program of the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999. The chapter presents an overview of key legislation with implications for employment to provide a cursory understanding of the purpose and significance of these laws for people with disabilities. It presents basic information on the Ticket and amendments to its regulations and program components. The chapter provides a labor force characteristics of people with disabilities. It presents a discussion of policy and practices of one state VR agency and reviews the impact of the Ticket and implications. The chapter discusses the recommendations for future directions.

Entering or reentering the workforce can be a challenging task for individuals following disabilities. Appropriate use of vocational interest measures in career counseling, however, can facilitate this process. This chapter reviews and familiarizes the readers with the construct of vocational interests, to update them with the most recent advances and new findings in interest research, especially with regard to gender differences in interests and the relationship between interests and performance. It provides a brief description of appropriate interest measures for rehabilitation counseling, their psychometric properties, and their usage. The assessment of interests is the starting point and a critical component in career counseling for clients with disabilities. Following interest assessment and assessments of other important individual characteristics, such as work values, aptitudes, and skills, additional information and resources are provided based on clients’ needs to facilitate their career entry or reentry after disabilities.

For over a century since the beginning of career counseling, the role that primary and secondary occupational and labor market data play in the career counseling and placement process has been recognized. This chapter places occupational and labor market information into a visual model called Labor Market Search to serve as a framework for discussing such data as are applied to individuals with disabilities. It helps to understand the theoretical constructs upon which these data are developed are defining terms emanating from the disciplines developing such information so that rehabilitation professionals and students could be better consumers of such data. The chapter explains occupational and labor market primary and secondary data and sources as they apply to the econometric, ergometric, and ergonometric information needs in career counseling, placement, or related activities. It offers conceptual and analytic methods for integrating such data into the career counseling process for individuals with disabilities.

Women who have disabilities face many challenges that, in combination, can have a unique impact on workforce entry, career decision-making, and employment outcomes. In light of these direct outcomes and the critical roles that work can play in alleviating poverty and increasing quality of life, this chapter adapts a client-focused considering work model to highlight the barriers to work for women with disabilities; discuss ways to assess these barriers; and provide a framework for evaluating the considering work process and incorporating varied interventions to address the unique psychosocial, financial/legal, vocational, and medical barriers to employment for women with disabilities. The chapter provides a broad overview of the demographics of women with disabilities. The client-centered considering work model provides a solid framework for exploring and assessing the career decision-making process for women with disabilities.

It is well documented that youth and adults with mental health disabilities have poorer academic and employment outcomes than their peers without disabilities as well as other groups of individuals with disabilities. It is clearly a complicated path to trace the progression of mental health disorders from childhood into adulthood; so this chapter, views the specific status, challenges, and promising practices from the separate perspectives of youth and adults. It reviews the current vocational status of adults and youth with mental health disorders and identifies challenges to career and employment. The chapter describes promising practices and programs and provides recommendations for future research and practice. Youth and adults with psychiatric disabilities can benefit from a range of policies and programs to empower and support career development and employment opportunities. However, systemic, programmatic, and attitudinal barriers continue to present barriers to full participation in learning and work environments.

Work is the primary organizing structure of life, and the significance of work in the lives of individuals with disabilities has been radically altered over the past half a century. This chapter introduces the centrality of work and discusses the role and importance of work in meeting basic human needs. It identifies specific outcome domains for the three human needs of survival and power, social connection, and self-determination and well-being. The chapter describes the Illinois Work and Well-Being Model and discusses how it can be used to guide rehabilitation counseling case conceptualization. When the centrality of work is the core value guiding vocational rehabilitation services for individuals with disabilities, the rehabilitation counselor is working to increase the individual’s power, social connection, and self-determination. These outcomes can be operationalized by multiple outcomes and cannot be measured by the traditional dichotomous outcomes of employed versus unemployed.

The topic of work analysis is frequently given very limited coverage in textbooks related to occupational development, vocational behavior, rehabilitation counseling, and other rehabilitation healthcare fields; this is truly unfortunate. A comprehensive understanding of the requirements of work is essential to the career development and employment of individuals with disabilities; work analysis provides the foundation for building organizational processes that are effective, inclusive, and legally defensible. This chapter provides the reader with a thorough understanding of work analysis through coverage of its definition, history, methodological considerations, and applications. The workplace of today is a very different entity from what existed just a decade ago. Work analysis is a systematic process used to understand the nature of work. Although there are many methodological considerations to be contemplated and numerous existing work analysis tools available to the practitioner, the methods chosen must be appropriate for the purposes at hand.

The work of Rehabilitation professional (RP) is complex, spanning a wide range of competencies and practices. This chapter considers the practice of job development across several key professional processes. It identifies environmental trends that impact job development and explains how to develop collaborative relationships with employers in the community. The chapter discusses the importance of matching the job seeker to the employment outcome they achieve. It ends by pointing out that the work of the RP is important, not just to people with disabilities but also to businesses, employers, policy makers, and communities. Although this work can be at times demanding, frustrating, and perplexing, it is always worthwhile to return to this main truth: What RPs do contributes significantly to improving the employment outcomes and the lives of people with disabilities.

There are currently six primary government systems of occupational classification used to classify civilian work in the United States. This chapter discusses the systems most pertinent to vocational guidance and Transferable skills analysis (TSA). To improve cross-references from one system to another, the Federal Office of Management and Budget requires that each system directly relate to the standard occupational classification in some way TSA is a time-honored and time-tested method for reasonably identifying similar or new jobs for people following illness or disability, for those seeking alternate work opportunities for “change”, advancement, or transition to a new employment setting. The most critical ingredient in the determination process is the activity and preparation of the practitioner. In cases where the online O*NET or a commercial computer program is used, information that is input to the program is determined by the practitioner.

Perhaps more than any other commonly assessed attribute, personality comes closest to being understood as the essence of who we are as human beings. This chapter provides an overview of the major theoretical framework for understanding personality development and expression and provides research findings that highlight the significance of personality development across life domains, including work. It identifies the interconnectedness of personality, work, and health. One of the most challenging areas facing rehabilitation counselors today is helping individuals connect with participation outcomes related to productive functioning at home and in the community, meaningful social interactions and relationships, and healthy work. Recent research has provided strong support for not only examining and leveraging traditional areas of personality but also using emerging personality-related factors such as developmental work personality and core self-evaluation to increase rehabilitation outcomes, including career development and work.