This chapter presents some of the opportunities and challenges faced by people with physical disabilities in obtaining employment consistent with their career aspirations, interests, and capabilities. It helps the reader recognize employment issues related to people with physical disabilities. The chapter discusses the human capital theory and the dualistic theory of labor markets. It describes how education affects lifetime earnings and employability. The chapter explains the impact of the great recession and be familiar with successful employment strategies for people with physical disabilities. Although there has been significant amount of research conducted over the past 50 years in rehabilitation counseling and job placement, most of this has been descriptive in nature, with many of these efforts attempting to determine relationships among existing data rather than a purposeful approach to define what types of intervention or services appear to work best with what specific populations, under what specific conditions.

Work values, such as security, prestige, and feelings of accomplishment and belonging, are what people want and expect from work. Values are central to our understanding of the reasons why people work and the type of work people design for others to do. This chapter reviews the history of the construct of work values. It explores the usefulness of assessing work values in rehabilitation contexts. The chapter considers the challenges of assessing work values in rehabilitation contexts and reviews the relevant characteristics and basic psychometric properties of several popular measures of work values. Correspondence (or match) between employee work values and employer reinforcers can predict numerous vocational outcomes, including job satisfaction, occupational commitment, career choice, and career success. Understanding and assessing the motivation to work is an important priority for successfully guiding clients into satisfying work.

This chapter describes the landscape of federal mandates for serving transition-age youth and students with disabilities as outlined in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (PL 101-476) and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (PL 102-569) as amended by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (PL 113-128). It explains the overlap between secondary education and rehabilitation counseling services in secondary transition preparation and planning to improve coordination for better postsecondary outcomes. The chapter describes strategies for sharing responsibilities among key transition stakeholders to facilitate positive outcomes for youth and students with disabilities. The assumption that collaboration will just happen across agencies in transition-related efforts is not realistic. For a growing number of youth and students with disabilities transitioning from secondary education, rehabilitation counseling is the bridge to post-school environments such as employment and education.

Poverty can be defined as economic deprivation. This chapter provides an explanation of the process through which a poor individual is at higher risk for acquiring a disability or chronic health problem. This chapter is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on the connection between poverty and disability: poverty as a risk factor for disability; the impact of poverty-related psychological factors on career development and health; and the impact of social role devaluation on individuals who are poor and have a disability. The second part discusses how poverty and disability affect career counseling and job placement and what counselors can do to assist persons who are poor and disabled to make effective career decisions and obtain employment. The chapter enables the reader to implement counseling strategies that can ameliorate the impact of disability and poverty on career counseling and job placement.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The state–federal Vocational rehabilitation (VR) system addresses employment disparities faced by people with disabilities by offering services to target individuals’ employment needs and promote consumer choice and empowerment. Vocational rehabilitation can play an important role in enhancing the psychosocial and vocational outcomes of people with disabilities. This chapter provides an overview of the state–federal VR program and the rehabilitation process and services associated with the public rehabilitation system. It reviews the best practices and outcomes of VR within the context of evidence-based practice. The chapter discusses the role and qualifications of VR professionals. There is empirical evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of state VR services in returning people with disabilities to competitive employment. Central to the effective delivery of VR services is the rehabilitation counselor, with support found for counselors with graduate training in rehabilitation counseling being more effective than counselors without degrees in rehabilitation counseling.