Purpose: Workplace accommodations are central to improving employment outcomes for people with and without disabilities; this study presents national estimates comparing accommodation requests and receipt as reported by individuals with and without disabilities.

Method: Estimates are developed from the May 2012 Current Population Survey Disability Supplement.

Results: The findings highlight variability in accommodation requests by disability type and status. Accommodation request rates are also presented by occupation and industry groups.

Conclusions: As employers voice concerns about the additional burden of employing individuals with disabilities under new regulatory requirements, our findings highlight that 95% of individuals requesting an accommodation were people without disabilities.

This paper examines applications of action research to rehabilitation education. An overview of action research is provided, and specific examples of action research in rehabilitation and other professions are illustrated. Emphasis is placed on utilizing action research to evaluate teaching and student learning and develop scientist practitioners who engage in active self-reflection about their practices.

In 2007, we offered an innovative blended graduate level rehabilitation counseling course. The course was delivered online and in Hong Kong. It included readings, PowerPoint presentations and discussion board features on Blackboard, as well as face-to-face lectures and guest speakers in a classroom context at the City University of Hong Kong. Additionally, students were required to visit various psychiatric rehabilitation and mental health programs throughout Hong Kong, and participation in the 2007 World Congress of the World Federation for Mental Health. Two faculty members and 13 students spenta total of 10 days in Hong Kong. The authors discuss the development and delivery of the course including course design, content, delivery methods and logistics. Implications are explored for teaching innovation in rehabilitation education.

Purpose: To identify academic and demographic variables related to a successful outcome on the national certification exam for occupational therapists (National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy [NBCOT] exam) at one academic institution with the expectation that it could be replicated with multiple institutions.

Method: Binary logistic regression analyses were used to analyze three sets of academic and demographic predictors of the pass/retake outcome on the NBCOT exam.

Results: Results of these analyses indicated that overall grade point average (GPA) and outcomes of specific academic coursework that was focused on practice application predicted passing the NBCOT examination on the first attempt.

Conclusion: Results from this study illustrate the complexity in predicting performance on the NBCOT examination and the need to expand the predictors included in future analyses.

Purpose: The purpose of this article was to gather descriptive data on the professional use of social media in public rehabilitation settings and to analyze existing social media policies in those agencies through content analysis.

Methods: The authors sent a survey to all state administrators or directors of these agencies (N = 50) in the United States, requesting frequency and other descriptive information, plus a copy of their social media policies (if available). The available policies were reviewed using content analysis procedures.

Results: The results showed that although the frequency of social media use was high, training and inclusion of ethics was low. Regarding policy, approximately 42% reported a lack of an existing policy, and 38% were unsure about having a policy guide. The analysis of the available policies yielded 11 themes around which these policies were organized.

Discussion: The authors offer a discussion of these results and its implications for policy and practice as well as future research. These include the need for more comprehensive social media policy creation in agencies and the role of clinical supervisors in ensuring ethical practice.

Purpose: To identify the current training needs of state-federal rehabilitation counselors and determine if the self-perceived training needs differ for participants who are a certified rehabilitation counselor (CRC) to those counselors with out the CRC credential.

Method: A mixed-methods internet-based survey design was utilized and included descriptive, qualitative, and ex post facto approaches on a sample of rehabilitation counselors (N = 341) via the Knowledge Validation Inventory-Revised (KVI-R).

Results: The participants reported high or moderate self-perceived training needs on 9 of the 10 content areas on the KVI-R; however, no significant differences between certified and non-certified rehabilitation counselors were found. Highest degree earned and numbers of years in practice were significant predictors of training needs.

Conclusion: The results from this study indicate a self-reported need for additional training of state-federal rehabilitation counselors in many of the CORE knowledge domains considered essential for rehabilitation counseling. The findings also indicate that as level of education and experience increased among this sample, the need for training decreased.

Purpose: To examine the extent to which rehabilitation counselor educators understand and are committed to infusing social justice in the rehabilitation counseling curricula.

Method: The authors used a quantitative descriptive research design to examine the level and extent of integrating social justice into rehabilitation counseling curricular. The participants were 59 rehabilitation counselor educators recruited during the eighth Annual Rehabilitation Educators Conference hosted by the National Council on Rehabilitation Education.

Results: The study found that most participants perceived it important to integrate social justice into rehabilitation counseling curricula. The level and extent of integration varied by academic rank and years of teaching.

Conclusion: To ensure future rehabilitation counselors gain social justice competency, it is of great significance that rehabilitation counseling educators infuse the concepts of social justice into the curricula through knowledge and fieldwork domains.

Purpose: Recognizing a perceived lack of assistive technology/adaptive equipment (AT/AE) competence on the part of counselors and educators (Kuo, 2013), this article provides an overview of assistive technology concepts and accreditation standards, and introduces a training model intended to improve rehabilitation counselor readiness to address client AT/AE needs.

Method: Drawing on the extant literature, professional scopes of practice, and interdisciplinary clinical experience, the authors conceptualize AT/AE service delivery along a biopsychosocial continuum.

Results: The resultant model of AT/AE team collaboration can be taught by counselor educators and understood by students without specialty certification or preexisting knowledge of AT. The model spans the continuum of care from medical to psychosocial, details the roles of rehabilitation disciplines, and offers a pedagogical tool for infusing AT concepts across the curriculum.

Conclusion: Ultimately, this article advocates for increased rehabilitation counselor engagement and entry-level competence in addressing the psychosocial aspects of AT/AE. Future research should be conducted to validate the constructs of this model.

The Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 (HEOA) contains several important provisions that make postsecondary education more accessible and affordable for young adults with disabilities. This is particularly true for students with intellectual disabilities, as the law created new comprehensive transition and postsecondary programs and provided access to federal student aid to this population for the first time. This article presents a brief summary of the original Higher Education Act of 1965, as well as a detailed summary of the HEOA. Portions of the legislation specific to students with disabilities are highlighted, and specific implications for rehabilitation counselors and pre-service students are presented.

This paper addresses the topic of assistive technology (AT) to offer a direction for its future role within the rehabilitation profession. A brief overview of the five AT legislative acts to date is provided. Next, future considerations for AT are offered in the context of what we know within the U.S. and global communities followed by the imperative to apply AT evenly to all types of disabilities as well as all groups defined by various demographic dimensions. Recommendations for improving the viability of research efforts for AT are provided along with several strategies for mainstreaming its role within graduate rehabilitation education programs to develop a future workforce that has a more astute understanding of AT and a greater inclination to use it. The current status of AT in producing clinical outcomes is discussed. Finally, frameworks for involving key stakeholder voices to holistically evaluate the success of AT policy as well as measure its impact are provided.

Objective: To examine the roles of attachment, social support, and coping as psychosocial correlates in predicting happiness in people with spinal cord injuries.

Design: Quantitative descriptive research design using multiple regression and correlation techniques.

Participants: 274 individuals with spinal cord injuries.

Outcome Measures: Happiness as measured by the Subjective Happiness Scale.

Results: Functional disability and psychosocial correlates including coping, attachment styles, and social support were found to be associated with happiness scores. Functional disability was found to have a large negative effect on happiness and the effect was significantly reduced after taking into consideration the effect of positive psychology factors.

Conclusion: Positive psychology variables are important for happiness and subjective well-being, and happiness in turn is related to better quality of life. The negative relationship between functional disability and happiness can be mediated by attachment, social support, and coping. Rehabilitation professionals should deemphasize negative characteristics related to poor psychological adjustment and focus on positive human traits and positive psychology interventions for people with disabilities.

Often, the aim of distance learning (DL) is to enhance individual learning, not to change workplace practices. Changing organizational policies, practices and behaviors related to disability calls for a different DL approach that engages users and contextualizes knowledge. In the disability arena, there is a need for programming that brings about disability inclusive workplace practices by reaching more deeply within workplace cultures. Mid-level managers are key arbiters of disability inclusiveness and workplace practices, yet they are difficult to reach. We have designed and piloted a Just-in-Time (JIT) approach to reach managers that includes two phases: Phase I engages a core group within the organization, and Phase II focuses on a JIT toolkit.

Purpose: The purpose of this conceptual article is to present a framework that incorporates the concept of culture humility into effective rehabilitation services.

Method: Based on a comprehensive literature review and theoretical integration, this article provides the reader with the basic concept of cultural humility, similarities and differences between cultural humility and cultural competence, and significance of the cultural humility concept to rehabilitation counseling.

Results: The literature consistently describes the need for professionals to be culturally competent to effectively serve an increasingly diverse population. However, when using only a multicultural competency framework, counselors may have false beliefs about their competence in working with culturally diverse individuals, understate the power imbalance between service providers and clients, and ignore institutional (e.g., system, homophobia, racism) accountability. Cultural humility can directly address these issues and serve as a complement to cultural competence in rehabilitation counseling services given its emphasis on reflectivity, power differentials between counselors and clients, and institutional accountability.

Conclusion: Cultural humility can be applied to rehabilitation research, education, and practice. We need to broaden multicultural rehabilitation counseling through a cultural humility approach.

Purpose: The aim of this work was to develop a campaign to promote an environment of solidarity and support on college campuses for students with mental illnesses.

Method: Data were gathered from 24 members of a Chicago university campus who were selected as representatives of key campus stakeholder groups including students, administrative staff, counseling center staff, residence life staff, and faculty. Participants attended focus groups and key-informant interviews during the fall of 2011.

Results: Qualitative analyses using grounded theory methodology revealed themes corresponding to two distinct overarching constructs: potential benefits of the campaign and potential concerns of the campaign.

Conclusion: Development of a campaign informed by these results to promote a supportive environment on college campuses for students with mental illnesses may have a positive impact on students’ outcomes.

Purpose: In this article, we seek to determine whether psychiatric rehabilitation principles and practices have been more fully incorporated into the Council on Rehabilitation Education (CORE) standards, the extent to which they are covered in four rehabilitation counseling “foundations” textbooks, and how they are reflected in the contents of three key journals in rehabilitation counseling.

Methods: We conducted a detailed review of literature that has surveyed coordinators of graduate programs accredited by the CORE as well as research that investigates the preparedness of graduates of CORE-accredited rehabilitation counseling programs to deliver services to people with psychiatric disabilities.

Results: This review found that psychiatric rehabilitation is only touched upon in the CORE standards, is modestly alluded to in the most commonly used foundational textbooks, and has very few articles about it published annually in rehabilitation journals.

Conclusion: Recommendations on methods for increasing psychiatric rehabilitation content in CORE-accredited programs are provided. Specific suggestions are made for resources and activities that can be added to rehabilitation counseling curricula to include psychiatric rehabilitation.

Purpose: This study examined and documented minority disability and health research leaders’ experiences and perspectives on career development challenges and success strategies. Methods: A sample of 15 African American, American Indian or Alaskan Native, Latino, and Asian research leaders as key informants participated in the inquiry. Research team members and external project advisory panel members collaboratively developed the interview protocol consisting of 8 questions designed to elicit information about career development factors. Trained interviewers conducted semistructured telephone interviews to collect data. Verbatim transcripts of the audiotapes and participant demographics were the primary data that were analyzed using NVivo (Version 10.0). Results: Individual sociocultural challenges (e.g., cultural barriers, language/communication issues, family life issues, and limited collaboration opportunities), institutional research environmental concerns (e.g., bureaucracy, alienation, insufficient research support funds, and discrimination), and federal research agency policy and systems context–induced issues (e.g., limited mentorship opportunities, inadequate supply of minority research leaders and role models, unhealthy competition, and lack of equal opportunity) emerged among key informants’ perspectives as important barriers. Identified success strategies included the need for early career investigators to build, expand, and use support networks, establish multidisciplinary collaborations, develop strong work ethic, enhance research skills (e.g., methodological and grant writing), and obtain capable mentorship. Conclusions: The aforementioned factors should be considered in the creation of new career development models and paradigms aimed at diversifying the scientific workforce.

Purpose: People living with chronic illness face significant challenges with employment. This study explores the impact of participating in the Career Construction Interview (CCI) on the career exploration of individuals facing a forced career transition due to the onset or exacerbation of a chronic illness.

Method: An instrumental multiple case study design was used in this qualitative study. A purposeful, homogeneous sample of three female adults was used to gain multiple perspective of forced career transitions. The participants were within 2 years of their diagnosis or exacerbation of one or more chronic health conditions and had to change their career because of the impact of their condition(s).

Results: Eight open codes and five axial codes were discovered through the process of constant comparative analysis. For this study one open code (CCI experience) and five axial codes will be discussed.

Conclusions: This study found patterns related to chronic illness and career and that the Career Construction Interview was helpful to the participants in assisting them with making decisions about potential careers and options for employment. Implications for rehabilitation counseling practice and suggestions for future research.

Purpose: To understand the level of acceptance of disability by veterans and rehabilitation counselor’s role in that acceptance.

Method: The Acceptance of Disability Scale-Revised was given to 117 veterans from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq who acquired disabilities. Their experiences working with certified rehabilitation counselors was also examined.

Results: Results indicate that veterans overall are at a lower acceptance of their disability than other groups. Veterans with the most severe disabilities and lower acceptance scores are more likely to seek assistance from certified rehabilitation counselors.

Conclusion: Veterans with disabilities need to have early and proper interventions from qualified counselors to best transition into civilian life. Knowledge of the stages of disability and steps to acceptance by counselors can aid veterans navigating this process.

Historically, multicultural counselor education has taken a groups approach to educating students about cultural differences. Groups approaches explain cultural differences broadly, potentially leading students to minimize the potential for intra-group differences. This has led to the marginalization of the experiences of students with racial/ethnic minority identities. Incorporating the concepts of power, privilege, and oppression, along with the concept of intersectionality can allow multicultural educators to approach multicultural counselor education in a way that includes all students from any identity. These concepts, along with regularly addressed concepts like identity development, microaggressions, and advocacy, can lead to a broader view of cultural competency. Additionally, when students understand cultural competency within this framework, they have the tools to become lifelong learners. This approach allows students to learn about different client identities and cultures as they are encountered in the students' counseling experiences or as they evolve.

Purpose: This exploratory study advances personnel preparation research through the investigation of the transition content found on the institutional websites of U.S. universities with Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) Master’s Level Personnel Preparation grants for transition planning and services (OSEP, 2015) or master’s-level Council on Rehabilitation Education (CORE)-accredited vocational rehabilitation (VR) programs (2014–2105). Individuals seeking transition training are likely to visit institutional websites given that searching online is typically the first step in exploring educational and training options.

Method: A process of systematic website searches, protocol for data extraction, and an iterative content analysis were used. Data profiles were constructed, and the types of offerings were characterized and defined.

Results: Twelve universities were associated with the transition offerings of eight OSEP-funded programs (8/23 or 35%) and eight CORE-accredited programs (8/97 or 8%) and their corresponding 22 websites. Four of the 12 universities appeared on both lists.

Conclusions: The renewed focus on transition services within the legislation (The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act [WIOA], 2014) will no doubt increase the demand for educational preparation and professional development. These findings provide a baseline from which to improve visibility and develop further offerings. Areas for immediate improvement are the accuracy of the program descriptions and the ease of finding details.

Applied training of pre-practicum, practicum, and internship are important gateway experiences for rehabilitation counselors-in-training. Counselor educators and supervisors must be aware of requirements and expectations of counselor-in-training supervision and common ethical issues specific to these clinical experiences of rehabilitation counselors-in-training and their supervisors/faculty. The authors identify and discuss the CORE standards for practicum and internship in the preparation of rehabilitation counselors. Information is presented on the preparation phase, mandatory aspects of fieldwork and implications for curriculum standards, as well as supervision, and ethical and legal issues.

An ethics project is described that challenged students to collaborate with disability rights authorities to co-write a code of ethics for a Center of Independent Living. Experiential and reflective assignments analyzed how the construction of knowledge and language is never value-neutral, and people with disabilities need to have a voice in decisions that affect their lives. Insights from the project suggest considerations for teaching students to construct ethical knowledge that is empathetic and respectful to the culture for which a code of ethics will be applied, in this case, the experience of disability from a social model perspective.

Purpose: In this article, the emerging practice of collaborative documentation (CD) in community mental health care and its applications to rehabilitation counseling were explored. CD has the potential to promote greater client empowerment, clinical transparency, and documentation efficiency and quality; however, the CD process is not well validated through rigorous research.

Method: We provide a critical analysis of issues with current documentation systems, principles of creating collaborative paperwork, and the potential outcomes for rehabilitation clients, agencies, and counselors who use CD.

Results: The benefits of CD for rehabilitation educators, researchers, and practitioners will be provided for implementation in rehabilitation settings.

Conclusion: Rehabilitation practitioners may be increasingly exposed to CD and transparency of treatment records. CD is a developing practice that fits well with the rehabilitation counseling philosophy and the profession’s history of client inclusion in treatment planning.

Purpose: To examine the recent labor market indicators of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) versus non-STEM college graduates with disabilities.

Method: The sample included bachelor of science (B.S.)/B.S.-level college graduates including 1,567,527 with a disability and 32,512,446 without a disability. Data were derived from the American Community Survey public use microdata files 2009–2011 inclusive. Three measures of labor market activity were used: labor force participation rate, unemployment ratio, and employment-to-population ratio.

Results: Nonparametric tests of proportion with stringent alpha levels indicated that overall labor market participation was much lower for graduates with disabilities. Indicators improved somewhat for STEM graduates with disabilities perhaps because they persisted longer in their job search efforts. Within the sample of STEM graduates with disabilities, Whites experienced greater labor market participation than ethnic minorities. It was also found that supply-side interventions to improve STEM employment (i.e., government investment) have been markedly less effective than demand-side interventions (i.e., expanded recruitment of foreign STEM degree holders).

Conclusion: Recent labor economics data and the expanded recruitment of foreign STEM degree holders bring into question whether or not a true STEM crisis exists today.

College recovery services are designed to provide necessary supports for college students with issues related to substance use disorders to be successful in postsecondary education. However, as a still emerging form of student supports, major issues remain such as funding, the utilization of evidence-based interventions, effective program evaluations, and the need for more empirical research. This article provides a historical overview of Collegiate Recovery Programs (CRPs) and an examination of current issues facing the field; it concludes with recommendations for program administrators, researchers, and rehabilitation counselors.

Increased attention to evidence-based practice (EBP) among rehabilitation professionals closely corresponds to recent interest in knowledge translation, which connects quality research to rehabilitation practice aimed at improving the lives of people with disabilities. Despite the importance of knowledge translation for rehabilitation professionals, the concept is often overlooked or misunderstood. This article provides a brief review of knowledge translation to clarify potential misconceptions. In addition, communities of practice (CoPs) are introduced as a specific tool for knowledge translation. An overview of CoPs and guidelines for design, development, and use are reviewed. The flexibility and common ownership of CoPs provide an ideal approach for rehabilitation researchers, practitioners, and consumers to work together to develop knowledge and effective practice guidelines.