Practical Access Podcast

S:2 E:2: Employability Tips for Individuals with Disabilities

May 01, 2020 Season 2 Episode 2
Practical Access Podcast
S:2 E:2: Employability Tips for Individuals with Disabilities
Show Notes Transcript

Drs. Rebecca Hines and Lisa Dieker, UCF Faculty members, share their thoughts on how to help individuals with disabilities move towards employments. Ideas span the age range from young children to young adult. The discussion focuses on self-advocacy, life and job coaches, and knowing one's strengths. They highlight the new pathway to college for students with intellectual disabilities through "Think College". Remember questions can be shared on Twitter @accesspractical.  Follow us on itunes or iheart podcasts. 

spk_0:   0:04
welcome to practical access. I'm Lisa Dieker. And I'm Rebecca Hines. Alright. And Becky, What are we thinking in this second, at this ode of season two?

spk_1:   0:18
Well, least I think that employment and employability would be a good topic, too featured today just because it is obviously topical at the moment. So many people out of work, so many people will be needed in different kinds of jobs in the future. What does that mean? Do you think for kids with disabilities?

spk_0:   0:41
Well, I think my first go to here is gonna be technology, technology, technology. And I know everybody doesn't wanna hear that right now. They're like, tech free world. But I believe for employ abilities, students with all disabilities and by all I you know, I do meet all moderate, mild, severe, whatever you want to call it. Learning disability behavior disorder, Tourette's autism that we have to do better and access to stem content at an earlier age. I think oftentimes kids with disabilities get pulled out during the science class or the math class to get literacy skills. And yet this may help me popular. But I think in the next decade the technology is going to read to you, and the ability to be able to read fluently may not be as critical is comprehending. And then the second thing I'll say there, then I'll flip it back to you is that I really do think this generation has to be ahead in the technology in dealing with their deficits so that they can be employed my to first go to use

spk_1:   1:47
what I think. Those are both good points. And I would say that even just building in a small way on that if you just think about all of the tools that are in your hand on your cell phone and knowing how to use those either to play something back said that you can hear it or so that you can dictate again, you know, instead of instead of happen to type something out or write something out yourself. Definitely there's going to continue to being an increasing number of tools available. So absolutely, and even now, when kids are home with their families and trying to produce work and trying to do things, it's a good time to experiment with some of those things. I do think that communication, and we're gonna talk about that. I know in a in a future episode. But communication is a key employability skill. So it would take the opposite of the tech world and look at some of those interpersonal things. Continuing to focus on the the art of communicating and remembering that only 7% of what we communicate is the spoken word. So continuing to work with kids of all abilities on this idea of body language, eye contact, tone of voice, we focus on those things sometimes for kids with with with autism. But we don't. We don't always emphasize that with kids of a wider range of abilities. So I think that that getting to the basics of how to position kids to be employable not just from the tech side but also from the interpersonal side You

spk_0:   3:37
know what? I'm gonna laugh here for a moment because you and I, one of our primary roles, is we work with a lot of amazing doctoral students. And what is the number? One thing you and I are Oasis focused on is their ability to present and their ability to get their message across and I don't think that's any different when you have ability or disability. But I think sometimes we have other people speak for students with disabilities or people with disabilities instead of letting them speak for themselves. And I think what we really try to do with our doctor instances give them a voice. But I think that's really critical for students with disabilities. You know, I really don't want to be an unstructured person that lives in the back of the van and travels around the world because you know me, well, picky. That would take me over the edge. I'm gonna go with kind of employability piece of myself. I don't know if you should be an English teacher versus a math teacher. Know if you're really good at technology, know that you might have physical limitations. So thinking that you're looking for a job that requires carrying and lifting might not be reasonable, but maybe you're really, really good behind a desk or the flipside. I'll go back to my son, put him behind a desk. Life is over. So I think I know myself that I need structure and I need routine. Um, but I think that's different for every person. And I don't think we should have seen people displays. I need different. But I think employability has to match those drinks and weaknesses, no matter who you are,

spk_1:   5:09
agreed. And I know that the focus of a lot of transition planning is that idea of matching up who, what our interests are and who were gonna be. As as employees, employers, it's better in the future. The the other part of the employability skills that resoundingly come across in business is that idea of problem solving. So you mentioned that it really needs to be aligned with some, you know, something of interest. But also people are looking for those who can solve a problem. And that's also not something we've traditionally done a great job necessarily in schools of instilling its students. And again, you you mentioned are are doctoral students. You could I could tell you, my undergrads, my graduate students, my doctoral students. They differ widely in how well they can solve a problem and think on their feet, and that's not something that's easy to teach. So we really just have to give kids an opportunity to solve problems because it does ultimately help make them more employable later. And even if it's not to first get that job, that's how you keep a job.

spk_0:   6:26
I agree. Yeah, you know, and I laughed cause one of the best assets we had in our life is Josh had a life coach, just amazing, man, who volunteered literally. Teoh, help us through puberty, which is for those parents are listening. It's just evil. It doesn't matter whether there's ability or disability. It's just evil for all kids to deal with. Yet what I learned from that is something that I think so. Lines of the playability is We gotta let kids grow up. I still remember, you know, not wanting my son to get, you know, I'm gonna let him drive. You can't even make decisions out of Russia's teeth. How can I put it behind the wheel of a car? And he said, But how does he ever grow up if he doesn't get the chance to problem solve and make those mistakes in those decisions? And yes, we did have a minor fender bender. I was right behind and when it happened, but I think that's true for all of us in life. We've made those mistakes, and that's how we learn. I think sometimes we try to sweep in and protect kids with disabilities and keep them safe. But keeping them safe first is never letting them fail. Unsolved problems, I think, is one of the most important things from politically. So I agree with you 100% tonight. This isn't any more. Well,

spk_1:   7:34
you mentioned life coach, so I'm going to take it the other direction and just for a moment, mentioned job coaching. So I know we have when it comes to kids with more significant disabilities and in intellectual disabilities and those kids who need a much more specific job training. I'm gonna mention a technology strategy for that because this is something that I have used in a variety of ways myself. But when I was presenting to a group of parents, one of them was telling me how she has done this with her own child, and I was mentioning something similar from We've done things like this in schools, but it's a simple as having the child have  and a parent making a call and watching from somewhere in the store. This woman was giving the example of teaching her son to do an interaction at a grocery store. Young man with autism. So she stood in the front of the store and she was watching him and she was just telling him in his ear piece. She was selling him. Okay, now get they Get the ketchip, walk up to the counter, give the woman your money. And so she was literally giving him a step by step instruction of how to conduct this interaction in the grocery store. But she wasn't standing right beside him, and she wasn't. She wasn't doing anything overt. So I gave him a chance to be independent and took start learning some of those kind of skills on his own. His life skills. And so we have used the same kind of things in job coaching. So if somebody is working at McDonald's and it's someone who needs just a lot of specific support, yeah, now we now we've got job coaches who are sitting at a booth at McDonald's, and they're just they just look like a guy on his phone at McDonald's while literally saying I could be sure you give. The guy has changed. Be sure you do this. Be sure you do this. So I think that technology does offer some ways to to shake up even job coaching a little bit. And to make that make our role as coaches a little bit unless invisible and promote more independence.

spk_0:   9:47
Yeah, I'm I'm gonna give you my last one. I mean, there's so many. But I know this is when you and I both have had a project in partnership with an and I'm a big fan of Is this thing college movement? And I do think it's a new era. I think, for parents of students with intellectual disabilities, it's a little bit shocking era. 20 years ago, when somebody gave birth to a child that had an intellectual disability, there wasn't a lot of talk about college, and to me, that's kind of one of the core discussions happening in the country. If you haven't been involved in that discussion, we both recommend you got and look and think college and think, Wow, what are the opportunities? But I think what excites me about think college and it lives here What you think they're lucky is that it's really popping up organically, that there's this whole range of places where you can live in a group home and somebody will take you to class and you'll have classes that are very tight. Do a free for all, much like in a beautiful way that students get to pick and choose what they're taking. Just like any college student, they get to live in the dorm and make mistakes. And I do think we used to think that college and employed that he was for a certain part or a certain population. Yet we know there's still groups like people who are blind, 80% are still unemployed. I think we've still got a ways to go to fill in the perception of society that everybody has the ability to work and everybody has that opportunity. But I think Google self driving cars are gonna change that, that access for people with visual impairments and I do think there's a lot out there, but I do think that that trend and that halfway, I don't think we'll stop at this point in time and I think it could be an economic jumpstart during this time of economic downturn to make sure that population has as much employability as possible.

spk_1:   11:37
And those university campuses in college campuses that participate in Think College are a good example of giving students that opportunity to be as independent as possible and to be put in a position to make to make more decisions because they're on a college campus. It's a new environment, but the other. The other part about that is it also gives those other college students opportunities to see how capable persons with disabilities are. And until we make sure that they understand that, you know, they may be the person working shoulder to shoulder with with someone with a disability, and they may be the employer disability. So definitely making sure that the rest of society understands well, what everyone is capable of is a big

spk_0:   12:25
part of the picture. Yeah, I agree with you. So again, I think this is a topic we may wanna follow up on. But if you have specific questions for us, please to this a tweet @accesspractical on, we look forward to taking your questions on this summer piece really focused on social emotional learning, soft skills and just being a human on this planet. Thanks for joining us.