Students with Disabilities and Career Counseling

by Caroline Oncken, Operations and Program Coordinator, Malone Center for Career Engagement, Furman University

A few months ago, as I approached the front of a classroom for a presentation, I noticed a visually impaired student sitting in the front row ready to learn about job search strategies. In the seconds leading up to the start of the presentation, it occurred to me that I brought materials that would not accommodate the student’s disability. When I passed out handouts, nearby classmates did not know if they should hand the student the piece of paper or place it on the desk. Unfortunately, my oversight caused the student to miss important information. However, that moment allowed me to learn from my mistake and bettered me as a proactive educator.

The next day I coordinated a training session for my office to meet with the director of accessibility resources. The training session provided my team insightful information and facilitated discussions about our campus’ disabled population, accessible materials and how to make on- and off-campus programs more accommodating.

We discussed several strategies for presenting career information to visually impaired students and deaf or hard of hearing students during presentations and/or individual advising sessions:

• Read aloud what is being written on a classroom chalk/whiteboard
• Describe the website you are referencing and what is being pictured
• Address students by name when calling on them, and provide spatial directions from the student’s perspective
• If applicable, allow the student to be seated in the front of the classroom to better hear what is being said during the presentation
• Allow students to submit resumes, cover letters and other career-related materials electronically to allow students to use screen readers
• Remember the student’s left and right are opposite when you are facing the student
• If you provide the class with handouts, ask the student how best to communicate the information
• Avoid using phrases like “take a look at the handout in front of you” or “what do you notice from this picture”
• Ensure documents are accessible to students online (check ADA compliance)
  • Avoid scanned PDFs, as those documents are images and cannot be used by a screen reader
  • If you cannot open a PDF in a Word Document, the document is not accessible
  • Provide Alt Text for images and objects
  • Ensure screen readers can identify headers and text boxes

In addition to this particular experience with a student on my campus, I was inspired to write this post by some helpful resources and strategies I learned about at the 2017 SoACE conference.

I attended the “Challenges and Champions: Developing Employability” session, which aimed at identifying the types of skills individuals with ability differences offer future employers. I noticed I wrote in my notes, “each individual has their own spot of genius” and a quote from an advocate for students with disabilities: “being disabled does not mean un-abled, just different abled.” Both of those quotes are great reminders about our promise to provide every student the chance to learn, grow and succeed. Let’s put to bed the standardized set of requirements that society places on “qualified” job seeking individuals. It’s an individual’s ABILITY to be a successful employee!

I discussed several advising strategies with professionals at the 2017 SoACE conference, which may also help you:

• Encourage students to apply for on-campus positions before moving to an off-campus role
• Focus on the individual’s strengths, skills and abilities
• Encourage students to highlight their disability in a positive, impactful way on resumes, cover letters, applications and in interviews
  • Allow the student to use their cover letter as an opportunity to tell an employer their story; allowing this moment to captivate the reader by giving them a glimpse into how goals, success and skills were achieved
• Break larger tasks into smaller tasks to avoid overstimulating the student
• Give students time to complete tasks; be mindful it might take several sessions to unpack a resume and prepare for interviews

Employers are going to have fears about interviewing and hiring individuals with disabilities. There are going to be questions the employer is afraid to ask. It’s our responsibility as educators to ensure that disabled students don’t feel less abled than their peers to find employment.

I hope you find these strategies helpful, and can incorporate them into your advising.

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Caroline Oncken received a B.A. in Psychology from Clemson University and an M.Ed. in Counselor Education from The Citadel Graduate College in Charleston, S.C. She is currently the Operations and Program Coordinator in the Malone Center for Career Engagement at Furman University. Connect with Caroline at: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolineoncken/