Slide One

Assessment

  • Traditional assessments often highlight what individuals cannot do.
  • The purpose of an assessment is to match an individual to a job.
  • We started by finding jobs that were available.
  • If we find jobs first, we may locate jobs that no one can fill.
  • Once we know our job seekers, we can conduct job searches on their behalf.

Assessment of individuals with disabilities for employment has often been problematic, since traditional assessments usually highlight what they cannot do rather than what they can. I have read many vocational evaluations that stated an individual was "not ready" for employment based on formalized assessments. For instance, an individual's IQ score may not really predict employment success, since an IQ score does notreveal the person's functional abilities. I have personally worked with individuals with significant intellectual disabilities who have been very successful in competitive employment when provided the needed supports and training. If their IQ scores had been used to predict employment success, they never would have had the opportunity to become competitively employed.

If more traditional assessments are not necessarily useful for predicting employment success, then what is recommended? Perhaps the question should be what is the purpose of assessment? The purpose or intent of assessment is to effectively match the job seeker to a preferred job in the community. Assessment includes determining the individual's skills, strengths, personal preferences; analyzing jobs in the community; and then comparing the requirements of a job to the individual's requirements until a best match is made between the job seeker and a job in a community business. We must not use an assessment to screen out individuals from our programs nor limit their access to competitive employment.

At this point, I feel that it is important to reflect on what we have learned about assessment and finding individuals with disabilities jobs. When we began at VCU in the late 1970s and early 1980s to assist individuals in finding community jobs, we started by finding jobs that were available. Then, the employment specialists or job coaches would come back to our program and determine which personwas the best match for the jobs that they had found. Assessment of the job seekers took place simultaneously with job development, and then we matched the individual's characteristics to the jobs that were found. We basically reviewed who wasin our job seeker pool and matched the characteristics of the jobsto the individuals looking for jobs. The subtle point here is that we focused on finding jobs and then tried to figure out who might want them. We did a nice job of matching a person's skills and strengths to the required skills and strengths of the job. However, we did not really focus as much on individual preferences.

If we find jobs before we know our job seeker's skills, support needs, and preferences we may locate jobs that no one can fill. In addition, we may end up placing people in jobs that they don't really want even though their skills match a position. This may result in poor job retention, because the job seeker ends up being dissatisfied with his or her job placement.

We learned that the process should begin by determining the person's strengths, interests, and skills. Once we knew our job seekers, then we could more effectively conduct job searches on their behalf. We still need to match the person to jobs but the focus is placed on knowing the person first. This is being referred to as the Discovery Process. You will find a lecture on Discovery in this lesson as well. But, this particular lecture is going to focus on how you go about assessing the job seeker's skills and support needs. In lesson two, we will discuss the job analysis process and matching the individual to a specific job.

Slide Two

Assessment Process

  • An individual's job preferences must guide job development.
  • There are many assessment strategies.

Review of records

Informational interviews

Observation

Functional Assessments

Situational Assessments

  • The assessment process is as much an "art" as it is "science."

I am going to assume that you have already listened to the lecture on Discovery. I am also going to assume that you have determined the person's preferences and interests when it comes to choosing a job. This is important, since the individual's job preferences will guide your job development activities with businesses in your community. However, we also need to determine the person's skills and abilities so we can successfully matchthe job seeker's skills to an employer's needs. So, let's talk now about how we are going to assess the individual's skills and support needs.

There are a number of different assessment strategies that can be used to include review of records, informational interviewing with the person and people who know the person well, observations in places where the person typically participates during the day, functional assessments, and situational assessments. I will share my experience with these different ways of determining a person's skills and abilities for employment during this lecture.

First, I should mention the various assessment forms that you will find posted in our course. Here at VCU, we developed several different forms that can be used for compiling the data that you will collect during the assessment process. You may use these forms in any way that seems helpful to your program and modify them based on your own experiences. They are intended as guides. Once you review the forms, please feel free to ask the instructors in this course for clarification if needed.

Essentially, the forms are intended to guide the employment specialist in finding a job for the individual. In our next lesson, we will provide a job analysis form that can be used to analyze jobs. Once the customer profile form is completed as well as job analysis is completed of a specific job, the employment specialists can compare the results to determine if a specific position might be "right" for the job seeker.

I believe that there is as much "art" to this comparison process as there is "science." At one time, there was some work done to determine if a computer program could match jobs to people. However, there is a human element to this process that cannot be done with a program. In other words, there is no substitute for knowing the individual and the potential jobs and making judgment decisions on whether the person matches the job. We must also remember that the key concept of open employment is that a person does not need to possess all of the skills to perform the job when hired. So, we must be able to determine if the person "matches" the job while also identifying the training needs and job site supports including natural supports that can be added once the individual is hired so that he or she will be successful. I will provide some examples later during this lecture to illustrate this point. We will also discuss this further during the job site supports lesson of this online course.

Slide Three

Formal Assessments

  • Do not rely too heavily on formal assessments.
  • A person's functional skills may not be reported in formal assessments.
  • Look for key information in formal reports that may impact a person's ability to work.
  • Don't let information in formal reports bias your opinion of the individual.

Employment specialists who are new to assisting individuals with disabilities in finding jobs may begin the assessment process by reading formal records that exist on the job seeker. This may include standardized test results, vocational evaluations, previous medical and/or psychological reports, or case study notes written by former employment specialists or professionals who have worked with the individual. While information in these reports may provide some insight, I would caution you not to rely on them too heavily or use them to predict whether a person is ready for employment.

Formal assessments typically occur in testing environments that do not reflect the person's functional abilities in a community setting. For instance, a report might state that the person is not able to identify coins. However, if I go to a store with the person, I discover that he is able to make simple purchases such as buy a soda and candy. He might not be able to point to a quarter, nickel, or dime for example but can use money functionally. I have also found that the person's disabilities are highlighted more often than their abilities in formal records. If the focus is on a person's disabilities, it becomes difficult to picture how the person could be employed in the community.

I am not suggesting that you ignore existing reports. I might look for medical information such as medications that the person is on that would impact work performance. For instance, is there medication that the person takes that makes her very lethargic or sleepy at a certain time of the day? Are there any medical conditions that need to be considered that would impact the type of job that the person should have such as a heart condition or allergies? Obviously, someone with a heart condition would not be matched to a job that requires a great deal of strength and endurance.

I also would want to know about any challenging behaviors that the individual has, but I should not let this information bias my opinion of the person. I have known many an individual with challenging behaviors whose behaviors were a result of the environments where they worked or lived. Once the person was placed in a job of choice, those behaviors were observed. Hopefully, you have had this experience and understand that often professionals limit an individual's choices based on pre-existing information.

Instead of limiting the person's choices for employment, formal assessments or evaluations should provide me with details about the type of workplace and supports that the person will require. As an example,I knew a young woman who had been reinforced with stuffed toys when she was in school. The job coach did not take this information into consideration when a job was found for her. Ironically, the workplace supervisor collected beanie babies, and her office was full of them. The young woman was constantly going into the supervisor's office to try and take the beanie babies. Suffice it to say, she lost her job. The employment specialist failed to take into consideration an important piece of information during the job match process.

Slide Four

Formal Reports

  • Consider the dates on the reports.
  • Is the information current?
  • Check for consistency.
  • Always validate the information that you receive.
  • Use formal records to gain insight into a person's support needs.

Before we leave the topic of reading evaluations or reports on the person as part of the assessment process, I would like to add a few more thoughts and words of caution. Consider the dates on the reports and when the evaluations were completed. Is the information current, or was it last year or is the report even older? People change and the information that you're reading may not accurately reflect the individual now.

Also, you want to consider is this something that is observed in multiple environments or situations? Check for consistency. Is this something that one person reports or is this information repeated in several different reports across many different people? Sometimes people do not get along with someone specifically, and this may impact the report that you are reviewing. We should take into consideration personality conflicts that maybe coming through in some of the written file information such as case notes.

Always validate the information that you receive from other sources. Talk with the person, the family, and other professionals who know the individual well. This is not to say that all case notes or reports are not reliable information. Just make sure that you are checking with the person, the family, and other significant people to make sure that the information is correct.

The other thing that I would caution you against isplacing too much attention to the person'sdisability. Two individuals with the very same diagnosis might have very different functional abilities. Form your own opinions and talk to other people before you decide what the person can or cannot do.

So in summary, I would use formal records to gain insight into a person's support needs. I would then compare what I have read to other sources of information such as observations of the person's functional abilities or reports from other people who know the person well.

Slide Five

Informational Interviewing

  • Meet with people away from your office.
  • Talk with people who know the job seeker.
  • Ask them targeted questions.
  • Clarify information.
  • Listen to the job seeker.

The next thing that I would like to discuss is interviewing the individual and significant others in the person's life. A great deal of valuable information can be gained by talking with the person about his or her preferences. I don't necessarily mean just talking with the individual in your office and asking what she wants to do or where she wants to work. Sometimes, meeting away from your office over a cup of coffee for instance, allows the individual to open up and talk about his dreams for employment. You can also observe the person's functional skills during time away from your office. For instance, how did the person get to the restaurant? Could he read and select an item off the menu? How about his social skills in the restaurant? The list of functional skills that you can observe really is only as limited as the setting and functional activity that you select with the person. There is more on conducting functional assessments in the required reading that is posted in this lesson. Please read that for additional information and suggestions on conducting functional assessments.

It's also important to talk with people who know the job seeker well. This can be done in structured and unstructured interviews. Let's say that you are sitting down in the family's living room, and you are talkingabout how the person is going to get to work. By sitting down with that family, you can learn about thelevel of family support. Ask them targeted questions to get the conversation going. Will they assist the person by making sure that he gets up in the morning and gets breakfast? Can the family help with transportation and if so are there any specific times of the day that this is not possible? Another area to investigate might be if the person is a morning or a night person. What time does the person get up in the morning? What time doesshe or he like to go to bed? These questions will help you determine what time of the day the person functions best. For instance, I am a morning person. If you placed me in a nightshift job, I would have a very difficult if not impossible time being successful.

You can learn what really gets the person motivated. For instance, does the person love going to car races on Saturday night with Dad? Would the person enjoy working around cars? You can find out what the person likes to do at home.Does the person like to do housework or really dislikes specific chores? Does she like animals, or is she afraid of them? You can clarify information that you might have heard or read about the person in agency files.

Another question to ask is "What jobs have the person done before, paid or volunteer?" Does the person want to work where everyone dresses up, wears casual clothes, or does the person want to wear a uniform? The questions and answers will help you to learn what the person really enjoys or values doing or for that matter what the person wants to avoid. Most importantly, I think what you really have to do is listen to the job seeker. Listen to the communication, verbal and non-verbal; whatever that person is communicating and really pay attention.

Slide Six

Interviewing

  • There is a higher probability that the person will answer yes than no.
  • A person's life experiences will impact informed responses.
  • Confirm the person's life experiences.
  • Complete a situational assessment.

There is a form posted in this lesson that you can use to interview the person and his or her family and other significant individuals in the person's life. I am not going to read the items on the form to you, but it is titled the Individual Supports Assessment Form. You may consider using this form as a guide and revising it as needed for your program. Certainly, we have not listed all of the questions that you might thinkof to ask on this form. In addition, some of the items may be specific to a particular place or area and not be available in your town or city. So, review the form and make modifications to the questions and items as needed.