Employment Support as Knowledge Creation

Abstract

Traditional practice in employment of persons with disabilities has been to assess the skills and interests of the job seeker in relation to normative standards or to others. That comparative approach often results in job seekers with significant developmental disabilities being viewed as having few skills and lacking requisite work readiness, thus effectively excluding many individuals who want to work either from having access to the opportunity for employment or having few marketable skills. This article presents Discovery as a qualitative alternative to quantitative assessment and discusses how employment supports can serve to create useful knowledge for job seekers with disabilities. Rather than focusing on comparison, the sue of Discovery leads supporters and allies of individuals with disabilities to answer an essential question, “Who is this person?” The answer to this question provides an array of activities, skills, interests, and conditions necessary for success that can be translated into knowledge that can direct and define potential employment outcomes.