Broadening Horizons

(gentle music) - Helping young people with disabilities just become exposed to the world of work and then to become, to go deeper and deeper in that through their school experiences is a really important piece of transition. Helping young people with disabilities catch a glimpse of what they want to do and what they're good at and what they'll thrive at in the area of work is at the heart of what we do for transition services. I mean, one of the primary things we're preparing people for is future careers, whether that's through college or directly into the workforce. What that means is that for students with disabilities we have to provide every opportunity we can as they're moving through school, to be exposed to different experiences in their school that expose them to careers in the world of work and its importance, but also expose them to real life work experiences out in the community. So I think there's a few ways that we can do that. One is thinking early on just about building career awareness, helping students see that eventually they'll go into workforce and to be exposed to the different kinds of jobs that might be possible in their community and beyond, and then making sure we're providing instruction that helps teach them about different occupations and what that entails and the kinds of skills and knowledge you need to have to do those kinds of jobs. And then moving into hands-on experiences that let them try those experiences out. And for students with intellectual disability or autism, then the more we can get them into hands-on experiences where they're not just learning about work, but they're learning through work experiences, helps them really catch a glimpse of what they're good at and what they might want to do. So I tend to think about as a progression from awareness to exploration to actually hands-on career experiences so that every student before they leave school has had at least one paid job in the community. (gentle music)