Exploring Career Interests in Students

with Disabilities

Created By: Julia Amburgey & Alex Turner

          This consultation intervention focused on helping students with disabilities at Penn State Harrisburg to increase their self-confidence and professional abilities, common within self-efficacy, through identifying their career interests and providing them with resources as they enter the workforce. This was based on three models of Social Cognitive Career Theory, where the consultants aimed to increase the self-efficacy and perseverance of students, help foster positive career outlooks, and decrease any negative perceptions they may have of themselves. These goals were accomplished through five key resources provided to Student DisAbility Resources by the consultants, including: 1) Updates to the DisAbility Resources website, 2) A workshop PowerPoint, 3) A post-workshop survey, 4) Improved connections for workshop advertisement/a flyer layout, and 5) A PowerPoint slide describing Student DisAbility Resources to be utilized during new student orientation.

 

 

Social Justice Needs: Breaking Barriers for Students with Disabilities

          This intervention aimed to help students with disabilities as they narrow their career interests and navigate entering the workforce. Erickson et al. (2017) found that there is an employment gap of 40.7% between people with disabilities and those without, with only 35.5% of individuals with any disability working. Additionally, for those who are employed, individuals with disabilities have a median wage equivalent to two-thirds of individuals without disabilities (Erickson et al., 2017). With this information, it becomes clear that taking an active approach in assisting this population to succeed in the workforce is a necessity.  

          One of the steps in this process involves increasing awareness of media messages and perceptions. According to Haller and colleagues (2006), the identity of the disability community is constantly altered and maintained by media messages. This is supported by Zhang and Haller (2013), who found that positive media messages portraying people with disabilities as superheroes increased the self-esteem and self-image of those with disabilities. Conversely, negative media messages portraying people with disabilities as ill or victims were associated with lower self-esteem and life satisfaction (Zhang & Haller, 2013). Zhang and Haller (2013) also found that these media portrayals of superhero, ill, or victim were not necessarily even true for people with disabilities. Regarding internal perceptions of self-efficacy in relation to career choices, Luzzo and colleagues (1999) found that compared to their peers without disabilities, students with disabilities demonstrated less self-efficacy (i.e., belief that one can accomplish a task) in their career decision-making and more pessimistic outlooks of these decisions. These studies demonstrate the powerful effects both external and internal ability appraisals can have on the self-esteem and self-efficacy of individuals with disabilities.  

          To illuminate areas where messages about disabilities and work could improve, the consultants paired with Student DisAbility Resources (SDR) at Penn State Harrisburg. The consultants collaborated with the coordinator of SDR to identify specific needs of students with disabilities. These needs included: reducing the stigma of and discrimination against individuals with disabilities on campus and in the workplace, increasing attendance of career-related workshops, and increasing the accessibility to career services for students with disabilities.  

          In order to reduce the effects of stigma and discrimination related to individuals with disabilities, the consultants aimed to increase students’ self-efficacies and explore their outcome expectations (i.e., beliefs about what will happen) related to their future careers. Rather than focus on deficits portrayed by the media, society, and family expectations, the consultants attempted to focus attention on students’ interests and capabilities through use of an online, federally operated career interest profiler called O*Net (https://www.mynextmove.org/explore/ip). In addition, the consultants sought to provide greater resources through sharing information about federal laws, agency contacts, and beneficial accommodations in the workplace. This information was provided in three facets: 1) The SDR website was updated to include this federal information and information about career resources and O*Net, 2) A workshop was developed to discuss the resources SDR provides and  demonstrate how to navigate O*Net, and 3) A single-slide overview was created that describes the services SDR provides, so it can be used at new–student orientation in the hopes of increasing the normalcy and decreasing the stigma associated with accessing these resources.  

          Regarding the second aspiration of increasing attendance to career-related SDR workshops, the consultants assisted in providing new methods to promote their workshops, as well as a survey to measure interests for future programs, benefits received from attending the workshop, and the efficacy of promotion techniques for the workshop. In utilizing new techniques and the survey, the consultants aimed to supply SDR with tools to identify students’ topics of interest for future workshops. With a greater understanding of student interest in combination with more efficacious methods to promote workshops, it is expected that workshop attendance would increase. Lastly, the consultants provided contact information for campus Career Services in workshop material and included a link to the Career Services website in the updated SDR website.  

 

Theoretical Rationale: Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT)

          When considering the needs of students with disabilities, SCCT provides a beneficial framework to identify mechanisms of change in this population through looking at their career interests, career choice options, and persistence in their occupational pursuits (Lent et al., 1994). Through SCCT, the consultants identified several change mechanisms, including self-efficacy, outcome expectations, psychoeducation/consciousness–raising, and the instillation of hope. These are enveloped within the interest model, choice model, and performance model of SCCT (Lent et al., 1994).   

          The interest model describes how one’s self-efficacy and outcome expectations combine to form their career interests (Lent et al., 1994). Within self-efficacy, students and future professionals may question their abilities to successfully perform tasks within the workplace. Components that influence one’s self-efficacy include vicarious learning through guides and role models, social persuasion, past behavior, and one’s physiology and affect (Lent et al., 1994; Bandura, 1986). Within vicarious learning, guides are involuntarily chosen individuals (e.g., family members) in one’s life who play a role in either increasing one’s self-efficacy to be able to pursue various careers, or hindering one’s self-efficacy regarding certain careers (e.g., potentially thinking one is incapable of pursuing a certain career path due to internalizing messages that their disabilities limit their career options). Conversely, role models are voluntarily chosen in one’s life and generally serve as mentors who help one navigate their career journey (Lent et al., 2000). This project seeks to provide resources to challenge messages that one’s disability limits their options for pursuing future careers. It is hoped that through increasing students’ self-efficacies, they will be more likely to choose role models who embody the success that individuals with disabilities can have within the workplace.  

          Social persuasion includes media messages individuals receive regarding their performance capabilities. Specifically, students with physical and/or mental disabilities may have received negative or maladaptive messages about their capabilities from society, media, and their peers, as well as from negative past experiences in the workplace (e.g., Zhang & Haller, 2013). This could have led to negative core schemas about their worth or ability in the workforce, thus decreasing their self-efficacies (Brown & Lent, 1996). By developing an O*Net workshop and providing resources on the SDR website regarding current laws and protections for individuals with disabilities, the consultants aimed to alter negative schemas students may have developed in response to media messages they received. This new information presented on the Penn State Harrisburg SDR website provides the opportunity for students with disabilities to develop a positive perspective of their abilities through online media. This newly acquired information and positive perspective may allow students with disabilities to move past any negative experiences in the workforce and instead, be provided with resources to help them push through barriers. 

          The second component of the interest model describes individuals’ outcome expectations, which are personal beliefs related to the consequences one expects will follow a specific behavior (i.e., a thought process of “If I do X, what will happen?”) (Lent et al., 2000). Providing the resources of federal laws for people with disabilities on the SDR website will help illuminate the legal protections available to them in their future workplaces. With this increased knowledge, students will be able to understand what they are allowed, able, and encouraged to ask for from their future companies and human resource departments. This greater clarity may garner more confidence in individuals as they enter the workforce. Values and reinforcers are two primary concepts that influence one’s outcome expectations, such that individuals learn what to expect from their jobs based on their values (Lent et al., 1994). The consultants hope to increase students’ awareness of their values through providing an explanation of the O*Net interest profiler resource. Additionally, the consultants provided SDR with a PowerPoint presentation about O*Net to use in future workshops. With these resources and psychoeducation opportunities, students will be able to narrow down what they would like to pursue in their future careers based on their values and interests, as well as looking at the education and certificate requirements necessary for these jobs. This may also increase students’ self-efficacies due to greater knowledge of their capabilities and job education requirements (Lent et al., 1994).  

          The interest model further describes aspects that either reinforce or refute the outcome expectations individuals have developed in their careers. In this sense, reinforcers act by strengthening what an individual believes is possible, thereby solidifying individuals’ career schemas (Brown & Lent, 1996). In reference to our project, students with disabilities have unfortunately likely encountered many reinforcers which have solidified schemas that they are unable to pursue certain careers. This project seeks to challenge these negative reinforcers by offering students resources geared toward identifying their career interests (i.e., O*Net) and providing opportunities to explore these interests (i.e., providing SDR with a PowerPoint about O*Net to use for future workshops). Through this, these students will be encouraged that their interests are feasible pursuits. Moreover, students can be given direction and support in their attempts to make their interests a reality through workshops and resources provided by the consultants to SDR. In addition, updating the SDR website to include laws that protect individuals with disabilities in the workplace will aid in better equipping these students to be knowledgeable of their rights within the workplace and therefore self-advocate against influences that would seek to reinforce negative schemas about individuals with disabilities in the workplace.   

          In the SCCT choice model, one’s resources, supports, barriers, perceived barriers, and levels of perseverance are all characteristics that influence the choices one makes in the workplace. One’s resources, perseverance, and hope to continue persevering all need to be greater than their barriers for individuals to move forward in pursuing their career choices that align with their interests (Lent et al., 1994; Lent et al., 2000; Lent & Brown, 2013). In order to provide greater resources and supports for students, the consultants provided information regarding federal protective laws for individuals with disabilities. These laws can help guide individuals’ conversations with future employers about their rights in the workplace. Providing students with information about these laws, as well as O*Net, may help to alter negative schemas to increase more positive and adaptive thought processes as an intrinsic resource. The workshop outline on how to use O*Net may also provide resources on how to incorporate one’s interests into future careers. Using this workshop, members of SDR could become role models for students who would like to learn more about their career interests and their rights within the workplace. 

          Students with disabilities have also likely encountered many barriers (whether external or internal) that hinder their pursuits of certain careers that may align with their interests. Examples of barriers students may have encountered include explicitly receiving messages (from media, peers, guides, etc.) that they are incapable of performing certain tasks due to their disabilities, or internal perceived barriers that they are not capable of pursuing certain careers, so they should not even try (e.g., Luzzo et al., 1999; Zhang & Haller, 2013). The consultants sought to challenge these barriers and perceived barriers by providing students with resources that help them begin pursuing careers in line with their interests (i.e., offering workshops on O*Net) and demonstrate to students that there are likely several potential careers that align with their interests based on their O*Net results. In doing this, the consultants and SDR aim to instill hope in students that their goals for work are achievable. After identifying their career interests, the university could then support these students in meeting the educational criteria required for these careers and provide them with knowledge about their rights when they eventually enter the workforce. Through these actions, the university and SDR would be working against systemic barriers that send messages to students with disabilities that they are less able to pursue their career interests than other students. In addition, the consultants, in working with SDR, expect to refute internalized perceived barriers students with disabilities may have through demonstrating to them that they already took major steps toward advancing their careers. These steps may include, and are not limited to, identifying their career interests through attending the O*Net workshops and educating themselves about protective laws on the SDR website to be able to advocate for themselves in the future.   

          Lastly, the performance model of SCCT assesses why individuals continue to persist in their workplace choices despite potential barriers that arise (Lent et al., 1994). This persistence also involves shifting outcome expectations to be more optimistic and continuing to build one’s self-efficacy (Brown & Lent, 1996). The consultants provided resources through the altered SDR website and O*Net workshop to increase students’ distress tolerance, thereby helping them persist through tough career situations. Additionally, the consultants provided knowledge about protective federal laws to help maintain students’ outcome expectations and self-efficacies when looking for jobs. 

 

Resources Needed

          In order to complete this intervention, organizations will require multiple personnel, physical, and system-level resources. The preferred facilitator for O*Net workshop would be a master’s–level (or higher) professional who is familiar with disability resources. Alternatively, the presenter may be familiar with Career Services. In order to create a safe environment where students can debrief their results if desired, it is preferred that a master’s–level (or higher) therapist/psychologist be present at the workshop. Staff members are required who are familiar with and able to make website alterations, create media advertisements to promote workshops, and analyze any statistical data retrieved from workshop surveys. Each of these individuals will also require several physical resources.  

          For the SDR website updates, the organization must have an SDR website on which they can describe O*Net and federal laws. Regarding the O*Net workshop, this intervention necessitates access to high-speed internet, a computer lab or room with computers, the O*Net website, a printer, copier, ink, and paper for flyers and surveys for the workshop, PowerPoint, and a projector.  The organization will also need access to marketing resources to promote workshops, such as social media sites, mass email list servers, televisions or other visual advertisements, and print labs for posters. On a systems-level, the organization needs to be capable of connecting with resources that offer career services to students with disabilities, in addition to being aware of and advocating for the rights of individuals with disabilities in the workplace. 

 

 

Delivering Services

          Through working with SDR at Penn State Harrisburg, the consultants delivered the services of updating the SDR website, advertising for an SDR event on campus, creating a survey to distribute to students after SDR events, and creating a presentation for future O*Net workshops. Regarding the SDR website, the consultants maintained open contact with the coordinator of SDR at Penn State Harrisburg, as well as with the associate director of marketing and communications at Penn State Harrisburg in order to make and finalize the website changes. The consultants researched federal laws related to students with disabilities both in the academic and workplace contexts, which the consultants then added as a new tab to the SDR website for students to access. In order to ensure all website changes were accessible, the consultants were careful to make sure all websites were able to be accessed freely by the general public, and without the necessity of creating an account.  

          In relation to advertising for an SDR event held on campus during the Spring 2020 semester, the consultants created a flyer template with the event details, that was then scheduled to be promoted through social media outlets, televisions on campus, and printed copies of the flyer distributed across campus. In addition, the consultants created a brief post-workshop survey to be distributed to students after SDR events in order to measure the efficacy of the event content and promotion, and gauge interest for future event topics. Lastly, the consultants created a PowerPoint presentation about O*Net, to be used in future workshops pertaining to career interests for students with disabilities. This presentation also included information about federal laws that were updated on the SDR website, as well as resources for students to contact if they ever felt like they were being discriminated against, whether in academic or workplace settings.  

          It is the consultants’ goal that this O*Net workshop will be delivered by SDR facilitators (referenced in the personnel resources above). The consultants provided guided notes in the PowerPoint for facilitators to follow, in order to accomplish the goal of not only demonstrating how to use O*Net with students, but also ensuring the presentation promotes discussion about career interests and perceived barriers among the students and facilitators. If a therapist/psychologist is present at the workshop, the facilitator can direct students to discuss their results with these individuals, especially if they are feeling confused or overwhelmed about their results. In this sense, this workshop is not designed to be a singular event that instructs students on how to navigate the O*Net website, but rather a continuing process whereby students can continue to engage with Student DisAbility Resources, Career Services, and Counseling Services as they navigate their academic trajectories and work toward achieving their career aspirations.  

 

Expected Outcomes

          The goal of this intervention is to identify how individuals with disabilities can connect their interests with their future careers and navigate any barriers that arise. In this way, the consultants hope that the students’ self-efficacies will increase and that any negative schemas or outcome expectations these students held previously will be mitigated by the resources provided and replaced with optimistic outlooks on their career endeavors.  

          Regarding specific outcomes expected from this consultation intervention, the updates made to the SDR website are expected to increase students’ knowledge of federal disability laws that protect them in the workplace, with the hope that they are better able to self-advocate for their rights and seek out workplaces that are dedicated to ensuring they thrive in their environments. This outcome could be measurable based on self-reports from Penn State Harrisburg graduates. It is also hoped that through the information provided about O*Net on the SDR website, students will be able to utilize this resource to explore their career interests. With this information and resources, it is also possible that students may have increased perseverance and self-efficacies to follow their interests and arm themselves with resources to help them in their futures. It is also the consultants’ aim that SDR will be able to provide a greater ease of access to federal laws and O*Net both in one-on-one consultation sessions and through students visiting their website. SDR may be able to measure the success of their website changes through click rates. Many of the expected outcomes from the website changes are replicated in the workshop PowerPoint. Specifically, this workshop could help SDR utilize a more defined method to effectively talk about career possibilities with students with disabilities. Success of the workshop may be measurable through post-workshop survey results. 

          The consultants hope that the post-workshop survey will allow SDR to gain more information about efficacious advertising avenues, as well as gauge the most helpful aspects of workshops and students’ interests for future workshops. With this information, SDR could create more applicable workshops in the future and help give a voice to students with disabilities based on their indicated interests. Throughout the process of developing the O*Net workshop, the consultants helped to make a connection between SDR and the 25-live media advertising avenue on Penn State Harrisburg’s campus. Moving forward, it is the consultants’ hope that SDR staff will continue to utilize this method and measure efficacy through success rates of students’ attendance to events and students’ responses to the post-workshop survey. Lastly, the consultants hope that SDR uses the updated orientation slide to further advertise DisAbility Resources on Penn State Harrisburg’s campus starting as early as new student orientation. This orientation slide includes information about how to get involved with SDR, specifically describing their workshops. It is hoped that this information provided early at orientation will help reduce stigma associated with seeking guidance from Student DisAbility Resources, and also increase students’ likelihood to schedule consultations with SDR so they are better able to thrive during their time in college and beyond into their careers.  

 

The Finished Products

          As stated throughout this intervention, one of the consultants’ main products was updating the SDR website. This update included the addition of two new tabs: Career Resources and Federal Laws. For career resources, the consultants connected SDR and Career Services, and provided a step–by–step guide to a federally–owned and operated site which helps individuals narrow their career interests (i.e., O*Net). The step-by-step process was narrowed to ten easy–to–follow steps, which included screenshotted images explaining how to follow along in the O*Net website itself. In order to promote workshop opportunities hosted by SDR, the consultants listed common workshop topics held by SDR in order to gain interest for future event attendance. Regarding the tab on federal laws, the consultants met with SDR coordinator at Penn State Harrisburg to discuss laws he thought were most pertinent to list on the website. The consultants also conducted their own research online to find further laws and website links to laws descriptions so students can easily access these full descriptions. To supplement the links, the consultants wrote brief and easy-to-understand summaries of each law listed (e.g., ADA, AD91). Based on these laws, the consultants provided an avenue for students to contact if they feel they are being discriminated against. To view the document submitted with website updates, please see Appendix A. The consultants replicated the website changes into a PowerPoint to be used in an SDR-hosted workshop describing O*Net and federal laws. The consultants included notes in the PowerPoint to help facilitators describe how to navigate O*Net and discuss federal laws. The full workshop PowerPoint is included as an attached document in Appendix B.  

          The post-workshop survey asks students questions such as how they heard about the workshop, what they learned from attending the workshop, their levels of awareness about federal protective laws and the SDR website, if they have ever attended an SDR event in the past, and what they would like to see in future SDR events. A copy of the survey can be found in Appendix C. While in the process of creating the O*Net workshop, the consultants also created a flyer layout to start using with the Mock Interview event that was co-hosted by Career Services and DisAbility Resources at Penn State Harrisburg. It is hoped that this layout and methods of advertisement will continue to be used for future workshops, including the O*Net workshop created by the consultants. The flyer template that was used to advertise the mock interview workshop can be found in Appendix D. Lastly, the slide created for SDR to use during new student orientation describes the resources SDR provides (including the website) and how to get in contact with SDR. This is attached as a document in Appendix E.  

 

References

Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. 

Brown, S. D., & Lent, R. W. (1996). A social cognitive framework for career choice counseling. Career Development Quarterly, 44(4) 354-366. doi:10.1002/j.2161-0045.1996.tb00451.x 

Erickson, W., Lee, C., & von Schrader, S. (2017). Disability statistics from the American Community Survey (ACS). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Yang-Tan Institute (YTI). Retrieved from www.disabilitystatistics.org  

Haller, B., Dorries, B., & Rahn, J. (2006). Media labeling versus the US disability community identity: A study of shifting cultural language. Disability and Society, 21(1), 61-75. 

Lent, R. W., & Brown, S. D. (2013). Social cognitive model of career self-management: Toward a unifying view of adaptive career behavior across the life span. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 60(4), 557-568. doi:10.1037/a0033446 

Lent, R. W., Brown, S. D., & Hackett, G. (2000). Contextual supports and barriers to career choice: A social cognitive analysis. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 47(1), 36-19. doi: 10.1037/0022-0167.47.1.36  

Lent, R. W., Brown, S. D., & Hackett, G. (1994). Toward a unifying social cognitive theory of career and academic interest, choice, and performance. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 45(1), 79-122. doi:10.1006/jvbe.1994.1027 

Luzzo, D. A., Hitchings, W. E., Retish, P., & Shoemaker, A. (1999). Evaluating differences in college students’ career decision making on the basis of disability status. The Career Development Quarterly, 48(2), 142-156. doi:10.1002/j.2161-0045.1999.tb00281.x 

Zhang, L. & Haller, B. (2013). Consuming image: How mass media impact the identity of people with disabilities. Communication Quarterly, 61(3), 319-334.

 

Appendices

Appendix A: PDF Website Modifications

Appendix B: DisAbility Resources Career Presentation ; PDF Presentation Notes Pages

Appendix C: PDF Post Workshop Survey

Appendix D: UPDATED Mock Interview Infographic

Appendix E: DisAbility Resources Slide for Orientation