Abstract
This study was organized into three phases. The first identified visually impaired high school graduates' career/vocational training and accommodations in relationship to job placement and job history. The second examined skills learned in high school or thereafter. The third phase documented basic career/vocational skills that, as perceived by graduates, should be taught in a career/vocational preparation program for visually impaired students in secondary public schools. Telephone interviews were conducted with eighty visually impaired students who had been graduated between 1982 and 1992. The interviews elicited data that were analyzed by chi-square, the Fisher exact test of probability, and analysis of variance to ascertain significant differences in employment resulting from ten independent variables. A descriptive format presented data about: (1) accommodations in the job setting and who paid for them; (2) career/vocational skills and their usefulness when taught and on the job; and (3) which skills should have been taught in high school. The study found that graduates who had paid work while in high school and who had subsequently become clients of the Department of Rehabilitation were more likely to obtain a job after high school. Visually impaired graduates who became clients of the Social Security Administration and who had utilized public services were employed a significantly lower percentage of time after high school graduation than those graduates who did not utilize any services. Graduates with some vision who were not clients of the Social Security Administration were significantly more likely to be employed a greater percentage of time than those who were clients. Also, those employed visually impaired graduates who made accommodations in the job setting were employed a greater percentage of time after high school than those who did not. Twenty-five recommendations addressed educational practice and research, including studies to determine the need for a "transition specialist" position in a transition and/or public service agency to provide work incentive information to the visually impaired and to compare the information offered by with the information visually impaired people need from specific transition and public service agencies to make employment a reality.