The Relationship Between Vocational Rehabilitation Professional’s Interactions With Businesses and Employment Outcomes for Consumers Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if there is an association between how vocational rehabilitation (VR) counselors and business relations (BR) staff interact with employers and employment outcomes for consumers who are blind or visually impaired. To determine how VR professionals interact with employers, a survey was conducted that included measures of their use of the Business Relations Model (BRM) and of three blindness-specific techniques with businesses believed to be effective based on prior research. These measures were averaged across agencies and combined with Rehabilitation Services Administration’s case service report (RSA-911) data to determine their association with consumer employment outcomes, utilizing multilevel modeling. How staff reported interacting with employers was associated with the agency’s employment outcomes for consumers. The more counselors reported they used practices consistent with the BRM approach, the more likely their agency’s consumers were to achieve employment. The more BR staff used the blindness-specific techniques, the more likely their agency’s consumers were to achieve employment. Training in the areas of interacting with businesses (for counselors) and blindness and assistive technology (for BR staff) would be beneficial for many people in these positions.