 Your Career

o Living independently
o Learning and Education
 About learning and education
 Disability-specific training
 Skills for pre-school students
 Skills for primary students
 Skills for secondary students
 Transition Competencies Checklist
 Skills for post-secondary students
 Resources
o Preparing for work
o Working Life
 Service Providers
 Friends and Family
 Employers
 Success Stories
 Multimedia
 Resources

Knowledge and Skills for Secondary Students

Youth who are blind or partially sighted typically attend secondary school with their sighted
peers in preparation for assuming adult responsibilities. Or, they may attend a specialized
school that provides both core academic courses and disability-specific skills training. Whether
they attend a local school with their sighted peers or a special school, when they complete their
primary school studies they will be expected to have mastered their basic literacy skills and be
able to apply those skills in more advanced classes.

They will also be expected to demonstrate competence with disability-specific skills, such as:

 Using assistive technology to access information and produce their school work (video
magnifiers, screen readers or screen enlargement software on computers and computer
devices, electronic or digital note taking devices, etc.).

 Moving about in the environment with a white cane or other mobility devices.

 Managing their academic, personal, and social demands by using adapted tools or materials
(electronic, braille, or large print books, optical devices like magnifiers or telescopes, tactual
maps or graphics, braille or audio-output devices for measuring, etc.).

The disability-specific or alternative skills (skills developed as alternatives to doing and learning
exclusively by sight) that they learned as children – at home and in primary school – will be
needed to meet increased demands expected in secondary and post-secondary settings. For
further information visit the Disability-Specific Skills Training section.

These skills include:

 Independently organizing time and resources in order to participate in school and extracurricular
activities.

 Performing well in comparison to their peers, whether academically or in areas of innate talent
or strong interest, such as, sports, aesthetics (music, drama, art) and social philanthropy.

 Demonstrating responsibility at home and at school as well as in the community by securing

volunteer and paid work.

In preparation for careers and employment, the knowledge, skills and abilities that youth need to
master include:

 Understanding what work opportunities are available.

 Demonstrating well-developed academic, social, and disability-specific skills.

 Evidencing well-developed thinking skills.

 Demonstrating well-developed work behaviours.

 Participating in work activities.

 Planning for life beyond secondary school.

For additional information and materials related to knowledge and skills for secondary
students visit the Learning and Education Resources section.

For young adults currently enrolled in secondary school

If you are a young adult and currently enrolled in a secondary school program, you may want to
complete a self-evaluation to see what career/ life skills you have in preparation for graduating
and moving into a post-secondary setting or employment. We have provided a self-evaluation
tool called the Transition Competencies Checklist, designed to help you identify the skills you
may need to work on while in your secondary program to prepare for your career.

The Checklist is available as a downloadable file in either large print or text-only formats so that
you can print it out and complete it off-line. If you plan to attend a post-secondary program
following graduation, you may also want to review the Living Independently section.

To learn more or to download the checklist visit theTransition Competencies Checklist page

Understanding what work opportunities are available

Entering secondary school, students typically have some early notion of the work they want to
do as adults. They will have read about the lives and work of famous people, including those
with disabilities. Students who are blind or partially sighted will usually have written book reports
on materials they’ve read and will benefit from discussions with teachers, parents, and other
adults in their lives about what they’ve learned to ensure their perceptions jive with the realities
of the world of work.
Due to their inability to scan the environment visually and pick up on details of the work going on
around them, they will have to be encouraged to read broadly about careers — what is available
nationally, regionally, and locally – and be assisted in identifying specific jobs that relate to their
career interests and abilities.

Youth in secondary studies should be able to articulate what types of jobs cluster into the
various occupational areas: management, business, finance, marketing and sales, human
services, production, farming, law enforcement/security and corrections, office and
administrative support, architecture and construction, arts and entertainment, education,
hospitality and tourism, and so forth.

They should also be able to identify the work being performed by family members and others in
their home communities and provide details about their jobs (typical work schedules, major job
duties, salary ranges, benefits, qualifications required, etc.). And they should understand how
what they are doing now (in school, home, and community service) relates to what they want to
do for employment following school.

Once young adults have read about specific careers of interest, they need to be encouraged to
conduct informational interviews with adults in the community who are employed in jobs that are
of interest to them. Ideally, it is in secondary settings where youth can participate in job-
shadowing experiences and volunteer to learn more about work in their fields of interest. Youth
who are blind or partially sighted may benefit from teaming up with sighted peers who have
similar interests to observe or job-shadow workers prior to selecting volunteer sites. Community-
based experiences are vital to the learning process for students.

Demonstrate well-developed academic, social, and disability-

specific skills
By the time students are in secondary school, they should be able to demonstrate well-
developed reading, writing, listening, calculation and conversation skills by performing
comparably to their sighted classmates. They will need to consistently and satisfactorily
complete classroom and homework assignments without assistance. What this means is that
students who are blind or partially sighted need to be able to match the general classroom
standards in any subject area that is critical to the work they plan to do or training programs they
plan to take.

This requires them to research the demands of the career areas they plan to enter and figure
out what knowledge, skills, and abilities are required of entry-level workers in those careers. Any
secondary content that is radically altered or waived inhibits the students’ ability to enter a
related post-secondary program or career in that area.

If secondary students are allowed to “opt out” of courses or course requirements, they may miss
important opportunities for knowledge or skill development that students without disabilities are
experiencing. Likewise, if they are given “watered down” or less challenging assignments, they
may misunderstand the true nature of a competitive postsecondary academic or work
environment. These kinds of alterations in curriculum or assignments may actually handicap
students who are blind or partially sighted more so than their sensory disability.
 Socially, young adults who are blind or partially sighted need to attend to the social demands of
their peers and others in their environment. To do so, they must learn to pick up social cues in
nonvisual ways: listening for other people’s tone of voice and cadence or speech rhythm to help
interpret their feelings; paying attention to whether a speaker’s voice is directed at or away from
the listener; listening to how classmates speak to one another and capturing clues about other’s
interests and talents for future reference, etc.

One of the greatest challenges when engaged with sighted acquaintances is simply determining
how much to reveal about one’s disability: what’s enough? What’s too much or not enough?
Some good tips for dealing with social challenges can be found in theCommunication Skills –
Conversation section and, for morespecific disability disclosure information, in the Preparing
for Work section.

Disability-specific skills required for success in secondary settings include:

 Independent use of orientation and mobility techniques and devices (long canes, telescopes,
GPS with audio output, etc.)

 Reading and writing with braille, print, electronic text, or optical devices at rates and quantities
comparable to sighted classmates

 Use of alternative techniques to care for oneself and one’s possessions, such as, using raised-
markings on appliances for cooking and laundry tasks, using a grid-pattern to sweep, mop, or
vacuum, using lipped trays to catch ingredients that spill over when cooking, etc.

 Making use of assistive technology (video magnifiers, screen enlargement or speech output on
computers, electronic note-taking devices, etc.) to complete both in-class assignments and
homework.

Note: there are a number of tip sheets in the Living Independently section relevant to disability-
specific skills that you may want to review

Evidence well-developed thinking skills

Young adults need to use their imagination and creativity to “think outside the box,” connect
known ideas in new ways, make connections between seemingly unrelated ideas, and consider
alternatives to known ideas to demonstrate well-developed thinking skills. Thinking skills are
also evidenced by an individual’s ability to recognize that a problem exists, define the problem,
identify possible solutions (goals), devise an action plan to resolve the problem, initiate the plan,
evaluate benchmarks or outcomes, and revise the plan as needed.

Secondary students who are blind or partially sighted need to be given opportunities to
demonstrate their ability to problem-solve and set goals. Too often, the adults in their lives
intervene and resolve problems or anticipate what problems they’ll encounter, rather than letting
them solve difficulties they face for themselves. Youth need to select goals and decide what to
do based on their own analysis of the choices available to them. They then must work to
achieve their goals and resolve their problems.

Secondary students are expected to be aware of their learning styles and know whether they
learn best through visual, aural, tactual, or kinesthetic presentation of content. They must be
 able to articulate their need for materials or activities to be adapted to meet their learning needs.
They must also be prepared to show their preferences by using formal learning strategies, such
as, taking notes with disability-specific skills or tools while in class or working in groups. Finally,
secondary students are expected to adapt to new situations and demands, which requires
students who are blind or partially sighted to be adept at using adapted tools and equipment
creatively.

Demonstrate well-developed work behaviours

Secondary students benefit from setting standards or goals for their performance at school,
home, and in the community, as mentioned earlier. Articulating those goals and demonstrating
self-directed behaviour in achieving those goals is considered a “soft skill” or work behaviour by
prospective employers. Other soft skills or work behaviours that secondary students need to
master and demonstrate include:

 Paying attention to details and staying organized.

 Performing tasks even when the tasks are unpleasant or difficult.

 Being on time and demonstrating good attendance overall.

 Understanding the impression they make on others (presentation skills).

 Being able to describe their needs and how they will address them or ask for assistance.

 Understanding the social/work hierarchy and following the “chain of command”.

 Working well with others, which includes accepting constructive criticism.

 Interacting with peers and adults appropriately.

 Proving trustworthy with materials, tools, supplies, and money.

Participate in work activities

One of the most important activities that young adults can engage in while in school is work.
The work they do can be paid or unpaid, but it is critical that they work for people outside of their
immediate family to demonstrate their competence. Early work experiences typically involve
students volunteering to help others – extended family, neighbours, and acquaintances from
community-based organizations.

Youth who are blind or partially sighted will want to consider proximity of volunteer sites to home
or school to facilitate transportation concerns. If a site is close enough to walk to, it may make it
more attractive and accessible. While volunteering, youth need to keep records of the time they
commit, the tasks that they complete for others, tools and equipment they use, and the people
with whom they work. One of the great advantages of volunteer work is the chance to make a
positive impression on others who can become references when it is time to seek paid
employment.

Youth will also be expected to perform increasingly demanding work tasks - at home and at
school - throughout their secondary school careers. These tasks should also be documented for
future reference and can be used in employment interviews as examples of transferable work
ethic and skills.

Finally, young adults can benefit tremendously from participation in part-time or seasonal full-
time work for pay in their home communities. Many communities offer supports for young
people to move into jobs during holidays from school and some communities have special
agencies, such as, rehabilitation agencies that are staffed by people available to assist youth in
finding paid employment.

Plan for life beyond secondary school

Following graduation from secondary school, most young adults will be expected to move into
post-secondary training or employment. While they are still in secondary settings, young people
who are blind or partially sighted need to investigate their post-secondary education or training
options in order to develop their plans related to their vocational interests, abilities, and values.
The plans they develop should include short-term, intermediate, and long-term goals for
achieving satisfaction in life.

This means they must know what outcomes (personal, social, and vocational) they want to
achieve. Before leaving their secondary school settings, they will want to identify the supports
they will need to move from secondary into post-secondary environments (for example: housing,
transportation, access to information, child care, personal care, home care, time and money
management, or assistance with leisure and recreational activities) as well as the knowledge
and skills they need to enter those post-secondary environments independently.