Working With A Vocational Rehabilitation Agency

[Andrew206]

If you've worked with a vocational rehabilitation agency to help you find employment, what was it like?

 

[Isadoorian]

I know some WorkBC Offices here in British Columbia, Canada have a department to help those w/ Disabilites find employment.

I found a job at a local PC Repair and Game Store through WorkBC where I was living previously but had to quit due to the actions of the Owner, thankfully I didn't have to interact with him at all after that.

I saw a few people during the process. I filled out a form detailing my Strengths and Weaknesses, what could be done to accommodate me, and then listed some places of where I would have liked to work. I was also able to get a Wage Subsidy so some of my Wage was paid for or something like that.

 

[Crossbreed]

..., what was it like?

In my experience, they are very helpful for clients with physical or cognitive disabilities, but clueless for those with only social disabilities.

My last involvement with them was about eight years ago, so hopefully they have improved in that regard.

I am more encouraged by those agencies that hire auties for what we are good at (like code debugging), but I have never lived near any of those. They include,

• Specialisterne (also in the USA),
• Aspiritech &
• A list of others...

 

[Andrew206]

In my experience, they are very helpful for clients with physical or cognitive disabilities, but clueless for those with only social disabilities.

My last involvement with them was about eight years ago, so hopefully they have improved in that regard.

I am more encouraged by those agencies that hire auties for what we are good at (like code debugging), but I have never lived near any of those. They include,

• Specialisterne (also in the USA),
• Aspiritech &
• A list of others...

I agree with you. I’m currently working with a vocational rehabilitation agency and it appears they don’t fully understand how autism impacts me. I like Specialisterne; from what I’ve read about them, it looks interesting.

 

[china autie]

I had a hideous experience with them lasting over a decade [in the USA].

The end result was they placed me n a four hour a week job-- at a place I thought of and had to push them to call.

When that expired, I was supposed to have a meeting with three of them "to talk about
[my ] plans for my future". I as then accused of not showing up for the meeting that one of them had actually called me and cancelled.

I quit.

The fact that I am working full time now and off of disability has everything to do with me and nothing to do with them.

They do not get social impairment at all.
Their system is paternalistic.
If only we would listen to them a d do what they want us to is their common refrain.

Yeah, still bitter more than a year later.

 

[ftfipps]

Voc rehabilitation places in the states just find you menial, low paying jobs working for places like Target. You can easily get jobs like that without going to voc rehab in the first place.

 

[Mary Terry]

I've had experience with my autistic nephew's involvement with our state voc rehab agency.

The first job they got him was perfect - he was hired to work in the library of a small local college to catalogue and inventory decades of photos and news stories about the college and digitally save them in online archives. He adored his job, was great at doing it, and everyone at the college loved him (he is largely non-verbal and very socially awkward but people understood that about him.) Unfortunately, his mother failed to drop him off and pick him up at the correct times and the college terminated him after about 6 months after she left him there the day before Thanksgiving in the dark and cold for hours after the school was locked down for the holiday. A kind co-worker stayed with him until she finally showed up.

The second job the state found for him was a nightmare - it was at a Good Will donation drop-off site in a horrible part of town, filled with homeless, mentally ill, substance addicted people, and he had to use a dangerous machine to shred old donated clothing into rags. It was insanely loud, dangerous, and tore up his hands. After about 2 months in that hell-hole, he had what his mother calls a nervous breakdown and she removed him from the job.

He has not been back to voc rehab since then.

So, voc rehab can be useful but don't hesitate to exercise your right to refuse to do a job that you are not suited for.

 

[dhl02]

I worked for an autistic specific QA company for 5 years. At the beginning it was fine but as they grew, they grew out of me. I left in early 2018. I tried to get another QA job, and tried to learn from the mistakes I made there, but that didn't work either. It seems like QA isn't for me. The next question is what to do as an autistic individual, when QA isn't for you. It seems it is the only real path to a career currently for us.