Work It Out: Employment and Postsecondary Graduates with Disabilities.

"After working hard in college and university for many years, most students assume they will obtain employment when they complete their studies. In the case of graduates with disabilities, finding a job is a major concern (Martiniello et al., 2011). Research shows that too often graduates with disabilities are underemployed or work in low-skill jobs (Lindstrom, Kahn & Lindsey, 2013). Although there is great variability in the percentage of postsecondary graduates with disabilities who are employed after graduation, in some studies figures as low as 53% have been reported (Erickson, Lee & von Schrader, 2014). Given that there are multiple barriers to employment for graduates with disabilities (e.g., Ameri, Schur, Adya, Bentley, McKay & Kruse, 2015; Boman, Kjellberg, Danermark, & Boman, 2015; Erickson, Lee & von Schrader, 2014; Lindstrom, Kahn & Lindsey, 2013), but that in a few cases completion of a postsecondary degree appears to mitigate some of these barriers (Barile et al., 2012; Fichten et al., 2012; Jorgensen et al., 2015), we decided to ask postsecondary graduates with disabilities who were successful in finding a job how they achieved this success. By doing so, we were seeking a greater understanding of successful job search strategies among college and university graduates with disabilities. We also proposed a preliminary series of recommendations to help graduates with disabilities looking for employment succeed in their search."@eng