VIDBE-Q Volume 65 Issue 2
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strong impacts included additional components such as job search assistance
(Sattar, 2010). Research documents that school-sponsored work experiences are
not associated with future employment for youth with visual impairments
(McDonnall, 2010; McDonnall & O'Mally, 2012), and that finding jobs
independently is beneficial for youth (Doren & Benz, 1998; McDonnall &
O'Mally, 2012).
Schools and vocational rehabilitation (VR) agencies have traditionally offered
short-term work experiences for youth with visual impairments. These work
experiences typically consist of paid or unpaid jobs that youth perform for one to
six weeks in a position in the school or agency or the community. For paid work
experiences, the youth is typically paid by the agency rather than by the employer.
These work experiences do not usually involve searching for the position; positions
are instead given to the youth without any effort required on the youth's part.
Despite the lack of evidence for the effectiveness of sponsored work experiences,
many VR agencies provide them, particularly after the passage of the Workforce
Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014 (U.S. Department of Labor, 2016) in
which work-based learning experiences are specified as one of the essential pre-
employment transition services. It is important that youth with visual impairments
have the opportunity to participate not just in sponsored work experiences, but in
real paid jobs and preferably jobs that they find themselves.
