Welcome back to our Vocational Rehabilitation Series, where we have been shedding some light on the Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) programs offered in various states around the country, sharing what the process can look like, and offering advice for navigating your state on your own terms. 

In Part 1, we went over the basics of VR, while in Part 2, we discussed the application process, and in Part 3, we talked about the types of services on offer. 

In Part 4, we will be taking a closer look at how you might want to approach the process as a whole, knowing that VR programs can simultaneously offer significant assistance and benefits while also denying some applicants and not always having the specific thing you may need based on where you live.

Knowing what we know from Parts 1 through 3, let’s dive in and take a closer look!

As helpful as VR programs can be offering clarity to participants who might not have known exactly what they wanted out of a job search, we can also make the best use of our time when navigating the VR program system by clearly establishing our goals at the beginning, adjusting as needed, and making sure that future steps we take in the program are made with our established goals in mind. 

Even if you don’t have a lot of detailed thoughts about the “exact right thing,” writing goals down can help more clearly inform our thoughts and discover what we really do need help with. 

You might discover that you know for sure that independent living is your end goal, but you are completely unsure of how to get there. You might be wondering whether working is even the right option for you and if there is something out there that is realistically a good fit. Keep your own goals as a guidepost you can return to whenever the system has you feeling lost!

Vocational Rehabilitation programs are valuable services that have helped many people with disabilities overcome daunting obstacles to employment with the help of people who have the specific skill set and experience to make it happen. 

They are also imperfect programs that are different depending on what state you live in, may value some outcomes more than others, and may not consider everyone with a legally qualifying disability to be an eligible participant. 

On top of this dynamic, your eventual contact at the agency will have considerable say both in what types of programs are presented to you and what programs you are ultimately able to access. It’s possible in some cases that they may disagree with you about the best path forward. 

These are all unfortunate limitations to a program that we still might want to navigate anyway because the benefits that are there can still be worthwhile. It’s better to approach the situation with this attitude, prepared to engage in self-advocacy when necessary, than to be surprised to find you have less agency in this arrangement than you had hoped for.

The gap between our goals and the limitations of the resources we access can sometimes be bridged with the right strategy, but other times, limitations are just unfortunate reminders that the services available to us aren’t fully sufficient for all of our needs. 

One way we can navigate this reality is to create our own list of priorities and what we want to focus on when we know we can’t have everything we are hoping for and want to make the best of a less-than-ideal situation. Also important in less-than-ideal situations is to acknowledge that you have your own limitations, and there may come a point at which the potential benefits of a program are no longer worth the frustration and energy spent on things that are not your priority. 

While it may not be possible to easily predict how your own process will go, preparing your priorities and limitations ahead of time can make it that much easier to put your foot down when the time comes, knowing you have already thought it through.

We hope this series has made the process of Vocational Rehabilitation a little less intimidating if you are considering it for yourself or someone you are supporting. If you would like to hear more about VR across the states in a more in-depth setting, share your own experience, or offer feedback on how it works in your state, then we would love to hear from you! Just drop us a line at hello@autismgrownup.com and stay tuned for next week and the start of a new series!