Preliminary Skills for Successful Employment for People with Visual Impairments and Multiple Disabilities

Two men, one older and one younger, work together at a desk.

If you are working with an individual who is blind or visually impaired with additional, significant disabilities, you may wonder how you can help prepare him or her for successful employment. This blog post is for you. Classroom teachers, rehabilitation specialists, transition specialists, mothers, and fathers, please utilize this list of general skills and experiences as a guide to fostering the aptitudes and proficiencies your child or consumer will use as a foundation for work.

Preliminary Skills and Experiences for Successful Employment

Social Competencies

Orientation and mobility

  • Basic safety moving within familiar and unfamiliar environments
  • Learning specific travel routes (as simple as a trip to the bathroom or as complex as independent bus travel)
  • Using paratransit services or other transportation option

Pursuing Experiences/ Increasing Self-Confidence

  • Exposure to a variety of job tasks, workplaces, and potential interests
  • Identification of personal strengths, abilities, interests, skills, and limitations
  • Short-term work experiences or volunteer experiences that utilize strengths and abilities; recognize jobs can be restructured or carved for the individual

Community Support/ Accommodations

These skills and experiences will prepare your child or consumer for successful employment, whether standard, competitive employment; supported employment (long term use of a job coach); or employment within an enclave (a workplace with six or fewer individuals with disabilities), mobile work crew (small, supervised group of individuals with disabilities who travel to job tasks within the community), or a sheltered workshop (supervised worksite employing only people with disabilities).

To assist your child or consumer in exploring careers, utilize CareerConnect’s Career Exploration section.


CareerConnect app icon Take the time to ‘Like’ APH CareerConnect on Facebook and Download the Free APH CareerConnect App in the iTunes App Store.