Vocational rehabilitation counselors help people with disabilities find work and more.
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Kyle Walker never expected his life’s work to involve people with disabilities.
Walker, who has served as executive director of the Vocational Rehabilitation Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Stout since 2019, earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Utah State University. After graduation, he worked in a residential treatment facility for young people with disabilities. In an interview conducted by video conference in mid-August, Walker said that it was during this time that he first became “increasingly aware of how people with disabilities have historically been socially isolated,” and that he also began to notice “well-intentioned but paternalistic” social systems. [and] The “protective approach” that most able-bodied people adopt when thinking about and caring for the disabled community.
To put it more mildly, this mindset is ableist and infantilizing.
Walker began her two-year term as president of the Rehabilitation Counselor Certification Commission in January, deciding to dedicate her life to helping people with disabilities live as independently as possible. Walker has worked in the vocational rehabilitation counseling industry for the past 25 years and has been a certified counselor since 2000.
For Walker, the choice to work with people with disabilities was also personal: Walker’s father lost his sight to diabetic retinopathy. The word vocation comes from the Latin voca, which Walker explained means “to have a voice, a purpose in life, the calling that one was born to do.” It was a painful lesson for Walker, who had watched his father struggle to adjust to his own blindness.
“My father became depressed and isolated. He had no abilities due to his vision loss, such as being unable to leave the house and get around. He loved reading, but his vision loss prevented him from doing one of the things he really enjoyed,” Walker said of his father’s experience. “He was confined to the house, sitting in the same chair for days on end. The social workers who came to try to help him were unfamiliar with the services available to people with disabilities. [in helping] They tried to help him adapt and adjust, but instead, with very good intentions, he got a manual wheelchair to get him out of the house where he was confined. Unfortunately, he never learned any mobility skills and so he didn’t use the wheelchair much. And when he did, he never got out of the wheelchair. His leg muscles atrophied, [caused] Deteriorating health.”
Walker’s father eventually passed away due to these health issues.
His father’s experience inspired Walker’s desire to help people with disabilities engage with the broader community and become productive, happy, contributing members of society. Walker’s team at Wisconsin-Stout is responsible for helping people with disabilities navigate the maze of support services available to them, including employment and job skills coaching. Walker and his staff are committed to helping those in the disability community achieve their career goals.[enhancing] “To be as independent and autonomous as possible within their communities” is an ideal that applies at all times, but it is especially poignant now that October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month.
“Everything we do is aimed at supporting the existing system to better serve people with disabilities and enable them to lead meaningful careers and independent lives,” Walker said. [also] Identifying areas where new programs and systems may be needed [and] “Innovative approaches to address unsolved problems and emerging problems. That’s what we do.”
When asked what role technology plays in the work he and his team do, Walker said the application of technology is integral to the job. First, he said the Vocational Rehabilitation Institute has assistive technology specialists whose job it is to assist people with disabilities who may need technological assistance in their work. More broadly, Walker shared his thoughts on the “absolute advancement” of modern technology, which he says has liberated people with disabilities to perform at a level never before seen. He says technology has advanced exponentially since Walker began his career, and the advent of smartphones has led to where we are today. Many features that were previously prohibitively expensive separate devices, such as magnifiers, have been absorbed into all-purpose devices like the iPhone. Smartphones have made technology more accessible in many ways.
Walker also pointed out the bright side of this dark pandemic, saying that the virus has made remote work even more acceptable by forcing everyone to work from home for an extended period of time. Furthermore, remote work, combined with video conferencing software like Zoom, has shown the world that productivity can be achieved from afar, not to mention that people with disabilities no longer have to overcome logistical and medical barriers to working in an office somewhere.
Walker praised companies like Microsoft for their efforts in “universal design of technology products,” adding that the push for inclusion around accessibility has played a major role in “really placing a premium on full accessibility of products at a level that didn’t exist 25 years ago.” [making] This makes their products not only easier for everyone to use, but also specifically designed to be more accessible to people with disabilities. [disabled people’s] It increases their ability to go to work and utilize those products more effectively.”
“Technology is having a huge impact on rehabilitation counseling because one of the biggest challenges in rehabilitation for the last 40 or 50 years has been transportation,” Walker says. “People with disabilities don’t always have reliable transportation to get to and from work, as well as to appointments with counselors, doctors and other service providers.”
The work of Walker and his team is crucial not just from a practical standpoint, but for its emotional impact: When asked about reactions to his work, Walker told me he often hears from clients that rehabilitation services allow them to “participate in the American dream just like everyone else.” [without a disability]. “
Walker continues: “When I interact with other organisations, we often hear that disability is not only the main characteristic they see, but that it feels like it limits their opportunities. In our rehabilitation programmes, we hear clients say: ‘Here, for the first time, I see that I am not a disability, but a person with characteristics, skills, abilities and talents. My disability will not stop me from living the life I want to create. You are helping me find ways to create that life.’ Rehabilitation counselling is truly an art and a skill because there is such a diverse continuum of disability. We have everything from sensory impairments to physical disabilities to cognitive disabilities to psychiatric disabilities. No two people with the same disability have exactly the same life experience with that disability. There are many categories of disability, but no universal experience. [for everyone]. “
Looking to the future, Walker said that as chair of the Rehabilitation Counselor Certification Commission, his organization’s intent is “to ensure that rehabilitation counseling becomes a profession nationwide that requires specialized graduate-level training” and that “in order to practice in this field, individuals will not only be required to undergo rigorous examinations that demonstrate their ability to provide evidence-based counseling and instructional activities to support and understand people with disabilities, but will also need to ensure that they are practicing in an ethical manner and providing the highest quality services.”
Additionally, Walker forcefully expressed his belief that rehabilitation counselors and programs play a key role in removing many of the stigmas against people with disabilities and enabling them to live meaningful and fulfilling lives. The best way to achieve that, he continued, is to continue to improve counseling practices so that our communities receive the best possible care and are set up for long-term success.
“There needs to be a relationship between two people. [via counseling] Engaging with one another to really learn how disabilities affect individuals with very unique life experiences. [figuring out] “It’s really about removing barriers,” Walker said of the ethos of rehabilitation counseling. “It’s a way to help them create the life they want and achieve the vision they have for themselves.” [and] It’s about finding ways to adapt – finding alternative ways of doing things and helping people create the life they choose, rather than focusing on the life society has dictated for them because of their disability, or on what they can’t do rather than what they can.”