Counselors of Rehabilitation Opportunities and Challenges

Opportunities for Rehabilitation Counselors

Skills Required by Rehabilitation Counselors Providing Consultation to Employers on ADA Practices

A rehabilitation counselor consultant performs a job analysis involving site observation of workers in their various roles. It might also include interviewing supervisors regarding different jobs to understand the cognitive, intellectual, and physical abilities required. The information generated helps an employer to write accurate and non-discriminatory descriptions to comply with the ADA requirements. Rehabilitation counselors have the primary role of coordinating with employers to ensure that employers understand the ADA requirements and abide by its provisions. Therefore, rehabilitation counselors must have a great understanding of the ADA provisions and those that are clarified and vague through the case law. This means that they must have extensive knowledge of the law as the primary skill. Additionally, they must have practical communication skills, mainly to communicate the legal requirements to the supervisors and employers. They must also possess extensive assistive technologies knowledge, including non-technological modifications that are easy to implement and relatively affordable (Rosenthal et al., 2007).

This is related to their role of recommending modifications to a job that do not necessarily compromise the essential functions but instead allows for the accessibility of the job to an individual with a disability. They must also be knowledgeable, especially about resources for modification, since educating employers regarding modification resources and addressing biases they might practice towards employing disabled individuals is also part of their role (Stensrud, 2007). Also, they must possess compassion as a skill and be willing to work with individuals with disabilities. This involves being aware of their issues regarding disability and discuss them with other staff of the program, including problems that could potentially incline them to be negative or positive concerning an individual with disability. Other soft skills that they should possess include effective listening skills, problem-solving and creative thinking skills, social and interpersonal skills, discipline, personal management, working as a team, and upholding work ethics.

How Comfortable would Rehabilitation Counsellors be Approaching Employers to Market Services?

For rehabilitation counselors to assist employers in complying with the ADA provisions and increasing the opportunities for individuals with disabilities, they need to understand the needs of the employers. Most of them recognize the problem of employers\' attitudes towards hiring people with disabilities, even if they are qualified for the designated jobs. It is the primary role of rehabilitation counselors to ensure successful job placement for people with disabilities. Also, those in the private rehabilitation settings need skills concerning accommodations. Fraser (2008) examined the factors that affect rehabilitation counselor\'s involvement level in job placement for individuals with disabilities. In his findings, he wrote that public rehabilitation counselors are not comfortable making employer contacts in terms of efficacy of placement, dealing with employer complaints, and assisting them in making accommodations. Rehabilitation counselors providing job placement services require the working knowledge of the ADA provisions coupled with any legislation related to disability.