Shirley Jorgensen

What happens after graduation? Outcomes, employment, and recommendations of recent junior/community college graduates with and without disabilities

Purpose: The objective was to compare employment status of junior/community college graduates with and without disabilities. Methods: We compared post-graduation outcomes of 182 graduates with and 1304 without disabilities from career/technical and pre-university programs from three junior/community colleges. Findings for graduates who had registered for disability related services from their school and those who had not were examined separately. Reported academic obstacles and facilitators were also compared. Results: Few employment differences between graduates with and without disabilities were found. Two-thirds of career/technical graduates from both groups were employed, approximately 30% were studying, and less than 3% were either looking for work or “unavailable for work.” Over 80% of pre-university graduates in both groups were continuing their studies; here, too, numbers of employed graduates (14% with and 13% without disabilities) were similar and very few in both groups (<2%) were either looking for work or “unavailable for work.” Full versus part-time employment of these two groups was very similar and the same proportion of graduates with and without disabilities were working in jobs related to their studies. Only in “closely related” work did graduates without disabilities have the advantage. Conclusions: Employment prospects for junior/community college graduates with disabilities seem to be quite positive. Implications for Rehabilitation Postsecondary education results in a favorable employment picture for college graduates with disabilities. College graduates who had registered for campus disability related access services reported that this was a key facilitator of their academic success.