Development and Evaluation of a Cloud-Supported App for Providing Self-Directed, Localized Job Interest Assessment and Analysis

People with intellectual disability depend a great deal on work for their quality of life. Working in community-based jobs can make substantial differences in income, relationships and self-esteem. Technology has improved opportunities for this population to independently express their career interests, but current tools are limited in that they do not support customization to reflect local job and volunteer markets and do not support automated data entry and analysis to support overburdened special education teachers and direct support professionals. This project will build upon previous research to develop and evaluate MyJobQuest, a cloud supported, self-directed multimedia career exploration and assessment system for improved job placement of students and adults with intellectual disability. In Phase I the MyJobQuest system will be designed and developed to support 1) independent exploration and expression of desired employment or volunteer options from locally available opportunities, and 2) automatically upload, aggregate and graphically display career interest assessment results to a secure web site. It will conclude with a pilot study to evaluate the efficacy of the system to enable independent, localized job choice and for creating significant efficiencies for staff and educators.