Job Quest: An Internet-based, Self-Directed Career Exploration and Assessment System for Students and Adults with Significant Intellectual Disabilities

People with Intellectual Disabilities depend a great deal on work for their quality of life. Working in community-based jobs can make a substantial difference in income, relationships and self-esteem. An important factor in successful employment outcomes is matching individuals with jobs that are of interest to the job seeker. However, existing job interest tools are ineffective for this population due to their text-based nature, the difficulty individuals often have in conceptualizing jobs, and biased responses resulting from the interview format often required to administer them. The proposed Phase II SBIR project will build on the successful results of Phase I to develop Job Quest, an Internet-based, self-directed and assessment system for improved job placement of individuals with intellectual and cognitive disabilities. The Job Quest system (1) facilitates self-directed exploration of jobs and job tasks via a media enriched computer environment using digital pictures, audio and video; (2) enables job developers to identify jobs that match the individual's job interests through automated searching of the Dept of Labor's O*Net jobs database, and (3) provides the ability for job developers and employment specialists to customize the content of the system to represent specific jobs which are available in the local community.