Definitions

Academic Performance or Achievement Tests: Assessments used by schools, school districts, and states that focus on educational performance or achievement in specific subject areas such as reading, spelling, or mathematics.

Access: Refers to the ability to find, manipulate, and use information, an object, a place, a service or a program in an efficient and comprehensive manner. Access can be programmatic or physical.

Accessible: Refers to providing access to or capable of being reached or used. It may also be used to describe architecture that can be reached or utilized by everyone, including those who have functional limitations and, as a result, may use a wheelchair, a walker, or a cane.

Accommodation: Changes made in a classroom, work site, or assessment procedure that help people with disabilities learn, work, or receive services. Accommodations are designed not to lower expectations for performance in school or work but to alleviate the effects of a disability.

Adult services: Services needed for people when they reach adulthood; these services often include (but are not limited to) assistance in finding a job, assistance in the home, assistance at work, and provision of various therapies or medications.

Anxiety Disorders: There are several anxiety disorders that interfere with school performance or attendance and with job training or work. Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is characterized by six months or more of chronic, exaggerated worry and tension that is unfounded or much more severe than the normal anxiety most people experience. Youth with GAD also have one or more of the following symptoms in association with the worry: restlessness, fatigue, poor concentration, irritability, muscle tension, or sleep disturbance. People with GAD are often pessimistic and worry excessively even though there may be no specific signs of trouble. These anxieties may translate into physical symptoms such as insomnia, eating problems, and headaches. Young people with GAD may have social anxieties about speaking in public or working in public areas.

Aptitude: The potential to learn.

Aptitude Test: A test that measures the vocational potential or capacities of an individual to succeed in future career endeavors.

Assessment: The process of collecting data for the purpose of making decisions. Four domains of assessment include the educational, the vocational, the psychological, and the medical.

Assistive technology: Under several different laws, assistive technology (or adaptive technology) is defined as including both the assistive technology devices and the services (e.g., repair and maintenance) needed to make meaningful use of such devices. The Assistive Technology Act defines an assistive technology device as: any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities. An assistive technology service is defined as: any service that directly assists an individual with a disability in the selection, acquisition, or use of an assistive technology device.

Assistive Technology (AT) Assessments: Activities used to determine an individual's need for technology and ability to use technology. These are accompanied with recommendations for training and specific adaptive equipment.

Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD): A family of related chronic neurobiological disorders that interferes with an individual's capacity to inhibit behavior (impulsivity) and to attend to tasks (inattention) in developmentally appropriate ways.

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD): A family of related chronic neurobiological disorders that interferes with an individual's capacity to regulate activity level (hyperactivity), to inhibit behavior (impulsivity), and to attend to tasks (inattention) in developmentally appropriate ways.

Barriers: Something immaterial that impedes or separates; could be described as an obstacle.

Behavioral, Social, and Emotional Assessments: Activities used by schools and workforce preparation programs to identify, diagnose, and suggest treatment of mental health and chemical health problems.

Benchmarking: The process of identifying, sharing, and using knowledge and best practices. It focuses on how to improve any given business process by exploiting top-notch approaches rather than merely measuring the best performance. Finding, studying and implementing best practices provides the greatest opportunity for gaining a strategic, operational, and financial advantage.

Benefits Planner: A person who interprets complex policy, rules, and procedures, administrative code, and legislative language into practical and understandable information. Under the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act, Congress created a formal program, known as the Work Incentives Planning and Assistance (WIPA) program, as a core employment support for people with disabilities who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). All 50 states participate in the WIPA program.

Benefits Planning: The person-centered analysis of the effect that work and other life situation changes have on public and private programs, including income support programs. Benefits planning helps people with disabilities steer through the maze of public and private benefits programs while minimizing disincentives and barriers that exist for them to prepare for, obtain, advance in, retain, leave, and regain employment.

Blended Funding: A term used to describe mechanisms that pool dollars from multiple sources and make them in some ways indistinguishable. Blending may require the changing or relaxing of regulations guiding relevant state and federal funding streams by policy makers at the federal, state, or local level to permit program flexibility, and change the way services are structured and delivered.

Braided Funding: A funding and resource allocation strategy that taps into existing categorical funding streams and uses them to support unified initiatives in as flexible and integrated a manner as possible. Braided funding streams remain visible and are used in common to produce greater strength, efficiency, and/ or effectiveness. Braided funding allows resources to be tracked more closely for the purpose of accounting to state and federal administrators. Thus, implementing a braided funding approach requires significant attention be paid to administrative issues.

Business Leadership Networks (BLN): Chaired by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the BLN is a national program led by employers in concert with state Governor's Committees and/or community agencies that engages the leadership and participation of companies throughout the United States to hire qualified job candidates with disabilities.

Career and Technical Education: Career and technical education refers to organized educational activities that offer a sequence of courses that provides individuals with coherent and rigorous content aligned with challenging academic standards and relevant technical knowledge and skills needed to prepare for further education and careers in current or emerging professions; provides technical skill proficiency, an industry-recognized credential, a certificate, or an associate degree; and may include prerequisite courses (other than a remedial course).  The term also includes competency-based applied learning that contributes to the academic knowledge, higher-order reasoning and problem-solving skills, work attitudes, general employability skills, technical skills, and occupation-specific skills, and knowledge of all aspects of an industry, including entrepreneurship, of an individual.  (Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act of 2006, Public Law 109-270)

Career Assessment: Career assessment refers to a comprehensive process conducted over a period of time, involving a multi-disciplinary team with the purpose of identifying individual characteristics, education, training, and placement needs.  Such assessments provide educators and others with the basis for planning an individual’s school and career development program.  Career assessment may use both formal and informal methodologies and should provide the individual with insight into his or her vocational potential (Leconte & Neubert, 1997).

Career Education: Career education refers to an educational emphasis stressing the teaching of life career roles (e.g., family member, citizen, community participant, worker, etc.) early in life, to be followed up throughout the student’s education, in preparing him or her for those roles (Sitlington, Clark, & Kolstoe, 2000).

Career Preparation: Core activities that help youth become prepared for a successful future in careers or post secondary education institutions including career awareness activities that expose young people to information about the job market, job related skills, the wide variety of jobs that exist and the education and training they require, as well as the work environment where they are performed. Core activities also include:

1. career assessments (formal and informal);
2. opportunity awareness including guest speaker informational interviews, research-based activities such as wage comparisons and Web searches, community mapping, and exposures to post secondary education such as campus visits and college fairs, and
3. work-readiness skills such as soft-skills development, computer competency, and job search skills.

Case Management: The main purpose of case management is to coordinate the provision of services for individual children and their families who require services from multiple service providers. Case managers take on roles ranging from brokering services to linking with and advocating for services that families need. There is a considerable amount of variation in case management models. In the wraparound model, case managers involve families in a participatory process of developing an individualized plan focusing on individual and family strengths in multiple life domains.

Cognitive Abilities Tests: Assessments used by schools and workforce preparation programs to measure intellectual skills and to diagnose neuropsychological problems and learning disabilities.

Collaboration: Refers to a mutually beneficial and well-defined relationship entered into by two or more organizations to achieve common goals.  The relationship includes a commitment to: a definition of mutual relationships and goals; a jointly developed structure and shared responsibility; mutual authority and accountability; and sharing of resources and rewards (Mattesich & Monsey, 1992). Collaboration involves a formal, sustained commitment among partners to accomplish a shared, clearly defined mission (Kerka, 1997). Collaborative efforts can overcome service fragmentation and interrelated problems resulting in improved services to individuals with disabilities (Melaville & Blank, 1993).

Community-Based Interventions: Seek to provide a range (mild to intensive) of clinical and social supports to create a network of services for youth and families within their community. Community-based interventions may include services such as case management, home-based services, respite services, wraparound approaches, therapeutic foster care, therapeutic group homes, and crisis services.

Communities of Practice (CoP): A group of people that agree to interact regularly to solve a persistent problem or improve practice in an area that is important to them. CoPs exist in many forms, some are large in scale and dealing with complex problems, others are small in scale and focused on a problem at a very specific level. CoPs are a way of working that invite the groups that have a stake in an issue to be a part of the problemsolving.

Community Rehabilitation Program: In the vocational rehabilitation system, a "community rehabilitation program" is a program that provides directly, or facilitates the provision of, vocational rehabilitation services to people with disabilities to enable them to maximize opportunities for employment. Some of the services provided by a community rehabilitation program may include, but are not limited to:

• Medical, psychiatric, psychological, social, and vocational services that are provided under one management;
• Recreational therapy, physical and occupational therapy, speech, language, and hearing therapy;
• Psychiatric, psychological, and social services including positive behavior management;
• Disability evaluations and orientation and mobility services; and,
• Job development, placement, and retention services.

A community rehabilitation program often has in-depth knowledge about disability supports, services and providers in their communities.

Compensatory Strategies: Strategies that build skills in individuals by focusing on processes, techniques, and practices that lessen the effects of a disability.

Compensatory Learning Strategies: Strategies that focus on processes, techniques, and practices that lessen the effects of a learning disability and build skills for more complex reasoning. Compensatory learning strategies center on the specific processing problems that accompany learning disabilities.

Conduct Disorders: Are a complicated group of behavioral and emotional problems in youth manifested by difficulty in following rules and behaving in a socially acceptable way. Youth with conduct disorders may exhibit some of the following behaviors: aggression to people and animals, destruction of property, deceitfulness, lying, stealing, or other serious violations of rules. They are often viewed by other youth, adults, and social agencies as ”bad“ or delinquent, rather than having a behavioral disorder.

Conflict Resolution: Refers to the process of becoming aware of a conflict, diagnosing its nature, and employing an appropriate problem-solving method in such a way that it simultaneously achieves the goals of all involved and enhances the relationships among them (Dettmer, Thurston, & Dyck, 1993).

Connecting Activities: Provide necessary support services for youth and enrich program content, including academic tutoring, adult and peer mentoring, assistive technology, transportation, benefits planning such as comparisons of subsidies and non-competitive wages and fringes, health maintenance such as mental health counseling and physical therapy, and post-program supports such as structured arrangements in post secondary institutions and adult service agencies (e.g., Centers for Independent Living) and connections to other services and opportunities (e.g., organized recreation such as sports and leisure activities).

Consumer Empowerment: Refers to programs that allow for---and even promote---self-determination, self-advocacy, and active participation in the decision-making process at the individual and systems levels.

Criterion-referenced Tests: Instruments used to measure whether an individual has learned specific information or can perform certain activities.

Depressive Disorders: Young people with clinical depression (defined as a major depressive episode lasting for a period of two weeks or more) often have multiple symptoms, including a depressed mood, irritability, overeating or lack of appetite, difficulty sleeping at night or wanting to sleep during the daytime, low energy, physical slowness or agitation, low self-esteem, difficulty concentrating, and recurrent thoughts of death or suicide. Like many mental health problems, untreated depression can make education or career planning difficult. Fortunately, depression is one of the most treatable of all mental illnesses.

Disability: The broadest definition of disability can be found in Americans With Disabilities Act:

• a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities,
• a person who has a history or record of such an impairment, or
• a person who is perceived by others as having such an impairment.

This broad definition forms the basis of civil rights of people with disabilities and is used as the core definition of disability for all the federal government legal and regulatory compliance responsibilities as it relates to both physical and programmatic access.

Disability History, Culture and Policy: Disability history is made up of people, places, things, and events that had an impact on people with disabilities. As a result of the disability rights movement and disability history bringing people with disabilities together; it also led to the development of a culture. The feeling of sharing a common experience is the initial sign of something more than just coincidences and experiences, but a deeper level of kinship. Disability culture emerged as a result of the oppression, people with disabilities face on political, social, economic, and cultural levels.

Disability Support Services: An office in a postsecondary institution that provides necessary information to students who need accommodations. In addition, these offices provide training to faculty and staff on disability issues.

Disclosure: The act of opening up, revealing or telling.  With regard to individuals with disabilities, it refers to the act of informing someone that an individual has a disability, including self-disclosure.  It is often associated with a person’s need to request accommodations.

Eligibility: Criteria or requirements which determine a right to participate in a particular activity, service or program.

Emotional Disturbance (ED): The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 defines an emotional disturbance (formerly known as a serious emotional disturbance) as a condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree, and which adversely affects educational performance:

• an inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors;
• an inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers;
• inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances;
• a general, pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression; or
• a tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems.

The term includes children who are schizophrenic and does not include children who are socially maladjusted unless it is determined that they are emotionally disturbed.

Employment: Regular engagement in skilled or unskilled labor or service activities for payment.

Employment Outcome: As defined in Title I of the Rehabilitation Act and its governing regulations, an employment outcome means entering or retaining full-time or, if appropriate, part-time competitive employment in the integrated labor market; satisfying the vocational outcome of supported employment; or satisfying any other approved appropriate vocational outcome such as self employment, telecommuting or business ownership.

Entitlement: A right to benefits specified especially by law or contract; a government program providing benefits to members of a specified group; funds supporting or distributed by such a program.

Entrepreneurship: The process of finding and evaluating opportunities and risks, and developing and executing plans for translating those opportunities into financial self-sufficiency.

Essential Functions: Tasks that are fundamental and necessary to the performance of a given job.

Fair Test: A test that is free from bias and conforms to recognized test administration standards and ethics.

Family Supports & Services: Refers to access to: information through neutral intermediary organizations to assist in understanding causes and implications for daily living of the disability of the child; information and training about effective practices and options for their child’s education and transition into post-school life such as individualized education/transition plans, and navigating the adult service delivery system(s); information and training about the implications of disability-centered legislation such as the ADA, medical services and insurance, income support, education and training; and support networks that promote asset-based strategies for both youth and family members.

Free appropriate public education (FAPE): The services to which every person ages three to 21 who is receiving special education services is entitled during their years in school.

Guideposts for Success: A comprehensive framework that identified what all youth, including youth with disabilities need to succeed during the critical transition years.

Hidden Disabilities: Disabilities that are not apparent upon casual observation. Hidden disabilities include, but are not limited to, Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD), Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD), Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), mental health or emotional problems (such as depression, anxiety disorders, or conduct disorders), Epilepsy, and Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI).

Home-Based Services: The major goal is to maintain the youth at home and prevent an out-of-home placement (i.e., in foster care or in residential or inpatient treatment). Home-based services are usually provided through the child welfare, juvenile justice, or mental health systems. Home-based services are also referred to as in-home services, family preservation services, family-centered services, family-based services, or intensive family services. The services are tailored to the individual needs of families.

Informed Choice: The process by which an individual arrives at a decision. It is a process that is based upon access to, and full understanding of, all necessary information from the individual’s perspective. The process should result in a free and informed decision by the individual about what he or she needs.

Inpatient Treatment: The most restrictive and expensive type of care in the continuum of mental health services for children and adolescents. Inpatient treatment typically refers to clinical care provided on a 24-hour basis in a hospital setting.

IQ Testing or Intelligence Testing: The measurement of an individual's general cognitive ability to function within various community settings.

Independent Living Skills Assessments: Assessments that are often conducted by teachers, counselors, or others to determine how well an individual can engage in activities of daily living.

Intermediary Organization: An agent that convenes local leadership and broker relationships with multiple partners across multiple funding streams; brings together workforce development systems, vocational rehabilitation providers, businesses, labor unions, educational institutions, social service organizations, faith based organizations, transportation entities, health providers, and other Federal, State, and community resources which youth with disabilities need to transition to employment successfully. Possible intermediaries include, but are not limited to community- based non-profit organizations, faith-based and community organizations, employer organizations, community colleges, and community rehabilitation programs.

Interviews: Structured or unstructured conversations intended to gather information from an individual through a verbal question-and-answer format.

Individualized Planning: Is the process of assessing a person’s strengths, skills, resources, interests and limitations as they apply to the achievement of a specific goal, and then using that information to develop a plan that lays out the steps that need to be taken for that person to accomplish that goal.  Under IDEA, special education students are required to have an Individualized Education Program (IEP) that includes information on the student’s present level of functioning in each identified needs area, a statement of annual goals for the student, a statement of appropriate short-term objectives with the evaluation approach and criteria for determining progress toward achievement of annual goals, a statement of any required related services and who will provide them, a statement of transition service needs (beginning at least by age 16), and a statement that relates to the amount of time the student will spend in the least restrictive environment (i.e., general education classes).  Under title I of the Rehabilitation Act, individuals determined eligible for services from a State Vocational Rehabilitation agency must have an Individualized Plan for Employment (IPE) which is developed in partnership with a qualified VR Counselor and which outlines the person’s vocational goals, the services that the individual will receive, the providers of those services, and the methods that will be used to procure those services.  Another example of an individualized plan is the Plan for Achieving Self-Support (PASS) which allows recipients of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) to set aside income and resources to achieve a specific work goal.  Other examples of individualized plans include individualized services strategies for participation in Title I WIA youth activities; the Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) required under Part C of IDEA; the Individual Work Plan (IWP) required under the Ticket to Work and Self-Sufficiency Program; and the Individual Habilitation Plan (IHP) required for individuals receiving services from State Divisions of Developmental Disabilities.

Job accommodations: Modification or adjustments specific to the work environment, or to the manner of circumstances under which the position held or desired is customarily performed, that enable a qualified individual with a disability to perform the essential functions of that job.

Marketing: The American Marketing Association defines marketing as “a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders” (American Marketing Association, n.d.).

Medication Treatment: Refers to the use of drugs to treat a range of emotional, behavioral, and mental disorders in children. Mental health experts recommend the following: (1) A comprehensive evaluation by a qualified mental health professional with expertise in diagnosing and treating children and youth should be conducted prior to initiating treatment; and (2) This treatment should be part of an integrated and comprehensive treatment plan (which might include behavior management techniques or behavioral rehabilitation services) developed cooperatively with the youth and family.

Mentoring: A trusting relationship, formalized into a program of structured activities, which brings young people together with caring individuals who offer guidance, support, and encouragement aimed at developing the competence and character of the mentee.

• Traditional One-to-One Mentoring Program – A model of mentoring in which one adult is paired with one young person.  Typically, there will be an extensive matching process to ensure a strong relationship, and it is expected that the commitment will be for one year or longer.
• Peer Mentoring – A mentoring model in which peers from a shared or similar developmental stage provide support and advice to mentees.  Peers can be close in age or farther apart, depending on the circumstances.
• Group Mentoring – This form of mentoring matches one or more adults with a group of youth in a structured setting.  This could include an individual or group of adult volunteers working with several youth in a school or a faith-based program, or a group of employees from one company working with students from a local school in a work-based mentoring program.
• E-mentoring – A contemporary model commonly used in schools in which one (or more) youth is matched with a mentor.  The youth and mentor regularly exchange e-mail messages for a designated prolonged period of time.  In ideal circumstances, e-mentoring includes occasional face-to-face meetings to provide a more personal connection.  In many instances, a program coordinator (often a teacher) will monitor all correspondence and meetings.

Modification: An alteration in an object, environment, or activity that results in increased usability. The making of a limited change in something; the result of such a change.

Memorandum of Understanding (MOU): A written document detailing the work and fiscal responsibilities of participating parties. Such documents may also be referred to as Service, Resource Sharing, or Governance Agreements. These agreements include details regarding who is providing what services, how much they will cost, who is paying for them, where they will be delivered, and additional information as needed.

Natural Supports: Personal associations and relationships typically developed in the community that enhance the quality and security of life for people, including, but not limited to, family relationships; friendships reflecting the diversity of the neighborhood and the community; association with fellow students or employees in regular classrooms and workplaces; and associations developed through participation in clubs, organizations, and other civic activities.

Neuropsychological Testing: Medical assessment used to examine brain function and identify cognitive disorders. The purpose of these tests is to diagnose localized organic dysfunction and to help determine rehabilitative treatment that may be needed by individuals with brain injuries and related cognitive disabilities.

Norm-referenced Tests: Tests in which a person's score is compared to others in a specific reference group.

Observation: The process of watching or listening to an individual's behavior and performance and recording relevant information.

Occupation Specific Certification Tests: Assessments given by licensure boards, businesses, apprenticeship programs, and workforce preparation programs (such as community colleges, technical colleges, or workforce development training programs). They measure individual achievement and the ability to perform very specific work or jobs, are often compared to industry standards, and can be used to document the effectiveness of training programs themselves.

One-Stop Center: The Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA) requires that a number of employment-related services be provided through a system of One-Stop Centers, designed to make accessing employment and training services easier for job seekers. One-Stop Centers are also required to help employers identify and recruit skilled workers.  The One-Stop system is required to be a customer-focused and comprehensive system that increases the employment, retention, and earnings of participants.  WIA names 17 categories of federally-funded programs that are to be mandated partners within the One-Stop system.  (GAO, 2003)

Order of Selection: Refers to the rules that State Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) agencies must develop to prioritize the provision of VR services when funding is limited. Federal law requires that individuals with the most significant disabilities be served first when resources are inadequate to serve everyone determined eligible for services. This means that individuals that with less significant disabilities are placed on waiting lists and will only receive services if or when all of the individuals with the most significant disabilities have been served.

Outpatient Treatment: Is one of the most common types of mental health treatment and simply refers to the mode of service delivery in which the youth and family visit an office for treatment while living in a home environment. This intervention covers a large variety of therapeutic approaches, with most falling into the broad theoretical categories of cognitive, interpersonal, and behavioral psychotherapy.

Partial Hospitalization and Day Treatment: Is a specialized and intensive form of treatment that is  more intensive than the usual types of outpatient care (i.e., individual, family, or group treatment). The most common type of partial hospitalization is an integrated program combining education, counseling, and family interventions. The setting may be a hospital, school, or clinic and may be tied to the type of treatment recommended for the youth. Partial hospitalization has also been used as a transitional service after either psychiatric hospitalization or residential treatment at the point when the youth no longer needs 24-hour care but is not ready to be integrated into the school system or community. It may also be used to prevent inpatient placement.

Performance Reviews: Assessment activities that look at a whole spectrum of what an individual has learned and is more subjective, holistic, and qualitative in nature than testing.

Person-centered Planning: Planning processes that focus on an individual's needs and desires and promote self-determination. In transition, person-centered planning focuses on the interests, aptitudes, knowledge, and skills of an individual, not on his or her perceived deficits.

Physical and Functional Capacities Assessments: Assessments provided in schools, workforce preparation centers, clinics, rehabilitation facilities, and at work sites to determine how an individual can physically perform in specific situations.

Policy: A principle, plan, or course of action established in statute, regulation, or proclamation by an elected chief executive or a federal, state, or local governing body.

Postsecondary: Term used to describe settings that follow high school (such as trade school, college, or employment).

Preparatory Experiences: Refer to educational programs grounded in standards, clear performance expectations and graduation exit options based upon meaningful, accurate, and relevant indicators of student learning and skills. Under NCWD/Youth’s Guideposts for Success, preparatory experiences include: career and technical education programs that are based on professional and industry standards; curricular and program options based on universal design of school, work and community-based learning experiences; learning environments that are small and safe; supports from and by highly qualified staff; access to an assessment system that includes multiple measures; and graduation standards that include options.

Program Navigators: These positions exist in a growing number of One Stop Centers to build staff capacity and work with people with disabilities and service providers to access, facilitate, and navigate the complex statutory and regulatory provisions and application processes for public and private programs.

Reasonable Accommodation: Are those adjustments that may need to be made within a work or school setting to allow an otherwise qualified employee or student with a disability to perform the tasks required.  Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, “reasonable accommodation” means: (a) modification to the job application process; (b) modification to the work environment or the manner under which the position held is performed; and (c) modification that enables an employee with a disability to enjoy equal benefits and privileges of employment.  The term “reasonable” implies that the accommodation is one that does not cause an undue hardship for the employer.  Examples of workplace accommodations include making existing facilities used by employees readily accessible and usable by individuals with disabilities; restructuring jobs; establishing part-time or modified work schedules; reassigning to vacant positions; adjusting or modifying examinations, training materials, or policies; and providing qualified readers or interpreters.  Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the term “accommodation” is used primarily with regard to the development and provision of alternative assessments that are valid and reliable for assessing the performance of students with disabilities.  

Reliability: A quality that indicates a test provides consistent results over time.

Residential Treatment Centers (RTC): Is a licensed 24-hour facility (although not licensed as a hospital), which offers mental health treatment. The period of treatment at RTCs can range from brief placements of a few weeks to longer-term treatment of several months. The type of treatment provided at an RTC can vary greatly. The more common treatments include individual psychotherapy, psychoeducation (e.g., educating the youth and family about his or her MHN and about treatment options), behavioral management, group therapies, medication management, and peer-cultural therapies. Settings for RTCs can range from formal or structured environments that resemble psychiatric hospitals to those that are more like group homes or halfway houses.

Resource Mapping: A type of environmental scanning that is a useful means of identifying, recording, and disseminating all related resources and services that comprise a service delivery system.

School-Based Mental Health Services: School-based treatment and support interventions are designed to identify emotional disturbances and to assist parents, teachers, and counselors in developing comprehensive strategies for addressing these disturbances. School-based services may include wraparound services such as counseling or other school-based programs for emotionally disturbed children, adolescents, and their families within the school, home, and community environment.

Screening: A process used by lay people to determine whether further diagnostic assessment should be provided by professionals.

Self-accommodate: To provide accommodations for oneself rather than requesting accommodations from employers, professors, or other persons in the community.

Self-advocacy: The act of understanding one’s disability, being aware of the strengths and weaknesses resulting from the limitations imposed by the disability, and being able to articulate reasonable need for accommodation (Hartman, 1993).  The attitudes and abilities required to act as the primary causal agent in one’s life and make choices and decisions regarding one’s actions free from undue external influence or interference (Wehmeyer, 1992).  The ability of an individual to set goals that are important to him or her and having the skills to achieve these goals (Field & Hoffman, 1996).

Self-determination: The right and ability of all persons to direct their own lives, as well as the responsibility to accept the consequences of their own choices. Some of the skills that make someone self-determined or a successful self-advocate are the following:  knowledge of one’s strengths and limitations; belief in one’s ability to achieve goals; ability to start and complete tasks;ability to assertively assert one’s wants, needs, and concerns; and the ability to make decisions and see other options.

Situational Work Assessments: Occupational skills and work behaviors that are assessed in real or simulated settings and measure capacities and competencies to perform essential job duties of specific competitive employment positions.

Soft Skill: The skills, traits, work habits, and attitudes that all workers across all occupations must have in order to obtain, maintain, and progress in employment.  These include being dependable, responsible, punctual, adaptable, hones, honorable, well-mannered, positive toward work, and appropriately dressed/groomed. Soft skills also refer to such attributes as ability to get along with others, work in teams, attend to tasks, work independently, and provide excellent customer service, both within the company and externally.

Specific Learning Disabilities: Specific learning disabilities (SLD) affect an individual’s ability to interpret what he or she sees and hears or to link information from different parts of the brain.  These differences can show up as specific difficulties with spoken and written language, coordination, self-control, or attention.  SLDs may include developmental speech and language disorders, academic skills disorders, motor skill disorders, and other specific developmental disorders.  It is important to note that not all learning problems are necessarily SLDs; some youth simply take longer in developing certain skills.

Such difficulties may affect a youth’s ability to learn to read, write, or do math.  In some individuals, many overlapping learning disabilities may be present.  Others may have a single, isolated learning problem that has little impact on other areas of their lives.  It is important to note that having an SLD does not indicate deficits in intelligence.  Many people with SLDs have very high IQs.

Substance Use: The use of a chemical substance, legal or illegal, taken to induce intoxication or reduce withdrawal symptoms resulting in dependency, abuse, or addiction. Substances may include alcohol, illicit and prescription drugs, paint, household cleaners, plants, and others.

Testing: An activity that consists of administering a particular set of questions to an individual to obtain a score.

Transition: The period of time when adolescents are moving into adulthood and is often concerned with planning for postsecondary education or careers. In the workforce environment, it usually encompasses the ages 14 to 24.

Universal Access: The design of environments, products, and communication as well as the delivery of programs, services, and activities to be useable by all youth and adults, to the greatest extent possible, without adaptation or specialized design.

Universal Design: The design of environments, products, and communication practices, as well as the delivery of programs, services, and activities, to meet the needs of all customers of the work force development system.

Validity: The extent to which a test measures what its authors or users claim it measures; specifically, test validity concerns the appropriateness of the inferences that can be made on the basis of test results.

Vocational Aptitudes and Skills Assessments: Activities used in schools and workforce preparation programs to measure or determine an individual's ability or potential to learn or perform in order to hold specific jobs or to train for specific careers.

Vocational Interest Assessments: Activities used in schools and workforce preparation programs to match an individual's interests, goals, and values to available employment, training, or post-secondary education programs.

Visible Disabilities: Disabilities that are more apparent to someone else because of exterior appearance.

Work Accommodations Assessments: Activities used to determine the need for adjustments to work sites, schedules, training procedures, etc. to improve a person's ability to do a job.

Work-based Learning: A supervised program sponsored by an education or training organization that links knowledge gained at the worksite with a planned program of study. Experiences range in intensity, structure, and scope and include activities as diverse as site visits, job shadowing, paid and unpaid internships, structured on-the-job training, and the more formal work status as apprentice or employee.

Workforce Development System: The term workforce development system encompasses organizations at the national, state, and local levels that have direct responsibility for planning, allocating resources (both public and private), providing administrative oversight and operating programs to assist individuals and employers in obtaining education, training, job placement, and job recruitment.

Included in this broad network are several federal agencies charged with providing specific education and/or training support and other labor market services such as labor market information. At the state and local levels the network includes state and local workforce investment boards, state and local career and technical education and adult education agencies, vocational rehabilitation agencies, recognized apprenticeship programs, state employment and unemployment services agencies, state and local welfare agencies, and/or sub-units of these entities.

A wide array of organizations provide direct education, training, or employment services (e.g. technical schools, colleges, and universities, vocational rehabilitation centers, apprenticeship programs community based organizations, one-stop centers, welfare to work training programs, literacy programs, Job Corp Centers, unions, and labor/management programs).

The NCWD/Youth focus centers on the organizations within this broad system that are concerned with the initial preparation of an individual for the world of work and individuals in the general age range of 14-25.

Workforce Investment Board (WIB): A WIB is an appointed body, certified by the Governor to set policy, guide implementation, and provide oversight to the local workforce development system, as authorized by Public Law 105-220, the Workforce Investment Act of 1998.
The WIB is also a forum for planning workforce development strategies. The Board attempts to anticipate economic and business trends, develop community linkages and partnerships, and provide a focus on system outcomes.

Work-Readiness Skills: The ability to make the educational and vocational decisions and perform the kinds of educational and vocational tasks that are expected by schools and the workplace.  Work-readiness skills include soft skills, computer literacy, and job seeking skills.

Work Sampling: A process of using standardized instruments that are used to help assess the job potential of an individual.

Work Tolerance Assessments: Physical activities that use a structured process for examining and measuring the physical endurance, strength, motor coordination skills, and emotional capacities of a worker when performing essential job tasks.

Youth: The period in life between childhood and maturity, known as adolescence. Generally speaking, given the requirements of programs NCWD/Youth will address, the age range for youth is between 14 and 25, although it may extend as low as 12 and as high as 29. Youth can be both in and out of school.

Youth Development: A process that prepares young people to meet the challenges of adolescence and adulthood through a coordinated, progressive series of activities and experiences that help them to become socially, morally, emotionally, physically, and cognitively competent. Youth development spans five basic developmental areas in which all young people need to learn and grow: Thriving, Leading, Connecting, Learning, and Working. It includes mentoring activities designed to establish strong relationships with adults through formal and informal settings, peer-to-peer mentoring opportunities; and exposure to role models in a variety of contexts. Positive youth development addresses the broader developmental needs of youth, in contrast to deficit-based models that focus solely on youth problems.

Youth Leadership: Refers to an internal and external process leading to (1) “the ability to guide or direct others on a course of action, influence the opinion and behavior of other people, and show the way by going in advance (Wehmeyer, Agran & Hughes, 1998); and (2) "the ability to analyze one's own strengths and weaknesses, set personal and vocational goals, and have the self-esteem to carry them out. It includes the ability to identify community resources and use them, not only to live independently, but also to establish support networks to participate in community life and to effect positive social change." (Adolescent Employment Readiness Center, Children’s Hospital, n.d.) It emphasizes the developmental areas of Leading and Connecting and includes training in skills such as self-advocacy and conflict resolution; exposure to personal leadership and youth development activities, including community service; and opportunities that allow youth to exercise leadership.

NCWD/Youth | c/o Institute for Educational Leadership
4455 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 310 | Washington, DC 20008
Telephone: 1-877-871-0744 (Toll Free)
TTY: 877-871-0665 (Toll Free)