Retrospective Study of Vocational Rehabilitation Cases

During the 1990s, CATEA regularly provided workplace accommodation assessments for Georgia vocational rehabilitation clients. About a decade later, Work RERC researchers conducted telephone interviews with 54 of these individuals to discover what accommodations had ultimately been implemented and whether they had been effective.

• 80% of the interviewees were satisfied with their accommodations, 13% were not satisfied.
• Over a quarter of the interviewees still use the accommodations or used them until retirement. Others continue to use some of their accommodations or upgraded versions of their original accommodations.
• Among those employees no longer using the accommodations:
  • 30% reported that the accommodations were too hard to use. Often, this was related to the individual not being provided with sufficient training in how to use the accommodations. Accommodation abandonment often occurred after the individual's vocational rehabilitation case files were closed.
  • 27% reported that their job duties or environment had changed.
  • 13% reported that their abilities had changed.
  • 10% reported that changes in technology resulted in equipment incompatibility.

These findings remind us of the importance of taking the time to train employees on the use of their accommodations. They also point out the need to check with employees periodically to ensure that their accommodations are still meeting their needs.