- Members of the community try to close the 44 percent gap in employment for those with disabilities after high school.
- Conversation cue cards could be used as a tool to help prepare those with disabilities transition into adulthood.
- Watch the video above to see how people try to tackle stigmas around students with disabilities.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
“My personal experience… I have a younger sister with Autism, and I’ve seen firsthand how difficult it can be to navigate the K-12 system.”
Dr. Janae Duclos is a Professor of Special Education at Florida State University. I met up with her in my neighborhood and she tells me what it’s like to know someone who is neuro-divergent, and what drives her to do her job.
“It’s what drives the work; critical work that I do every day.”
That work? Helping students with disabilities transition in the real world. Transition into employment and higher education specifically.
Look at the numbers I found from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In the U.S. non-disabled population, about 65 percent of people are employed. For the disabled population, that number is less than half at 21percent.
People like Duclos are working on closing that gap right here in the Capital City.
“We start those critical conversations much earlier with students with disabilities.”
Starting those conversations with conversation cue cards with her organization C3 For Me. They’re designed to be used for K-12 students with disabilities in efforts to help them land competitive employment or higher learning in the future.
“I think using tools like what Ms. Janae created like the C3 For Me cue cards provide a talking point.” Amanda Lewis is Co-owner of Future Pathways, a disability service organization in Tallahassee.
“It helps develop those self-advocacies and self-determination skills… a lot of them are facing a life where a lot has been planned out for them… it’s helping them get to where they need to go.”
Help that Duclos says promotes equity in education, one conversation at a time, “everyone deserves a life of self-determination and success.”
