12 minutes
Discovery Learn what discovery is, why it starts in the person's life rather than in an office, and what it produces.
What you’ll be able to do Describe the discovery process and its output, and explain why an assessment in an office cannot substitute for it. Compare the responses to this question and explain your choice: What is the most useful answer? Document a next step for Discovery: Spend one hour with a person you support in a setting where they function well and write down what you saw that the file does not contain. Looking where the information is An interview measures how well a person presents in an interview. A vocational assessment measures how they perform unfamiliar tasks in an unfamiliar room under time pressure. For many people these are fair proxies for work. For the people customized employment exists for, they are the worst possible conditions, and what they produce is a document describing someone who cannot do things they do every day somewhere else.
Discovery goes to where the person already functions well. Home, where routines are established. Places they choose to go. Activities they have done for years. It watches, asks the people who know them, and tries things. Over several weeks it builds a picture of what the person reliably contributes, what conditions they need, what they like, and what they want. That picture is the basis for the employer search. Nothing produced in an office can replace it, because the office is the one place the information is not.
What discovery involves Time at home Watching routines, what the person does without prompting, what they organize, what they avoid, what they return to. Talking with the people who live with them about what they are good at.
Time in the community Going where the person goes. The places they navigate confidently, the people who know them, the tasks they do there without being asked.
Conversations with people who know them Family, friends, former teachers, neighbors, anyone who has seen the person contribute. Asking what they do well, not what their diagnosis is.
Trying things Short experiences with real tasks in real settings, chosen from what has been learned, to test the picture. Not job trials in the sense of auditions; explorations.
The profile A written description of contributions, conditions, interests and preferences, in specific terms an employer could act on. Not a score, not a readiness rating, not a list of deficits.
What a profile says, in specific terms Sorts, organizes and notices errors, sustained over hours, in a quiet setting.
Works best with a written sequence and the same start time each day.
Comfortable with a small number of familiar people; needs a warning before a change.
Strong preference for tasks with a visible finish.
Wants to work near home and in the morning.
Has managed the supply closet at the community center for three years without being asked to.
Protect the time What you can change You control whether discovery is funded and scheduled as a real process or squeezed into an afternoon. A profile built in an afternoon is an office assessment with a different name.
What to watch for Do not let the pressure to place quickly produce a match that fails in the first month. A failed placement costs the person more than the wait did.
Your next step Find out how discovery is funded and scheduled in your area, and what it actually takes.
Carry this forward Discovery is time spent with the person in the places where they already function well — home, community, activities they choose — to learn what they contribute and under what conditions.
It replaces the interview and the standardized assessment for people those tools screen out, and it produces a profile of contributions and conditions, not a score.
Discovery takes weeks, not an afternoon, and the time is what makes the resulting match reliable.
An accordion on discovery activities, a list of what it produces, a scenario decision and a knowledge check.
Spend one hour with a person you support in a setting where they function well and write down what you saw that the file does not contain.
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