10 minutes
An employment conversation you can hold Hold a conversation that starts from the expectation of work and ends with one next step.
What you’ll be able to do Hold an employment conversation that begins with the assumption of work, explores what the person wants and contributes, and ends with one concrete next step. Compare the responses to this question and explain your choice: What is the most useful next step? Draft Employment conversation for your work, including what they want to be doing, what they do well, specifically, conditions. Start from the expectation Most employment conversations with people with disabilities begin with a question that other adults are never asked: whether they can work. The question is not neutral. It puts the burden on the person to prove readiness, and it invites the family, the provider and the file to list reasons they cannot. A conversation that begins instead from the assumption of work asks different questions: what kind, doing what, where, and what would need to be in place. Those questions produce information. The first one produces a verdict.
The sequence Open with the assumption: when you work, what would you want to be doing? If the person has never been asked, wait.
Ask what they do well and what they like, and listen for the specific: not "helping people" but "I keep the supply closet in order and nobody asked me to."
Ask what conditions they work best under: time of day, noise, number of people, routine, pace.
Ask what worries them, and what worries the people around them. Treat every worry as something to design for or refer on.
Agree on one next step with a name and a date.
Employment conversation One page that records what the person wants and contributes, what conditions they need, and one next step.
What they want to be doing In their words
What they do well, specifically Three things, with where you or others have seen them
Conditions Time, setting, people, routine, pace
Worries, and whose Each with a response: design for it, or refer
One next step, one owner, one date Discovery hour, planner appointment, employer to approach, referral
Hold the conversation with one person and put the next step in the plan.
Browse and download only. Staff notes are not typed or saved on this page.
Download this published draft End with a step, not a verdict What you can change You control whether the conversation ends with a decision about the person or a step toward work. A step can be small and it moves; a verdict does not.
What to watch for Do not let the conversation conclude that the person is or is not ready. That is the question the conversation exists to replace.
Your next step Hold one conversation this month and put the next step, with a date, in the plan.
Carry this forward The conversation starts from the expectation that the person will work, not from the question of whether they can.
It asks what they want and what they do well before it asks about barriers, and it treats barriers as conditions to design for.
It ends with one next step with a name and a date: a referral, a discovery hour, a benefits planning appointment, or an employer to approach.
A list of the conversation's sequence, an artifact, a scenario decision and a knowledge check.
Hold the conversation with one person this month and record the next step.
Browse and download only. Course notes are not typed or saved on this page.
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