Unit 3: How do I match up with my career profile?

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Unit 3 is about self-assessment of body functions and skills. Traditionally, disability is understood as deficit in comparison to able bodied norms. The medical model of disability is linked to the use of statistical probabilities in measuring human bodies (i.e., the bell curve). The able body is defined as an ideal or norm by which people can and should be measured. The able body essentially represents the average person. We accept the existence of the average person and, like Garrison Keillor, aspire for a world where all the children are above average. 

But there is no such thing as an average person. It is a statistical fact that became a cultural illusion. The math is real enough. But at the individual level, we are all a range of measurements that Dr. Todd Rose calls a jagged profile. The jagged profile is a metaphor for individuality. Each person is a complex combination of strengths and weaknesses, talents and difficulties. It is only by comparing people to statistical norms that we “discover” deficits. Clips from a TEDTalk by Dr. Rose are embedded in Unit 3 and Unit 4.

Instead of comparing themselves to the mythical and mathematically abstract average person, this unit asks students to compare themselves to the task demands and educational skills of something they want to do, like a specific job or career. Of course, career demands are connected to functions the average person can perform. But there are many different careers, each with their own jagged profile. And career demands can be adjusted to match the person as long as the person can still do the essential task. 

The goal of this unit is for the student to rate themselves against the task demands and educational skills of a specific career. However, the unit currently relies on a digital graphing tool that creates only one jagged line. Students will have to look back at the career profile they created in Unit 2. They are asked to rate the relative difficulty of each task demand and educational skill in the context of the career. This is a potentially difficult task because it is abstract. The student has not experienced the career yet. So, it is okay if the student rates themselves in the context of what they already know about themselves. This is not a traditional career assessment that measures student skills against specific work tasks. Such assessments exist and may provide useful information. But work task assessments are not often connected to career exploration and self-determination. They risk being just another way of measuring deficits against norms. The goal of this unit is to teach the more fundamental concept of taking stock of where you are now so you can set goals and plan for the future. The gap between where we are now and where we want to be establishes next steps.

Unit 3 ends with a brief explanation of two pathways forward. The traditional option to matching up with the demands of a desired career is to learn new skills. Postsecondary education and career training are the initial destinations along this path. But the other option is to adjust task demands. This is the pathway of accommodations that will be explored in Units 4-8. At the end of this unit, students create a simple educational goal that can be used in their IEP transition plan. 

• Before starting this course you must complete the required prerequisite course: Unit 2: What does my career demand?