October 30, 2023
Youth Find a Fulfilling Career Choice in Disability Services
Dear high school seniors,
I want to talk to you about a group of individuals I wasn’t thinking about at your age.
A group of individuals like my son, who need compassionate, patient individuals, just like you, who make a huge difference in their life and the lives of their caregivers like me.
Choosing to work with individuals with disabilities wasn’t discussed at any career day, on any career assessment paper tool, or the college programs I was looking at….. but I wish they were.
On a daily basis people with disabilities, like my son with autism, need an entire team of support personnel, special education teachers, therapists, case workers, and so on to help him and our family navigate the world successfully.
Words like occupational therapy, behavior analyst, intervention specialist weren’t apart of my world when I was a teenager still trying to make a career decision.
Knowing what I know now as a mother to a child with autism. I wish they were things I had been familiar with, considered, had been exposed to.
Watching my son learn new skills from these amazing and brilliant specialists has to make their field one of the most rewarding I’ve ever seen.
How to type, tie his shoes, eat with a spoon, speak his first word, wait in line, read his first word, bake a cake, use money in the real world.
I try to tell each one of them how thankful I am that they chose to work with children like my son each and every visit, because we need them to help him be as successful and as independent as possible.
So I encourage you, if you’re a young person feeling like you’re unsure of how you can chose a career that will truly make a difference in the daily life of another…… look into the world of working with individuals with disabilities.
There is always a need, always a shortage, always a family like ours waiting for services and providers to be available!
