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From Marginalized to Maximized Opportunities for Diverse Youths With Disabilities

A Position Paper of the Division on Career Development and Transition

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Lauren Lindstrom

University of Oregon, Eugene

Marlene Simon-Burroughs

U.S. Department of Education, Washington, DC

James E. Martin

University of Oklahoma, Norman

Audrey McCray Sorrells

University of Texas at Austin

Current secondary education and transition practices have created differential education and employment outcomes by gender, race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and disability classifications. These differential outcomes result in economic and social marginalization of far too many students with disabilities. Transition education practices need to respond to these differential outcomes and provide targeted, systematic, and long-term opportunities for all students to attain individually and family-determined postschool goals. This position paper recommends an ecological framework for considering the multiple systems that influence transition education and postschool outcomes for diverse youths with disabilities. The authors argue for educators, researchers, and policy makers to attend to social, political, economic, educational, and cultural contexts in developing effective interventions and improving postschool outcomes.

Key Words: diversity • postsecondary outcomes • equity • culturally responsive education • transition

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Career Development for Exceptional Individuals, Vol. 31, No. 1, 56-64 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0885728807313777


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