Research
The goal of the research was to identify a "model" higher education program that effectively assisted college students with disabilities in their career planning that we could bring back to the University of Tennessee for the benefit of our students with disabilities. To fund the research, Dr. Greenberg and Mr. Muir obtained a small grant for a period of six months from the State of Tennessee Division of Rehabilitation Services. Nationwide, several major universities were identified as sources of information due to their established services to assist students with disabilities on campus. After visiting more than 30 campuses and finding no "model" program, we identified several components that were pieced together to create a comprehensive program on the University of Tennessee campus to more effectively integrate college students with disabilities into the existing career services infrastructure. The result was the creation of the Disability Careers Office that continues to be successful in assisting students with disabilities to more effectively use all features of the Career Services office.
Concurrent with the university meetings, we visited with 35 large national employers located in the vicinity of each campus to identify initiatives corporations undertook to recruit, hire and promote college graduates with disabilities. Any initiatives found would then assist our effort working with students with disabilities at the University of Tennessee, . The overwhelming response from employers was recognition of the need to include disability in Diversity initiatives, but there was a great amount of uncertainty as to how to properly recruit, hire and interact with college students with disabilities. The most often asked question by employers was "Where do we find the students?" and when these employers do find students they asked, "Why are the students not qualified?" COSD continued to work to identify the best possible method of assisting employers in answering the first question of "where to find the students" and will always be working to improve the quality of students with disabilities to be recruited by employers specifically seeking them. The demand is definitely there and a large part of COSD's mission is to improve, enhance and make more competitive the supply of candidates who are college students or recent graduates with disabilities.