DOCUMENT RESUME ED 203 177 CB 029 349 AUTHOR Robinson, Jacques H.: Morrison, Lorraine TITLE An Estimate of the Job Types Potentially Available to the Retarded. Project SAVE. INSTITUTION Kent State Univ., Ohio. SPONS AGENCY Department of Education, Washington, D.C.: Northern Ohio Special Education Regional Resource Center, Oberlin.: Ohio State Dept. of Education, Columbus. PUB DATE May 81 NOTE 321p. EDRS PRICE! MF01/PC13 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Employment Opportunities: *Employment Potwatial: *Mild Mental Retardation: *Occupations: Vor.;ational Education IDENTIFIERS *Dictionary of Occupational Titles: *Job Titl*Js ABSTRACT This publication reports results of an attempt to estimate the types of jobs potentially available to retarded workers by analyzing the job titles in the fourth edition of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT). Literature is reviewed that focuses on factors inhibiting the development of the full range of job options of the retarded. Discussion follows of the procedures used toassess which jobs offer strong potential-as placements for the educable mentally retarded. The appendix, which comprises over 280 pages of the report, consists of an alphabetical listing of the 6033 job titles that meet the criteria established. Their Worker Function Codes fall at or below the following levels: Data--3, People--6, Things--3. Job titles in caps are Base Titles used in the body of the DOT. Those in lower case are jobs related to the base title with the same job code. For each title, there is an industrial designation that indicates location of the occupation, types of duties associated with the occupation, products manufactured, processes used, and/or raw materials used. (YLBI *********************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * *********************************************************************** Kent State University Project SAVE An Estimate of the Job Types Potentially Available to the Retarded Jacques H. Robinson Associate Professor of Special Education Kent State University 401 R. White Hall Kent, Ohio44242 (216) 672-2477 and Lorraine Morrison Supervisor, Programs for the Educable Mentally Retarded Lorain City Public Schools Emerson Annex 300 Longfellow Parkway U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION A WELFARE Lorain, Ohio44052 "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION (216) 244-9000 Ext. 223 MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRO. DUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGIN- ATING IT POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS ti STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRE- SENT OFFICIAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF Printed and Distributed by the EDUCATION POSITION OR POLICY TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES Instructional Materials Center INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." Joy Weakland, Coordinator of the Northern Ohio Special. Education Regional Resource Center Dale DeGirolamo, Director 15233 Route 58 South Oberlin, Ohio 44074 May, 1981 The publication and dissemination of this report was supported in Ahole or in part by the U.S. Department of Education through Ohio Department of Education and the Northern Ohio Special Education Regional Resource Center. However, the opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the U.S. Department of Education, the Ohio Department of Education or the Northern Ohio Special Education Regio:- 1 Resource Center, and no official endorsement by any of the above shot be inferred. The fiscal agent insures equal employment and equal education opportunities regardless of race, color, creed, national origin, handicap, or sex in compliance with State directives and Federal recommendations. Estimate...of Jobs... An Estimate of the Job Types Potentially Available to the Retarded Purpose The purpose of this article is to report the results of an attempt to estimate the types of jobs potentially available to retarded workers by analyzing the job titles presented in the Fourth edition of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT). Background and Rationale The central premise undergirding this work is that, as a function of social inertia and stereotypy, systematic efforts to place retarded youth and adults in gainful employment (and associated mainstream voca- tional education and rehabilitation programs) have tended to focus on a relatively narrow range of jobs and training programs and, thus, have been discriminatory. Brolin (1976) suggests that there has been a general tendency to underestimate the potential of retarded trainees. Thus, there is a reliance on jobs which are at a low level (in terms of task demands and pay). This is often justified by those responsible for training and placing retarded individuals as necessary to insure a "success experience" for the retarded worker. No doubt there are many occasions when this conventional wisdom is quite valid. However, there can also be little doubt that this restricts the range of jobs available to the retarded; Estimate...of Jobs... 3 represents and reinforces unfortunate stereotypes in the minds of both the public and those who work with the retarded and, not incidently,. is conducive to relatively facile "success experiences" on the part of those responsible for placement. Jacobs, Larsen and Smith (1979) suggests that other factors also restrict the job potential of retarded workers. Among these factors are: (1) a lack of knowledge of job performance requirements, (2) employer attitudes, and (3) the tendency of placement and training agencies to rely upon past placement successes. Special educators concerned with the vocational education and place- ment of the retarded are inclined to stress the importance of negative employer (and union/co-worker) attitudes in justification of the limited placement of the disabled. However, Hartlage and Roland (1971) have established that the results of studies of employer receptivity have proven inconclusive or contradictory. The Jacobs et al. (1979) Handbook is an extension of work initiated by Peterson and Jones (1959,.1960, 1964) at the American Institutes for Research (AIR) and represents the most systematic long-term research and development effort extant to conduct research into the job potential of retarded workers 'and to apply this research in a pragmatic manner. The AIR approach has been to survey agencies and individuals who have been successfully placed. Then, the task and social requirements were synthe- sized into job profiles which were incorporated into a guide for other Estimate...of Jobs... 4 training and placement specialists. A summary of the distribution of 158 job profiles (Jacobs et al., 1979) freqUently mentioned as placements for the Educable Mentally Retarded confirm that service occupations lead the list of placement opportunities as defined in terms of percepts of prior placement success. Phelps (1965), however, has demonstrated that supervisors in service occupations tend to be more negative toward the retarded than do super- visors in other occupational areas. The posture of the present authors is that the central locus of the problem of restricted vocational oppor- tunity for the retarded rests with the special educators and placement specialists. Jacobs et al. (1979) report, that in the most recent national survey conducted in 1977, the following represent the rank order of job groups in terms of frequency of mention as placements for the retarded: (1) food services (2) building services (custodial) (3) domestic services (4) grounds keeping (5) office occupations (6) merchandizing occupations (7) building trades (8) helpers in hotels (9) helpers in nursery schools (10) helpers in hospitals r 5 Estimate...of Jobs... 5 Relative to prior surveys (Peterson and Jones, 1959, 1964), there have been shifts away, in relative terms, from placement in agricultural and small manufacturing jobs to office work, helping in construction, merchandising, computer technology, and helping in skilled trades (Jacobs et al., 1979, p. 20). These shifts seem to reflect changes in the demog- raphy and sociology of the job market itself as well as some success in opening employment options to retarded workers that have been closed previously. As Wehman (1976), among others, pointed out, a lack of social accep-' tance is a major block to competitive employment. Conventional wisdom maintains that retarded workers and trainees lose their positions more often because of social problems than because of the inability to perform the technical aspects of the job. To the extent that the retarded are restricted to those jobs which do not have much in the way of a technical task requirement, this generalization makes a good deal of sense. However, it is quite inconsistent with the information reported above which suggests that service, office, and sales jobs, which imply contact with people, offer the most placement success. Conversely, there is a relative paucity of placements in processing, machine and bench trades and structural work occupations (which account for over two-thirds of the identified job titles in the American labor market) and which represent occupations wherein social incompetencies are apt to be, in relative terms, less critical than in those which involve client contact. 6 Estimate ...of jobs.-- 6 It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that we are observing the results of a nexus of self-validating hypotheses; particularly when surveys such as that of Goldstein (1971) suggest that, in European countries, Trainable