AbleLink Technologies announced today that it has released a new tool for determining
work preferences for people with intellectual and other cognitive disabilities. Job Quest
utilizes video clips depicting a variety of actual community job tasks, allowing the user to
independently choose between possible work options in a self-directed manner. Job
Quest accomplishes this by prompting the user to watch two competing video clips of
community work tasks, and then directs the user to “choose the job video that you liked
best.”

Individuals with limited literacy skills are generally unable to independently utilize
typical vocational interest assessments. In addition, limited exposure to various
community work environments and difficulty visualizing work settings also contribute to
barriers to communicating job preferences. Schools and agencies often try to facilitate
the expression of job preferences by arranging site visits with local employers. However,
physical visits to multiple sites can be impractical due to logistics and cost. They can
also be ineffective when an individual with memory problems is asked to remember an
earlier visit from the previous week and compare it with the other employment options.
“Students and adults with intellectual disabilities often have difficulty conceptualizing the
nature of various jobs, including typical duties, the work environment, tools that may be
used, and other elements of work that affect job preference,” said Dan Davies, President
and Founder of AbleLink Technologies. “Job Quest provides a more concrete and timely
manner for understanding the nature of specific tasks and work conditions, and can serve
as an excellent adjunct in planning more precise and timely site visits to confirm Job
Quest assessment findings.”

Job Quest provides a default assessment that presents 60 video clips representing 12
categories in a forced choice format. Assessments can also be personalized by staff, who
can limit the number of job categories represented, the number of video clips per
category, and the length of each video. Reports can be generated in three different
formats with varying levels of detail, including a Visual Summary Report designed
specifically for the job seeker.

Job Quest is the result of a series of U.S. Department of Education funded research and
development projects.