For a variety of reasons, college students with disabilities encounter stressors beyond those of students who do not have disabilities. One of the more salient examples is that students with disabilities are required to disclose that they have a disability and to communicate with faculty and staff in order to receive academic accommodations, as afforded to them under sub-part E of Section 504 of the Education and Rehabilitation Act of 1974. Therefore, postsecondary institutions are required to make appropriate accommodations available to students with disabilities, but they are not required to proactively seek them out. The purpose of this study was to learn about the needs that students with physical disabilities have concerning their successful transition into professional careers. This was accomplished by analyzing how five current senior students with disabilities reflected on their experiences, particularly in terms of using work preparation programs and/or accommodations necessary for them to participate in employment recruitment activities provided by the university’s career services office. The intent of those services was to transition disabled students from the university environment into the workforce. The findings showed that the students perceived they did not receive a lot of information regarding the services available, and they also expressed that the university should have done more in transitioning them into their professional life. The basic premise is that higher education professionals, key support staff, and administrators who provide work preparation programs, career, transition and accommodation services to disabled students are in a position to help remove informational barriers, facilitate the use of services and accommodations, and to actively encourage students with disabilities to enter the workforce upon graduation. The results of this study may inspire university personnel to find creative ways to get students involved and motivated to seek services available to them, to be best self-advocates to students needing their services, and to understand the transition challenges that exist between academic life and entry into the workforce. By being more aware and sensitive about the needs of students with disabilities, the professionals who work with them might be better positioned to help them experience a successful and more supported transition into a competitive employment and independent life after college.

Career Academy instructors’ technical literacy is vital to the academic success of students. This nonexperimental ex post facto study examined the relationships between the level of technical literacy of instructors in career academies and student academic performance. It was also undertaken to explore the relationship between the pedagogical training of instructors and the academic performance of students. Out of a heterogeneous population of 564 teachers in six targeted schools, 136 teachers (26.0 %) responded to an online survey. The survey was designed to gather demographic and teaching experience data. Each demographic item was linked by researchers to teachers’ technology use in the classroom. Student achievement was measured by student learning gains as assessed by the reading section of the FCAT from the previous to the present school year. Linear and hierarchical regressions were conducted to examine the research questions. To clarify the possibility of teacher gender and teacher race/ethnic group differences by research variable, a series of one-way ANOVAs were conducted. As revealed by the ANOVA results, there were not statistically significant group differences in any of the research variables by teacher gender or teacher race/ethnicity. Greater student learning gains were associated with greater teacher technical expertise integrating computers and technology into the classroom, even after controlling for teacher attitude towards computers. Neither teacher attitude toward technology integration nor years of experience in integrating computers into the curriculum significantly predicted student learning gains in the regression models. Implications for HRD theory, research, and practice suggest that identifying teacher levels of technical literacy may help improve student academic performance by facilitating professional development strategies and new parameters for defining highly qualified instructors with 21st century skills. District professional development programs can benefit by increasing their offerings to include more computer and information communication technology courses. Teacher preparation programs can benefit by including technical literacy as part of their curriculum. State certification requirements could be expanded to include formal surveys to assess teacher use of technology.