Designing Statewide Strategies & Programs

National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability For Youth
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Some state and district officials
raised the issue of the degree to
which assessments and career
development related activities
were non-accessible for youth with
significant disabilities.
Many states do not purchase a
vendor license to provide a single
online career information system
for all of their students, which
hinders ePortfolio portability (e.g.,
when districts purchase their own
subscription with a given vendor,
the ePortfolio may not be accessible
to students if they move out of
district or after unless the school or
college they attend also subscribes
to the same vendor or the student
purchases an individual subscription).
Some districts or schools are using
one or more of the existing vendors
but not to the system’s full potential.
Each CIS is proprietary, and therefore
a state, organization, or personal
subscription will be needed to
gain access to the ePortfolio.
An alternative is to transfer key
information that is housed in a
proprietary portfolio into a free
access ePortfolio system (e.g.,
LinkedIn).
CIS Implementation Strategies
Engaging in the following activities can assist
states in effectively leveraging CIS to support
career development programming:
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Consider supporting a statewide
web-based CIS that offers an
ePortfolio for residents of all ages
to provide lifelong access to career
development resources (e.g., selfexploration,
career exploration, job
search, resumes, career goals, etc.)
(Solberg, Wills, & Larson, 2013).
This will require changes in funding
priorities and budgeting for system
maintenance.
Ensure that CIS design specifications
conform to the World Wide
Web Consortium’s Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines and those
established by Section 508 of the
Rehabilitation Act to enable all youth
to access career development tools
and activities. In addition, ensure that
the CIS specifications also conform
to the three principles of universal
design for learning: 1) multiple
means of representation; 2) multiple
means of action and expression; and
3) multiple means of engagement.
Involve multiple state agencies in
developing and implementing design
specifications for web-based career
information systems to ensure that a
state contract meets the interests of
different sectors and departments. If
individual districts must pay for the
system, provide them with a set of
functional requirements they can use
in bidding contracts (Solberg, Wills,
& Larson, 2013).
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