Weyland Billingsley, Jim Knauss, and Leon Oehlers

     Alvin Toffler, author of the books Future Shock (Toffler, 1970) and The Third Wave (Toffler, 1980), brought to our attention the fact that civilization is changing. The First Wave was the agricultural revolution that changed hunter-gatherers to farmers. The Second Wave took the farmers off the land and into the factories during the industrial revolution. Now we are moving into the Third Wave that many call the information age. All of these revolutions took time and affected different groups in different ways, but all were characterized by a massive change in how people lived and conducted their lives.

     As we move from an industrial society to an information society in the 21st century, we see great changes in our manufacturing processes. In fact, these are the first areas to be affected by the use of computers. Ask any autoworker in the 1970s. However, these changes are still in progress. Next affected were the more concrete office processes such as accounting and word processing. Where have all the typing pools gone? Now the change is affecting more professional areas such as rehabilitation. Today most rehabilitation professionals who work for state agencies are in traditional office environments. Most spend a good portion of time doing paperwork and meeting with or calling clients. In some offices, not much has changed since World War II except for a few computers sitting on the secretaries’ desks. On the other hand, in a few agencies, everyone has a laptop, works virtually four days a week, and receives e-mail messages from potential clients for more information. Most state agencies are somewhere in between.

     Most VR agencies now have Web pages. Their level of sophistication varies greatly, from a basic page of information to a complex series of pages containing information on local offices and state policy with links to other sites. A recent television advertisement for a regional Bell company depicts the boss asking a group of employees what they are looking at on their computers. One woman answers, "My son’s elementary school class has a new Web page." Surprised, the boss says, "Why don’t we have a Web page?" The next scene shows the elementary school kids looking at the new Web page for the mom’s company. One of the kids asks, "Does it get a lot of hits?"

    The question now for vocational rehabilitation (VR) is, "Does your Web page get a lot of hits?" Can VR keep up with the expectations and needs of our consumers as well as businesses in modern society? Our consumers are becoming more computer literate. Recently a VR counselor who is a novice computer user came to her supervisor for help. A client was requesting training to become a certified Novell engineer. She was having difficulty communicating with him about his career goals since her understanding of the field was so limited. Another client was assisted in setting up a home-based business. A few years ago, job opportunities for him would have been very limited since he has high-level quadriplegia and uses a mouth stick to work his computers. He is now developing and designing Web pages, does some programming, and consults with small businesses that don’t have an information technology department.

     VR has historically been the expert in placing persons with disabilities into employment. To continue to do so, we must have current knowledge of how business works. When we help our consumers get ready for employment, they need to know what is expected from them on the job. Appropriate dress is just one of those things. In the new business world, dress can run the gamut from suit and tie to polo shirt and khakis to T-shirts and cut-off jeans. Working hours have also changed. People work any time and almost anywhere to get the job done. In this new paradigm, people have been observed at 11:00 p.m. in the Waffle House, laptop booted up, working on some project over coffee.

     Can VR keep up with the changes and maintain effectiveness and credibility in the future? This is the obvious challenge affecting rehabilitation as we move into a Third Wave civilization. Many attributes give us a start in the right direction. Our staffs are well educated and open to continued learning. We are geographically dispersed and used to working in new and rapidly changing situations. Most of us are familiar with technology since we have been applying various forms of assistive work technology to enable persons with severe disabilities to enter new fields of employment. To keep up, VR must move toward applying the new technology, specifically the Internet, in our normal work environment. As VR moves in that direction, work will be done in a variety of places and times. Rehabilitation may become a virtual organization working more effectively with the community and in the community.

    Or rather the question should be, How have you communicated with your VR counselor recently? Communication is the heart of our profession. Developing the counseling relationship with clients, the working relationship with our fellow professionals, and the business relationship with employers are all predicated on communication. Rehabilitation professionals are experts at individual and group communication.

     In the past, VR relied on the available technology, the black rotary dial phone and the U.S. Postal Service. Eventually manual typewriters gave way to electric typewriters. The single-line phone started to develop buttons along with more lines. Copy machines made their debut, and we entered into the era of paper proliferation with a vengeance. Everyone needed a copy of everything to make it official. Case files acquired new thickness and file cabinets multiplied. For most of us the facsimile machine was our first introduction to electronic communications. The fax machine scanned documents, converted them into digital information, and transmitted them to another machine. Many people still working will remember when their office first got a fax machine. Usually that was after several years of doctors’ offices asking them, "Can I fax that over to you?"

     Starting in the 1980s the first computers made their appearance in rehabilitation offices. Many had been using mainframes for financial accounting and compilation of data. Often the first part of the computer seen in local VR offices was a terminal for clerical staff to enter data (usually financial) into a remote mainframe. Soon stand-alone computers (personal computers or PCs) were showing up on secretaries’ desks, mostly for word-processing tasks. Typewriters were still needed for the carbon-packs and for business letters since the early printers were dot matrix and required continuous sheets of paper with holes in the side for the tractor feed.

     Presently we are inundated with new means of communication. Voice mail has been added to our telephones, permitting short messages to be left and checked, even from remote phones. Tele-conferencing is easily set up and used when needed. Most of us have our own outgoing line and many more buttons than we will ever use on our phone. This points to the need for equipment to be easy to learn and simple to use. If it is too difficult, people tend not to use it.

     E-mail has joined the fax machine, the mail, and the phone as a main means of communication. E-mail functions as a combination of letter writing and voice communications. It can quickly be broadcast to many people at the same time and can be ignored or read later according to the reader’s priorities and interests. Usage varies greatly at this time according to staff interests and needs. Some are reluctant basic users while others communicate with clients, other professionals, and employers on a regular basis. E-mail is being used just like the phone was used for both formal and informal communications. Informal information networks cross hierarchy and agency/non-agency boundaries and are often very efficient in spreading information throughout an organization.

     Access to the Internet has been fairly recent for rehabilitation agencies. While staff could dial into bulletin boards, such as the one hosted by the University of West Virginia since the late 1980s, the Internet started being available in the early 1990s (Zakon, 2000). We already see increases in access to information. Staff search for information about jobs, disabilities, laws, and community resources. Clients come to rehabilitation with information in the same areas.

     The resources available via the Internet and World Wide Web continue to expand, change, and impact the world. "On-line revolution" and "information age" have become commonplace expressions in our society. Internet/World Wide Web informational access is rapidly becoming an integral part of our social, academic, and professional lives. Internets, intranets, and the World Wide Web offer an exciting yet challenging constellation of resources and options related to rehabilitation research, process, and outcome. There is a plethora of on-line resources related to rehabilitation research, community employment, disabilities, independent living, assistive technologies, legislation, advocacy, medical…and the list goes on. Accessing, evaluating, and managing files of Web-based resources are skill areas that can enhance rehabilitation efforts and consumer choice and open opportunities for successful employment outcomes. McFarland (1999) stated the following:

"Rehabilitation providers need to value the responsibility for their life-long learning, and to be active participants in their learning. The technological advances of the Internet and World Wide Web, distance learning, CD-ROMs, and the myriad of educational resources available provide extensive learning opportunities for the rehabilitation provider" (p. 8).

     Rehabilitation staff will need to develop knowledge, skills, and abilities for efficient and effective utilization of Web-based resources. Some of those skills are effectively operating software designed for navigating the Internet/World Wide Web and proprietary intranets, locating and assessing the desired information, getting the information to the personal computer, and managing a "personal file library" of on-line resources for efficient personal access.

    How will VR use the Internet in the future? This is the question that we explore in this IRI document. Both challenges and opportunities abound. We offer a plethora of uses for the Internet gathered from the experiences of field staff in several states. The section on how to use the Internet provides some guidance on what is needed, how to navigate and, very important, how to classify the information that we spend time and effort gathering. Accessibility to information on the Internet for persons with disabilities is explored. Chapter 4 discusses the role of information technology in organizational change. The final chapter offers interim thoughts on the future of the use of the Internet and its implications for VR agencies and the profession of rehabilitation.

McFarland, F. (1999). The expanded importance and expectations for lifelong learning and continuing education in rehabilitation. Rehabilitation Education, 13(1), 8.

Toffler, A. (1970). Future Shock. New York: Bantam Books.

Toffler, A. (1980). The Third Wave. New York: Wm. Morrow and Co.

Zakon, R. H. (2000). Hobbes’ Internet Timeline v5.0 [on-line]. Available at http://info.isoc.org/guest/zakon/Internet/History/HIT.html

Link to Top of Page

Document Links Menu

Table of Contents  -  Introduction  -  Chapter 1  - Chapter 2  - Chapter 3  -  Chapter 4  - Chapter 5 

Glossary - Standards for Ethical Practice of  WebCounseling  - Internet Addresses -  Resources

Computer Literacy Self Survey  - Web Site URLs for Regional RCEPs, CRP-RCEPs and DBTAC

Link here to email  Leon Oehlers, MS, CRC - Region 6 RCEP Webmaster to report broken hyperlinks, new URLs, and/or additional information:  loehlers@rcep6.org