THE VALIDATION OF THE TRANSITION-TO-WORK INVENTORY - A JOB PLACEMENT SYSTEM FOR WORKERS WITH SEVERE DISABILITIES

The reliability and validity of the Transition-to-Work Inventory (TWI; Friedman et al., 1996), which is designed to diagnose worker/job fit problems for individuals with severe disabilities, was assessed Worker /job analyses were conducted using the TWI for 64 workers with severe disabilities, in 35 jobs at II different organizations. These analyses were performed by supported employment staff Members and other job-co ntent experts. Worker's capabilities (as determined by the worker anal ysis) and the job's requirements (as determined by the job analysis) w ere directly compared to each other to determine potential ''target it em'' problems for the worker (i.e., items designating activities that the worker may have difficulties performing). Once target items had be en determined, their importance to task performance was rated, and cor relations between the items' importance to tasks and actual performanc e were computed. Results indicated that TWI ratings of both worker cap abilities and job requirements were reliable. In addition, the TWI was deter-mined to have predictive validity. The more important the worke r's target items were rated for task performance, the greater were the decreases in the worker's performance appraisal ratings. Results indi cate that specific problems for worker performance can be assessed usi ng this instrumentation.