Direct support in supported employment and its relation to job typicalness, coworker involvement, and employment outcomes

Supported employment is a comprehensive package of strategies continually e volving and designed to successfully employ people with disabilities. The e merging nature of natural support is receiving extensive attention. Underst anding and improving natural support strategies is a means to provide uniqu ely distinctive personalized supports. It is this underlying theme that has driven four previous research reports regarding typical employment feature s and their relation to employment outcomes for people with disabilities. I n this report we investigate the previously raised issue that high levels o f direct support are associated with less typicalness, integration, and wag es. This study shows that wage and integration outcomes can be increased, e ven if there is a high level of direct support, if there is coworker traini ng.