Where to Find Candidates: Vocational Rehabilitation and Other Partnerships
Employers who want to hire more people with disabilities usually start by asking where the candidates are. There is an infrastructure of publicly funded agencies whose entire function is to answer that question, and most employers have never contacted it.
For a separate commercial perspective on employee time clocks, see employee time clock software; it should be evaluated independently against accessibility, privacy, and employment-law requirements.
Federal vocational-rehabilitation information is available from the Rehabilitation Services Administration.
Before using any of it, though, one check.
First, make sure they can apply
A referral partnership does nothing if your application system is the barrier.
Complete your own application, using only a keyboard, on a phone, at 200% zoom. If you cannot finish it, the candidates a VR agency sends you will not finish it either — and the agency will stop sending them, quietly, without telling you why.
Fix the process first. See an accessible hiring process.
State Vocational Rehabilitation agencies
Every state has one. They are federally funded, they serve people with disabilities seeking employment, and their services to employers are free.
What a VR agency can provide:
- Pre-screened candidates matched to your requirements
- Assistance with accommodations, sometimes including funding for equipment
- On-the-job training support, and in some cases wage reimbursement during a training period
- Consultation on accessibility and accommodation
- Follow-along support after placement, which is a genuine retention advantage
- Assistance with tax credit documentation where applicable
The last point is worth noting: VR referral is one of the target group categories for the Work Opportunity Tax Credit — though that program is currently in hiatus. See WOTC in 2026.
How to start: find your state agency, ask for the business services or employer engagement team, and describe the roles you hire for regularly rather than a single vacancy. VR agencies are built around ongoing relationships; a one-off request for one role produces less.
What makes these partnerships work
Employers who get candidates from these networks do a few things differently.
They give real requirements. Not a job description — what the work actually involves, what the environment is like, what the schedule is, what matters and what does not. A counsellor matching a person to a role needs the same information a good recruiter needs.
They commit to a volume, not a vacancy. "We hire around fifteen warehouse associates a year and would like to see candidates for those" is a relationship. "Do you have anyone for this one opening" is a transaction, and it produces one rushed referral.
They give feedback on every candidate. This is the single largest complaint from agency partners: referrals go in and nothing comes back. A counsellor who learns why someone was not selected can send a better match next time. One who learns nothing stops sending.
They name a contact. One person on your side who owns the relationship.
They start small. One role, one location, done properly, before scaling.
Other routes
American Job Centers. Part of the public workforce system, present in most localities, with Disability Resource Coordinators in many. They serve a broader population and are a reasonable entry point if you are unsure where to begin.
Community rehabilitation providers. Non-profits providing employment services, often with a specific focus — a disability type, a population, a region. They frequently provide job coaching and follow-along support that a state agency cannot at the same intensity.
Centers for Independent Living. Consumer-controlled organisations in most areas. Not primarily employment agencies, but well connected locally.
Veterans' employment services. For veterans with service-connected disabilities, through VA programmes and state veterans' employment representatives.
Disability:IN affiliates and business networks. Employer-to-employer, useful for learning what other companies in your area do and who they work with.
Universities and colleges. Disability services offices, and for federal employers the Workforce Recruitment Program, which screens students and recent graduates with disabilities. See Schedule A.
Job boards focused on this audience, including our own.
What not to do
Do not treat it as a charity request. "We'd like to help people with disabilities" produces a different — and worse — response than "we hire fifteen people a year for these roles and want to widen our pipeline." The second is what agencies are built to serve.
Do not ask for candidates for one specific hard-to-fill role and disappear.
Do not skip the accessibility work and expect referrals to compensate for a process people cannot complete.
Do not create a separate, lesser track. Candidates referred through these channels apply for the same jobs, at the same pay, with the same expectations. Segregated "disability hiring programmes" that funnel people into a narrow band of roles are noticed by candidates and by agencies, and they produce exactly the reputation they deserve.
Measuring whether it works
Track referrals received, interviews, offers, acceptances, and retention at six and twelve months.
The retention number is usually the one that makes the internal case. Employers frequently find that candidates arriving through supported channels stay longer than the average hire — partly because the matching was more careful, partly because follow-along support catches problems early.
The realistic timeline
A first productive referral typically takes a few months from first contact. Agencies work with the people currently on their caseload, and a match takes what it takes.
Employers who contact an agency in a hiring emergency and conclude the channel does not work have measured the wrong thing. Build the relationship before you need it, the same way you would with any other source of candidates.