Rehabilitation Instructor

Overview

This position will be located in the Las Vegas area of the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation's Rehabilitation division. The Rehabilitation Instructor for the Older Individuals who are Blind (OIB) program provides essential services to individuals with visual impairments, focusing on delivering high-quality instruction, evaluations, and case management to help participants achieve their independent living and vocational goals. This role involves conducting timely eligibility determinations and assessments, evaluating participants' daily living skills and assistive devices, and collaborating with participants to create individualized adjustment training plans tailored to their goals, strengths, and preferences.

The Rehabilitation Instructor delivers training while maintaining regular contact with participants and ensuring compliance with federal regulations and agency policies through accurate and timely documentation. Additionally, the role includes building and sustaining relationships with community partners, service providers, and vendors to promote agency services and foster new opportunities for collaboration.

• Assist blind and visually impaired clients in achieving employability, personal adjustment, and maximum independence through training in alternative techniques of worksite functionality and daily living in the client’s work site, residence, and in the community.
• Counsel clients toward a positive self-image and instruct clients in the use of assistive computer technology and low vision aids.
• Conduct assessments to determine the extent of clients’ visual and secondary disabilities; interview clients; interpret medical records; identify client needs related to daily living, barriers to employment, mobility, computer proficiency, and communication abilities and deficiencies; coordinate other services based on client needs.
• Assist clients in orientation and adjustment to visual impairment; provide instruction and alternative techniques for shopping, food preparation, personal grooming, use of assistive devices for managing finances, and developing Braille reading and writing skills; provide instruction in the use of magnifiers, illumination controls, adaptive aids, and assistive computer technologies.
• Counsel clients to address the psychological aspects of vision loss relative to a positive self-image and instill motivation; identify and address clients’ anxieties and provide skills necessary to cope with attitudes generated by the public and family members.
• Conduct functional near vision evaluations; assimilate medical information regarding clients’ eye conditions, visual acuities, visual fields and secondary disabilities; determine clients’ functional residual vision; evaluate clients’ need for adaptive computer technology hardware and software and make appropriate recommendations.
• Conduct work site evaluations; determine adaptability; identify and recommend modifications and/or alternative techniques to meet clients’ needs for the performance of job duties.
• Use computers, software and hard copy files to maintain required case file documentation; report and evaluate clients' progress toward goals and objectives as a member of the rehabilitation team.
• Conduct in-service training and educational lectures and demonstrations for employers, schools, clubs and organizations in the community; provide information regarding visual rehabilitation and foster awareness and understanding of persons with visual disabilities; act as a consultant and liaison to the community; provide information; transcribe Braille; identify vendors of adaptive computer technologies, aids and appliances.
• Perform related duties as assigned.
• Under general direction, incumbents perform the full range of duties described above. Work is reviewed through written status reports and verbal progress reports. This is the journey level in the series. It is distinguished from the lower level by a greater scope of responsibility.

• Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university in rehabilitation teaching of the blind or closely related field and one year of professional…