Collaborator Feedback

AccessSTEM CAREERS staff members regularly solicit feedback from mentors and collaborators. Comments from this reporting period included the following comments:

• “DO-IT and AccessSTEM CAREERS has allowed us to extend our reach and serve our Bellevue College students with disabilities much more effectively.  DO-IT has helped the Center for Career Connections make our website, print publications, and physical space all more accessible. Here’s one small example: every year, we receive many compliments and queries from other colleges about our online career pathways tools, but until 2015 these tools were not navigable by screen readers. AccessSTEM CAREERS staff worked with our web developer to devise solutions that made these online tools fully accessible.”
  – Postsecondary career center partner
   
• “AccessSTEM CAREERS staff have helped us launch several new initiatives. Their staff helped plan and present our first ever workshop on Disability Disclosure in the Job Search and the Workplace this May. They have provided important support during the four years of our participation in the Workforce Recruitment Program, the marquis federal internship and jobs program for students with disabilities.  This June, Bellevue College played host to the Washington State Business Leadership Network’s first-ever Disability Career Fair, and we simply could not have done it without the support of our friends at AccessSTEM CAREERS. This was a major event attended by 30 of the largest employers in the state, including Microsoft, Boeing, Nordstrom, and Alaska Airlines. Project staff worked shoulder to shoulder with BC personnel to assist with planning details, arranging accommodations, and assisting with community and employer relations. Project staff also hosted a resource room for attendees and brought their ATeam of amazing student employees to provide frontline support on the day of the event. The event was a huge success, and most of the credit should go to DO-IT and AccessSTEM CAREERS. Simply put, AccessSTEM CAREERS staff know how to break down barriers that stand between students with disabilities and the world of work. They have been our best, most reliable partners over the past few years.”
  – Postsecondary career center partner
   
• “The resources provided for students with disabilities, including skill-building workshops and targeted career fairs, are immensely helpful for students to build their networks, learn to advocate for themselves, articulate their skills, and help the students leverage their disability as an asset. Students that are involved in AccessSTEM CAREERS are very well-prepared for the workforce.”
  – Microsoft employee partner