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Resource Guide for Psychology Graduate Students with Disabilities
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Training & Professional Development
APPLYING TO DOCTORAL & POSTDOCTORAL INTERNSHIPS
By Anju Khubchandani, MA
The selection of an internship site is a key factor in providing an optimal environment for academic and professional development. It is important to choose an internship site that maximizes strengths as well as accommodates individual learning and working styles. Students with disabilities should identify the most critical factor(s) in determining an optimal placement and evaluate the site based on what they need on personal and professional levels. For example, one student with a traumatic brain injury selected a small internship setting that had a basic daily routine.
Prohibited Inquiries During the Internship Application Process
Prior to acceptance by an internship site, applicants with disabilities are not required to declare, nor may institutions inquire about, the presence of a disability. They are not required to inform the internship director or other staff about their disability at any time before, during, or after the application process. However, should an accommodation be needed during an interview (a sign language interpreter, for example), this accommodation request should be made well in advance of the meeting.
Questions are prohibited that would likely elicit information about a disability, or whether an applicant has a particular disability. In general, questions are prohibited regarding the nature or severity of disability, the condition causing the disability, prognosis, or treatment. Inquiries should also not be made about possible leave time for treatment, and certainly not about prior worker's compensation claims. These types of questions are now prohibited to ensure that persons with disabilities are given an equal opportunity to apply for a position without regard to their disability.
During the interview process, doctoral and postdoctoral candidates with disabilities should also never be counseled toward more restrictive career options. Students can expect to be informed of the requirements of a given career and the difficulties that might be encountered, but they cannot be counseled away from an area of interest simply because of a disability.
Permissible Inquiries
During the interview, questions can be asked to determine whether or not a candidate is qualified to perform essential functions of the position, as well as to demonstrate how his or her would perform the essential functions with or without a reasonable accommodation. The following scenario serves to illustrate this point.
A candidate arrives for the interview accompanied by a guide dog and is interviewing for a position involving the opportunity to career counsel clients as part of the regular caseload. Such counseling would be integrated with personal-social psychotherapy and would include vocational testing. The applicant could be asked how she/he would administer such tests as the Strong Interest Inventory and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator with an accommodation. It would not be appropriate to ask how the applicant might handle a hypothetical situation in which a patient tries to attack the intern, and the intern does not see him coming (not essential to the intern role), or how long the person has been blind (question will elicit information about a disability).
Information that may be requested on application forms or in interviews includes the following:
- Determining whether the student can perform specific job functions. These types of questions will usually focus on the applicant's ability to perform in the position, technical and professional knowledge, skills, and experiences, but not on a disability itself.
- Asking the candidate to describe or demonstrate how specific job functions would be performed with or without an accommodation.
- Inquiring about nonmedical qualifications and skills, such as education, work history, and required certifications and licenses.
- Asking if the candidate can meet attendance requirements.
Requests for Accommodations
If the candidate knows that accommodations will be required at the internship site, it is best to disclose after an offer has been made and accepted, but otherwise as early as possible, either orally or in writing, to the appropriate person. Internship programs must make reasonable accommodations or adjustments for qualified individuals with known disabilities. An institution is not liable for failing to make accommodations or adjustments for a student's disability if the student has not disclosed the disability or requested assistance. It is imperative that, at this stage of the educational process, students become effective self-advocates, responsible for planning all aspects of their education and ensuring that the proper administrators and staff know of any special needs. The process of providing reasonable accommodations should proceed in an individualized, rational, and systematic fashion. If a qualified intern with a disability identifies the need for an accommodation, the training site should make every attempt to provide an accommodation that will give the individual an opportunity to be equally effective in performing the position's essential functions and in enjoying benefits and privileges equal to those enjoyed by other individuals.
"It is imperative that, at this stage of the educational process, students become effective self-advocates, responsible for planning all aspects of their education and ensuring that the proper administrators and staff know of any special needs."
Tips for Students
- Do NOT allow or encourage others to do things for you that you can do for yourself. Instead, learn to use adaptive tools and technologies and alternative techniques.
- Meet with the internship director, or another identified staff person, as soon as possible to advise him/her of your unique needs as a student with a disability and provide suggestions regarding how you can use alternative means to accomplish tasks and activities.
- Offer to demonstrate for staff any adaptive tools you use.
- Stay in close communication with the internship director and staff. If the internship site refuses to make a requested accommodation, speak to the internship director directly and follow up your conversation with a written note summarizing the discussion. If there is no change, work your way through the chain of command until you have resolved the issue.
- When requesting desired services and accommodations, be polite but firm, and make your needs known.
- Establish connections with community resources. Contact with local vocational rehabilitation service directors can provide a solid link to potential community resources.
References
Americans With Disabilities Act, 1990, P. L. 101-336, 42 U.S.C. Sec 12101.
Association of American Medical Colleges. (June 1993). The disabled student in medical school: An overview of legal requirements. Washington, DC: Author.
LRP Publications. (May 1999). Attorneys create accessibility guidelines to assure internship opportunities. Disability Compliance for Higher Education, 4(10), 16.
Selected Resources Related to This Article
Association of Psychology Postdoctoral & Internship Centers (APPIC)
The Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) provides information for use by psychology intern applicants, psychology interns, postdoctoral psychologists, trainers of psychology, and psychology faculty members. APPIC's training resources include materials for students with disabilities. This and other information can be found on APPIC's Web site at www.appic.org/training/index.html. You may contact APPIC at 202-589-0600.
APA-Program Consultation and Accreditation-Education Directorate
The Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation at the American Psychological Association is able to provide information on legal and ethical obligations regarding accommodating applicants and interns with disabilities in accredited internship sites. For information, you may visit the Web site at www.apa.org, or call 202-336-5979.
APA-Disabilities Issues Office- Public Interest Directorate
The office provides information and referrals, offers technical assistance, and develops and disseminates reports, pamphlets, and other written materials on student, professional, and consumer issues. The office also provides support to APA's Committee on Disability Issues in Psychology. For more information, you can visit the Web site at www.apa.org/pi/disability or call 202-336-6038(V)/202-336-5662(TTY).
WRITING FOR PUBLICATION: AN ESSENTIAL SKILL FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
By Kathleen Kendall-Tackett, PhD
Do you have something you want to say? A point you want to make? A perspective you want to share? Then you must write. Writing is one of the most important skills for you to acquire, whether you are in academics or clinical practice. Yet this skill is often overlooked in graduate training. Let's face it. Graduate school is demanding even for the able-bodied. Free time is scarce. As a graduate student with a disability, you may have even less free time because the activities of daily living just take longer.
So why should you bother? Because in the academic world, publications are the coin of the realm. And people with disabilities are not well represented among people who publish. If you want to advance in your field, you must publish. Remember, science moves forward via communication among scientists-and articles are the way by which you do this. Writing also helps establish you as an expert in your field of study. By writing articles, you have the opportunity to review for journals, giving you yet another opportunity to influence your field. Publications are also the vehicle that leads to job opportunities and promotions. This can give psychologists with disabilities, especially those who are not employed full-time, a chance at a level playing field. I work part time because of my disability, but I have almost 100 articles published, 6 books, and more that are due next year. Having a good publication track record has opened up many opportunities for me that are generally not available to part-timers.
So How Do We Write for Publication?
In this article, I concentrate on taking articles through the publication process, because this is the most difficult part for many people. I focus primarily on journal articles, as they can be the hardest kind of publication to get. But you will find that the advice I offer below also applies to other types of publications as well.
I often characterize publication as half skill, half attitude. Approach this process with confidence and persistence. Here are some tips that will get you started.
Pick your journal before you write. Before you write a single sentence, know where your article is going. So many professionals write the article, and then start shopping for a journal. Each journal has its own style, requirements, and type of article it likes to publish. Always remember that you are writing for an audience of a particular journal, and the needs of readers should be foremost in your mind.
To pick an appropriate journal, think about the main journals in your field of study (and don't limit your search only to APA journals). Which journals do you tend to cite most frequently? Which are read most often? Which ones publish the type of data that you have (e.g., don't send an article that describes a survey to a journal that mainly favors experimental studies)? Don't fall into the trap of always trying to write for the "most prestigious" journal in your field. Your work may not be appropriate for it. Send it to a journal that will be read by your colleagues. As you write, you may change your mind. But thinking about the journal ahead of time will help you focus.
Learn to handle "revise & resubmits." One of the most difficult aspects of writing is negative feedback. Whenever you get a rejection, or even a "revise and resubmit," you can feel like the only one who has ever had someone say something mean about your work. Our peers and colleagues are often reluctant to share their 19 negative reviews with others. The good news is that everyone-even "stars"-gets occasional negative comments. Revise and resubmits may be your most common response. Often, authors don't know how to handle these and may do nothing for months (or even years). Here are a couple of ways that you need to deal effectively with them.
- Limit your period of mourning. Unfortunately, comments from reviewers can be quite hurtful and sometimes inappropriate or rude. Go ahead and be mad, but limit your mourning period to a week. Then get to work on making the revisions.
- Know that reviewers are human. Just because a reviewer doesn't like a particular paper doesn't mean that it is bad. Your paper may be outside his/her area of expertise. Your paper may not express your ideas as clearly as it could. Or the reviewer may be having a bad day. Be open to constructive criticism, but also know that reviewers can be wrong.
- Realize that you don't have to make every suggested change. A comment from a reviewer usually indicates that something in your paper is not clear. However, you do not need to make every change. Acknowledge the reviewers' concerns, and politely explain in your letter that accompanies your revised manuscript why you decided not to make the change.
- Be polite. And speaking of letters, always assume that reviewers will receive a copy of yours. Pointing out the reviewer's obviously flawed thinking is ultimately not in your best interest. If a reviewer asks for a change that is wrong, politely point out the problem, and perhaps indicate a related change that you did make.
- Get emotional support. It can be very discouraging to spend time and effort on a masterpiece, only to have some thoughtless reviewer rip it up. Have someone in your social or professional circle that you can commiserate with. But then get back to work!
Consider alternate vehicles for publication. So many of the reward systems of academics focus on journal articles. We often forget (or maybe never knew) that other types of publications will get our work known, and even be helpful. Articles I have written for newsletters and magazines have had more readers than many of my journal articles. And when it comes to having our say, this is an important consideration.
Write brief reports. Brief reports are mini journal articles. These are great for when you have a little bit of interesting data that doesn't warrant a full-length journal article. Many journal editors like these too, thereby increasing the likelihood that they will accept your article. The instructions to authors will list length requirements.
Publish in newsletters. Newsletters can be another great place to publish your work. These articles can be especially helpful to clinicians because the articles synthesize research and suggest clinical applications. Newsletters from professional organizations and APA divisions are often good places to start. Contact the editor to see if he/she is interested in an article, and what the requirements are.
Use electronic media. Publishing on the Web is just in its infancy. Over the next few years, we will see an explosion of information available via the Internet. This is yet another opportunity for you. Find out what types of publications are available and if they would be interested in receiving an article from you.
Act Like a Professional
I am always amazed at the number of people in our field who make commitments to do work and casually miss or blow off deadlines. Editors often tell me that I am the only one who met the deadline for a chapter or article. I strongly advise you to keep your commitments. Just because "everyone" misses deadlines doesn't mean it is a good idea for you. Take your deadlines seriously and do your best to meet them. If you must miss a deadline, contact the person who is requesting the article and let them know when you will be able to get it to them. Your behavior will be so unusual that soon others will want to work with you, too.
In closing, I suggest that you write with boldness and give yourself permission to learn. That includes making plenty of mistakes. If writing were easy, everyone would do it. Your work is important, and so is your perspective as a person with a disability. See you in print!
HOW TO BE INVOLVED IN PEER REVIEWS
By Kathleen Kendall-Tackett, PhD
Students (and psychologists) with disabilities are encouraged to participate in the "editorial pipeline." This includes reviewing for APA journals and being on editorial boards. To help demystify this process, I contacted Gary VandenBos, PhD, executive director of APA's Office of Databases and Publications. The following is excerpted from our correspondence.
How does someone become a peer reviewer for an APA journal?
In terms of "becoming a reviewer," the facts are that very few editors invite potential reviewers who are NOT active researchers/authors. It is a "peer review" process, so one needs to be appropriately qualified as a "peer," even if at the very low level. In their first, second, or third year out of graduate school, graduates are unlikely to be regularly used as ad hoc reviewers unless they somehow got quite involved in publishing while still in graduate school and had five, six, or seven publications by the time they got their PhD.
Realistically, in the more typical case, one needs to be 4 years or more out of graduate school. One should probably have at least two data-based empirical articles per year for each year out. The best bet is to let the editor of a journal in which you have published at least two articles know that you are interested in reviewing for the journal. Editors are always looking for reviewers, and the places you are publishing already are the places most likely to view you as qualified and a peer.
After someone has been a reviewer for a while, how does she/he become a member of an editorial board?
The usual pattern is that if you have regularly done four or five reviews as an ad hoc reviewer for a given editor/journal (and the editor/ journal has found them useful), they invite you. Sometimes, an editor does not notice the pattern and overlooks someone. I have done it myself.
If they do not ask you, then, after doing three or four reviews per year for the same journal/editor for 3 to 4 years, I think it is reasonable to write the editor, point out what you have been doing (and he/she has asked you to do), and ask to be appointed to the editorial board (or for information on what more is needed from you in order for you to be invited to be on the editorial board.This can be done in a friendly, colleague-to-colleague manner that is frank and direct without being a big-deal conflict. Someone who wanted to fight for the sake of fighting would have written their note quite differently.
When contacting an editor, would it be appropriate to identify yourself as a person with a disability?
Editors want qualified and relevant reviewers. Reviewers are volunteers, so editors are always looking for good volunteers.
The major qualifications are "currently publishing empirical work on this topic," "being current in one's own reading of the literature," and "able to write critical, thoughtful, and helpful reviews."
Editors are not generally very interested in gender, ethnicity, or disability status. Editors have often never met more than half of the ad-hoc reviewers they use.When we asked editors to identify the ethnic minorities among their ad hoc reviewers, they told us that 2.5% were EMs. When we checked their ad-hoc reviewer list against the APA list of known EMs, the rate of participation was actually 4.5%.The editors had selected the reviewers based on their reputation and publishing record, not their ethnicity.
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