Glossary

Disability employment terms, in plain English.

Definitions for the policies, programs, and acronyms behind Bridges' work, written for parents, school staff, employers, and young adults.

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ABLE Account

A tax-advantaged savings account for individuals with disabilities that doesn't count against asset limits for SSI, Medicaid, and other federal benefits.

Created by the 2014 ABLE Act, an ABLE account allows people whose disability began before age 26 (rising to age 46 in 2026) to save for qualified disability expenses such as housing, transportation, education, employment training, and assistive technology, without losing eligibility for means-tested benefits. Annual contributions are capped (around $18,000 in 2024), with higher caps for working ABLE owners. State programs administer accounts; you don't have to use your home state's plan.

Where Bridges fits

Many young adults Bridges places into competitive jobs become first-time wage earners. An ABLE account is often the right way to save those earnings without tripping benefit thresholds. We can connect you with resources to set one up.

Learn more at ABLE National Resource Center ↗

ADA Accommodations

Reasonable adjustments employers must provide to enable workers with disabilities to perform their job, under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Reasonable accommodations are changes to the work environment, schedule, or tools that allow a qualified employee with a disability to perform essential job functions. Common examples include flexible scheduling, written instructions instead of verbal ones, modified workstations, screen readers, or quiet workspaces. The ADA requires accommodations unless they cause undue hardship; most cost less than $500, and many cost nothing at all. The accommodation conversation is interactive: employer and employee work it out together.

Where Bridges fits

Our Youth Employment Specialists help employers and new hires figure out the right accommodations from day one, usually at no cost. We've seen 6,500+ employers do this successfully across the network.

Learn more at Job Accommodation Network ↗

Competitive Integrated Employment (CIE)

A real job, in the regular workforce, paying at least minimum wage. The federal standard for what disability employment programs should aim for.

CIE means three things: real wages (at or above minimum wage, comparable to coworkers in similar roles), a real workplace (alongside non-disabled coworkers, not segregated), and real opportunity (full benefits, advancement, the same employment terms as anyone else). Defined by the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act as the explicit goal for vocational rehabilitation, CIE is contrasted with sheltered workshops and subminimum-wage placements that have been phased out across most of the country.

Where Bridges fits

Every Bridges placement is CIE. We don't run sheltered workshops or subminimum-wage programs. The 23,979 young adults we've placed since 1989 went into competitive jobs at companies like Marriott, Aramark, CVS, Amazon, and many more.

Learn more at U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy ↗

Customized Employment

A job-search approach that builds a position around an individual's strengths, interests, and the specific needs of an employer, rather than slotting the person into an existing job posting.

Customized Employment starts with discovery: deep conversations and observation to identify what someone does well, what they like, and where they thrive. Then a job is negotiated with an employer to match those strengths to a real business need, sometimes carving a new role, sometimes restructuring an existing one. Used most often when traditional placement models don't fit (significant disability, complex needs, or unique skills). Federally recognized under WIOA as a valid placement approach.

Where Bridges fits

Bridges practices supported employment as our primary model, which shares much of customized employment's individualized approach. Our Youth Employment Specialists work one-on-one with each participant on career exploration, job matching, and on-the-job support.

Learn more at U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy ↗

IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act)

The federal law that guarantees free, appropriate public education to children with disabilities, and requires schools to plan for the transition to adult life.

Originally passed in 1975 and reauthorized several times since, IDEA covers students from birth through high school graduation (or age 22 in most states). It mandates Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) for eligible students, including transition planning that begins by age 16. The transition plan addresses postsecondary goals (employment, education, independent living) and outlines the services schools will provide to support those goals. IDEA is the legal authority behind most special education in U.S. public schools.

Where Bridges fits

Bridges partners directly with school districts to deliver the transition-employment piece schools are required to plan for under IDEA. We're often named in students' transition plans as the placement and support service.

Learn more at U.S. Department of Education ↗

IEP Transition Plan

The portion of a student's Individualized Education Program that maps the path from school to adult life. Required by IDEA starting no later than age 16.

Every student with an IEP is supposed to have a transition plan by their 16th birthday (some states require earlier). The plan sets postsecondary goals across employment, education, and independent living, then identifies the services and connections needed to reach them, including agency referrals to vocational rehabilitation, supported employment programs, or community services. The transition plan is reviewed and updated annually. It's the document that often triggers a referral to programs like Bridges.

Where Bridges fits

A transition coordinator or special education teacher can name Bridges in a student's transition plan as the post-graduation employment service. We then carry the work forward: career preparation, placement, and a year of follow-along after the student graduates.

Learn more at Center for Parent Information and Resources ↗

Pre-ETS (Pre-Employment Transition Services)

Federally funded employment-readiness services for high school students with disabilities, delivered by state vocational rehabilitation agencies.

Created by WIOA in 2014, Pre-ETS funds five specific services for students ages 14 to 22 with disabilities: job exploration counseling, work-based learning experiences, workplace readiness training, counseling on postsecondary education and training, and self-advocacy and peer mentoring. State VR agencies must spend at least 15% of their federal grant on Pre-ETS. Programs delivering Pre-ETS contract with VR or partner with schools to reach students before graduation.

Where Bridges fits

Bridges Atlanta and Bridges NYC currently deliver Pre-ETS through partnerships with their state agencies (Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency in Atlanta; the New York City and State Departments of Education in NYC). Other Bridges sites coordinate with local VR systems on related transition services.

Learn more at Rehabilitation Services Administration ↗

Section 504

The federal civil-rights provision that prohibits disability discrimination in any program receiving federal funding, including all U.S. public schools.

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 protects students who have a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity, even if they don't qualify for an IEP under IDEA. Schools develop a 504 plan that lists accommodations such as extended test time, preferential seating, or modified assignments to ensure equal access. 504 plans are common for students with ADHD, anxiety, chronic illness, or learning differences who don't need specialized instruction but do need accommodations to access the general curriculum.

Where Bridges fits

Bridges serves young adults with a wide range of disabilities, including those who had 504 plans rather than IEPs in school. Eligibility for our program isn't tied to a specific federal designation; it's based on need for employment support.

Learn more at U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights ↗

Supported Employment

A long-standing employment model in which a job coach or specialist works alongside a person with a disability to find, learn, and keep a competitive job in the community.

Supported employment includes pre-placement preparation, individualized job matching, on-the-job training (sometimes alongside the person at the worksite), and ongoing follow-along support that can last months or years after a hire. It's the dominant model funded by state vocational rehabilitation agencies for people with significant disabilities. Outcomes are measured in real wages, hours worked, retention, and integration with non-disabled coworkers, not in attendance at a sheltered workshop.

Where Bridges fits

Bridges practices supported employment, with our Youth Employment Specialists serving as the job coaches. We provide career preparation, employer matching, on-the-job support starting day one, and follow-along through the first year of employment with check-ins at 30, 60, and 90 days.

Learn more at Association of People Supporting Employment First ↗

Ticket to Work

A free, voluntary federal program that helps people receiving Social Security disability benefits (SSDI or SSI) try work without immediately losing those benefits.

Run by the Social Security Administration, Ticket to Work assigns participants a ticket they can use with an approved employment network or state vocational rehabilitation agency. The program offers safety-net work incentives: trial work periods, expedited reinstatement of benefits if a job doesn't work out, and continued Medicaid or Medicare access during a transition to work. It's specifically designed to remove the fear that taking a job will instantly cut off benefits.

Where Bridges fits

Many young adults Bridges supports are receiving SSI or SSDI when they enter our program. We help connect participants and families to Ticket to Work counselors who can map out how earnings affect benefits, so the move to a paying job is informed, not surprising.

Learn more at Social Security Administration ↗

Vocational Rehabilitation (VR)

State-run agencies, federally funded, that help people with disabilities prepare for, find, and keep competitive employment.

Every U.S. state and territory has a VR agency, funded primarily by the federal Rehabilitation Services Administration. VR services are free for eligible individuals and can include career counseling, vocational assessments, training, education support, assistive technology, and job placement. VR agencies often contract with community programs (like Bridges) to deliver direct services. The federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act sets the broad framework, with each state deciding implementation details.

Where Bridges fits

Several Bridges sites partner with their state VR agencies as referral and funding partners: Georgia VR (GVRA) in Atlanta, the California Department of Rehabilitation Transition Partnership Program in Los Angeles, the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission in Boston, the Texas Workforce Commission across DFW, and others. VR counselors can refer eligible young adults directly to Bridges.

Learn more at Rehabilitation Services Administration ↗

WIOA (Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act)

The 2014 federal law that consolidated U.S. workforce-development programs and made competitive integrated employment the explicit goal for people with disabilities.

WIOA replaced the older Workforce Investment Act with a unified system covering adult workforce development, dislocated workers, youth employment, vocational rehabilitation, and adult education. Title IV of WIOA (the Rehabilitation Act amendments) is the section most relevant to disability employment: it created Pre-Employment Transition Services, set CIE as the federal standard, and required state VR agencies to spend at least 15% of federal funds on Pre-ETS. WIOA also coordinates how state workforce agencies, VR agencies, and education systems work together.

Where Bridges fits

Bridges operates within the WIOA framework. Our Pre-ETS delivery in Atlanta and NYC is a Title IV service; our state VR partnerships are WIOA-aligned; and the CIE outcome we measure for each placement is what WIOA defines as success.

Learn more at U.S. Department of Labor ↗

WOTC (Work Opportunity Tax Credit)

A federal tax credit for employers who hire from designated groups facing barriers to employment, including individuals receiving SSI and certain other federal benefits.

WOTC offers employers a credit of up to $2,400 per qualifying hire (higher for some groups), claimed against federal income tax. Eligibility is determined at the time of hire: the employer files IRS Form 8850 and a Department of Labor pre-screening notice within 28 days of the start date. WOTC has been continuously authorized since 1996 and is available to private-sector and tax-exempt employers (the latter against payroll tax).

Where Bridges fits

Many young adults Bridges places qualify employers for WOTC, particularly those receiving SSI. We can guide your HR team through the certification paperwork at hire. Hiring through Bridges is also free of recruiting fees, which compounds the savings.

Learn more at U.S. Department of Labor ↗

Youth Employment Specialist (YES)

Bridges' staff role responsible for working one-on-one with young adults from career preparation through their first year on the job.

Every Bridges participant is assigned a Youth Employment Specialist who stays with them through the entire arc: career exploration, workplace-readiness training, resume building, interview prep, employer matching, and onboarding. After a placement, the same specialist supports the new hire through their first 12 months of employment, coordinating with the employer's HR team, troubleshooting day-to-day issues, and following up at 30, 60, and 90-day milestones. Specialists carry small caseloads so each participant gets sustained, individualized attention.

Where Bridges fits

This is the human at the center of every Bridges story. Across the 12 Bridges cities, dozens of Youth Employment Specialists do this work, and the model is why Bridges' 90-day retention rate has averaged 76% over the most recent decade.

Where you come in

Now that the vocabulary is clear.

See how Bridges puts these models into practice across 12 U.S. cities, or connect with your local team.

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