Our Belief

 We believe vocational rehabilitation is most effective when individuals are active participants in the process.

Support should begin with understanding the individual—their strengths, goals, experiences, and needs—while also examining the environments and systems in which they are working, learning, and participating.

Barriers may arise from many places, including access to information, communication, transportation, workplace expectations, available resources, or the systems surrounding the individual. Identifying where those barriers occur helps determine what support may be most useful.

Our goal is to build capacity rather than dependency by strengthening knowledge, skills, self-advocacy, and access to resources so individuals can make informed decisions and move toward greater independence in employment and community life.

 We begin by understanding the individual within the context of their goals, experiences, strengths, environment, relationships, resources, and the systems in which they participate.

Rather than beginning with a predetermined solution, we look across the larger situation to understand how those factors are interacting and influencing participation and outcomes. This may include examining communication and language, access to information, transportation, technology, workplace expectations, environmental conditions, available resources, system processes, and other factors relevant to the individual’s goals.

Our approach follows a flexible process:

Understand the situation → Identify strengths and needs → Recognize patterns, gaps, and barriers → Locate decision and leverage points → Determine appropriate supports → Take action → Evaluate outcomes

Support is individualized and adjusted as circumstances change. Throughout the process, the focus remains on strengthening the individual’s knowledge, skills, judgment, participation, self-advocacy, and ability to navigate future situations with greater autonomy.

 Assessment & Planning
Understanding the individual, their goals, current circumstances, strengths, resources, needs, and the systems affecting participation. Assessment helps identify patterns, gaps, barriers, and potential decision or leverage points that can inform next steps. 

DVR service: Preliminary Assessment

Employment Preparation & Job Readiness
Building the knowledge and skills needed to explore employment opportunities, prepare for work, navigate the job-search process, and understand workplace expectations.

DVR services: Job Readiness Training; Job Search Assistance; Job Exploration – Pre-ETS; Workplace Readiness Training – Pre-ETS

Workplace & On-the-Job Support
Supporting individuals as they enter employment, learn workplace expectations and responsibilities, identify barriers, develop strategies, and increase independence in the work environment.

DVR services: On-the-Job Supports; Work-Based Learning – Pre-ETS

Self-Advocacy & Systems Navigation
Helping individuals understand choices, participate in decisions, communicate their needs, access resources, and navigate systems with increasing independence.

DVR service: Self-Advocacy Instruction – Pre-ETS

Transition & Postsecondary Planning
Supporting students as they explore employment, education, training, and pathways from school into adult systems.

DVR service: Transition/Postsecondary Education Counseling – Pre-ETS

 In addition to vocational rehabilitation and systems-navigation support, My Interpreting Service brings specialized knowledge in Deaf and hard-of-hearing communication access, ASL, language and communication development, interpreting, and language dysfluency and deprivation.

This specialized knowledge can be important when communication, language, access, or interpreter-related factors are influencing employment preparation, participation, decision-making, training, workplace success, or navigation of rehabilitation services.

When those factors are present, we can examine them as part of the larger ecology rather than treating them as separate from the individual’s employment goals.

When appropriate, rehabilitation services may be provided directly in ASL, allowing individuals to work one-on-one with an ASL-fluent provider without relying on interpreted communication for the service itself.

Support may include direct one-on-one services in ASL, communication and language access assessment, interpreter-service consultation, analysis of environmental or systemic access barriers, coordination with rehabilitation professionals, mentoring or capacity building, and ASL-English interpreting when appropriate.

Support may include communication and language access assessment, interpreter-service consultation, analysis of environmental or systemic access barriers, coordination with rehabilitation professionals, mentoring or capacity building, and ASL-English interpreting when appropriate.

The goal is to help ensure that communication and access needs are understood within the broader vocational rehabilitation process and that supports strengthen participation, autonomy, and long-term success.

 My Interpreting Service partners with Alaska Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (DVR) to support individuals working toward employment, education, and greater independence.

We are approved to provide services through DVR in two distinct roles:

Community Rehabilitation Provider (CRP)
Providing individualized vocational rehabilitation services focused on assessment, employment preparation, workplace support, self-advocacy, transition, and capacity building.

ASL–English Interpreting Provider
Providing professional ASL–English interpreting services to support effective communication access throughout the vocational rehabilitation process.

 We are committed to providing individualized, responsive services that recognize each person’s strengths, goals, circumstances, and right to participate meaningfully in decisions that affect their lives.

Our role is not to create long-term dependence on support, but to help individuals strengthen the knowledge, skills, judgment, strategies, self-advocacy, and connections they can carry forward into future situations.

Through collaboration, reflection, assessment, and ongoing evaluation, we work to ensure that supports remain purposeful, appropriate, and responsive to changing needs.

The goal is greater capacity, informed participation, increased autonomy, and the ability to navigate future employment, education, and community systems with greater confidence and independence.