Towards Access, Accountability, Procedural Regularity and Participation: The Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1992 and 1993

The Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1992, themselves recently amended by 1993 statutory changes, mark the first major revision of federal-state vocational rehabilitation program and the other provisions of the Rehabilitation Act since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Although most of the regulations to implement the law are still in the process of being developed, rehabilitation professionals should begin now to plan for such innovations as presumed eligibility for vocational rehabilitation services, national evaluation standards, and performance indicators, independent hearing officers to decide appeals, and client choice of goals and services. The purpose of this article is to be a guide to the most important of the revisions in the rehabilitation law, analyzing them in relation to their intended goals of improving access to services, enhancing accountability, increasing procedural regularity, and expanding client participation in rehabilitation services choices. The article concludes that some of the changes made by the new laws are highly likely to meet their goals. Others will meet their immediate objectives, though they may have more difficulty fulfilling their real purposes. Finally, some changes have utterly unpredictable results; developments will require close watching by rehabilitation practitioners