About the Digitability Program
What is Digitability?
Digitability is an award-winning, work-ready program used in classrooms to prepare students with autism and other cognitive disabilities for today's highly social, tech-driven workplaces.
Be work-ready with Digitability.
According to the Department of Labor, nearly 75% of all jobs require digital literacy. For people with cognitive disabilities to achieve their independence, digital literacy, social skills and a contextual understanding of technology's use in the workplace are essential. Without these work-ready skills, our students face a critical barrier to becoming independent self-advocates.
Digitability is the bridge from a student's education to fulfilling work post-transition. You can learn more about Digitability by requesting a free quote.
Digitability's Origin Story
Digitability was born out of advocacy and designed for adolescents and adults with a cognitive disability.
Digitability's award-winning work-ready training program was created by Michele McKeone, M. Ed., a special education teacher who taught students with a wide range of cognitive and behavioral needs.
While teaching, Michele realized that students with disabilities were pigeonholed into unemployment or underemployment. Her observation mirrored the 70% unemployment rate for people with cognitive disabilities. Michele recognized that in order for her students to achieve their independence and obtain employment, they would need to overcome society's immense social and psychological barriers to achieve their independence.
Going beyond social and psychological barriers.
Throughout her years teaching, Michele worked with a wide range of students with cognitive and behavioral needs. Her students ranged in verbal ability, IQ, auditory processing speeds, speech and language needs, fine motor skills, executive functions, social and emotional development. Nonetheless, the classroom maintained high expectations and each student worked to build their skills-based portfolio and develop critical workplace social and communication skills.
Leveling the playing field and competing with neurotypical peers. In 2010, Michele's students competed and placed third in the multimedia category of Philadelphia's Regional Computer Fair. Using the curriculum and methodology of Digitability, she taught her students a wide range of technological, communication, and social skills needed to compete. However, the ultimate goal was to teach students to persevere and become empowered self-advocates.
Now effective work-ready and self-advocacy training can be implemented in any classroom through Digitability.
By teaching her students marketable, digital life skills and building their self-advocacy skills, Michele was able to increase her students' transition outcomes and employment opportunities. Through Digitability, students across the country are now developing work-ready skills and overcoming barriers to employment.
Digitability has been recognized for its innovation and has been featured on MSNBC, CNET, NPR, TechCrunch and showcased at Silicon Valley's Social Innovation Summit.
Just as Michele saw a need for more services for her own students, we hear parents, teachers, administrators, and advocates loud and clear when they ask for more supportive transition programs. With an increase in early intervention resources, we are seeing an increase in educational outcomes; however, there are still very few resources to support adolescents; many are left without a plan for their future transition. To learn more about bringing Digitability to your school or organization, please contact us.
Ready to bring Digitability to your school?
Download a Free Product Packet
Share Digitability with your school or service provider today!
Request a Free Quote
Let Digitability's friendly support team walk you through the program.
Video Library
Watch Digitability's news, evidence-based practices and success stories!
How Digitability Works
Learn more about our award-winning work-ready program.
Digitability's Scientific Advisory Board
Digitability’s curriculum is backed by science and proven in the classroom. We have a team of experts behind Digitability's curriculum and project-based learning modules.
David Mandell, Sc. D.
Director of Center of Mental Health Policy and Services Research, UPenn School of Medicine
David is an Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the Director of Center of Mental Health Policy and Services Research, UPenn School of Medicine. For the past 15 years, he has conducted research on strategies to improve quality of care for individuals with autism in community settings.
Catherine Chase, M.A.
LDTC, Psycho-Educational Diagnostician and Learning Consultant/ Reading Specialist
Catherine is a Psycho-Educational Diagnostician and Learning Consultant providing interventions in attention, learning and behavior with over 30 years of experience. Chase was the first educator to receive a Fellowship in Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
Want to See a Free Demo of Digitability?
Digitability is the only web-based curriculum that teaches digital literacy, social skills and job-readiness to individuals with disabilities.