The Rehabilitation Amendments extend the state/federal vocational rehabilitation (VR) program for five years. Principal provisions are:

• Federal agencies are required to procure, maintain, and use electronic and information technology that provides individuals with disabilities comparable access to what is available to individuals without disabilities.
  
  
• The Governor must ensure that the state's VR agency enters into agreements with appropriate public entities, including the state's workforce investment system, to provide VR services more efficiently and comprehensively.
  
  
• The Amendments provide for cooperative agreements with other parts of a state's workforce investment system to allow for such activities as staff training and technical assistance regarding VR services and eligibility, and common customer service procedures such as intake and telephone hot lines.
  
  
• Consumer choice is enhanced through new language on the consumer's role in rehabilitation planning. Consumers must be provided with information and support services to assist them in exercising informed choice throughout the VR process.
  
  
• State VR agencies are encouraged to assist schools in identifying transition services and to participate in the cost of transition services for any student with a disability who is determined eligible to receive VR services.
  
  
• Persons receiving SSI or SSDI benefits are automatically eligible for VR services.
  
  
• Individuals with the most severe disabilities are now called individuals with a significant disability.
  
  
• The Individualized Written Rehabilitation Program (IWRP) is renamed the Individual Plan for Employment (IPE).
  
  
• The State Rehabilitation Advisory Council is now called the State Rehabilitation Council. Membership is expanded, responsibilities are increased, and the council and state agency are required to jointly develop, agree to, and review state goals and priorities.
  
  

Click here for the full text of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998 .