A program at Edison High School is helping students with learning disabilities prepare for the workforce.

The program, “Digitability,” is an online simulation tool that brings real-world work experiences directly to students in special education classrooms at the school. It guides students through creating websites, portfolios and learning financial literacy.

"By the end of the year, they were the ones telling us what they want to work on, which items they need for the projects, how to market them," said special ed. teacher Russell Schwartz.

Each class created a business with a website, then started packaging, baking and selling.

"We worked really hard on this," added career readiness teacher Marlene Morales. "We worked nearly two months on this so it was really a group effort."

“I was a high school autistic support teacher in Philadelphia, and I saw that my students were being pigeonholed into unemployment or often they were being underemployed,” said Digitability founder and CEO Michele McKeone.

The initiative, which started during the pandemic, is now in more than 40 different states. 

For more information, visit digitability.com.