This paper examines the reasons behind the widespread exclusion of students and graduates with disabilities from higher status (and higher paying) occupations. Models that facilitate identifying and understanding the career expectations and aspirations of high school students and recent graduates with and without disabilities are analyzed. Data were analyzed for 14,830 subjects, members of the 1980 sophomore cohort on whom valid data were available for the base year, first follow-up, and second follow-up of the "High School and Beyond" national longitudinal study. Two major outcome variables were considered. The first set of outcome measures concerned the perceptions of the subjects, who were asked to report what they thought their fathers, mothers, counselors, teachers, and peers felt they should do after high school. The second set of outcomes measured the subjects' career aspirations at age 30. The results illustrate that young people with disabilities have much lower estimates of their chances of obtaining jobs that can lead to higher pay, better conditions, and higher status in the community than do their nondisabled peers. Disabling status made a significant difference in the educational streaming of the students, in the reported career aspirations, and in the perceived expectations of significant others. Students with disabilities reported lower expectations than the nondisabled and seemingly were being supported in their lowered aspirations by parents, teachers, counselors, and friends. (Contains 25 references.) (JDD)