A study was conducted to identify barriers that have prevented large numbers of disadvantaged youth from attaining access to vocational education and to identify specific program elements associated with successful recruitment and vocational training of the educationally disadvantaged. Two modes of data collection were employed: (1) a project-developed survey instrument (The Equal Access Self-Rating Scale) mailed to a national sample of eighty vocational education state officials, program directors, teachers, and teacher educators and (2) personal interviews with a sample of twenty-one vocational program administrators and counselors drawn from vocational programs in New Jersey. Analysis of responses to the mailed survey indicated that two main obstacles to equal access and successful program completion were inadequate guidance and informational services and inadequate financial resources to support appropriate modified vocational programs for the disadvantaged. Responses to the personal interviews suggested that vocational educators regarded disadvantaged students as high risk applicants and, when forced to make priority selections, tend to admit better qualified (on the basis of previous school records) applicants. Seventeen teaching techniques and instructional management strategies (e.g., individualized instruction, competency-based instruction, etc.) were identified as success factors. (JH)