Research has shown that assistive technology (AT) can help support employment skills for individuals with intellectual disabilities (IDs). The authors of this review examined the effectiveness of various types of AT support for individuals with ID in the workplace with a focus on the participant’s independent ability to demonstrate a specific employment skill. Ten articles published between 2006 and 2016 met inclusionary criteria set forth for this review. Overall, AT support resulted in medium to highly effective effect size gains (PND 91%; standardized mean difference 2.84; Tau-U 0.902), indicating effects were generally meaningful. Findings from these studies indicate AT was successful for increasing work performance of individuals with ID in respect to productivity, navigation, time management, and task completion. This review also provides an analysis of findings, discussion on limitations, and recommendations for future research.

Individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) often experience a combination of both intellectual and adaptive functioning deficits that impact conceptual, social, and practical domains. These deficits can negatively impact an individual’s ability to achieve independence and sustained employment. Fortunately, research has shown assistive technology can help support employment skills for individuals with ID. This multiple baseline design study investigated the use of a Task Analysis smartphone application, which utilized video and audio prompting, with four young adults with ID on the completion of work-related office tasks. Findings indicate that all four young adults with ID showed large effect size gains for completing several common office-related tasks including shredding, copying, and scanning. Implications and future research are discussed.

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