Employment and adults with autism spectrum disorders: Challenges and strategies for success

Abstract

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have the ability and desire to work, but there are still several obstructions. Research overwhelmingly demonstrates disappointing employment outcomes for this group. The vast majority is unemployed and for those who do have gainful employment, underemployment is common. The increased prevalence of ASD coupled with unique social, communication, and behavioral characteristics translate into the need for services to help them achieve employment success. Consideration of individual characteristics including strengths, needs, as well as specific interests, coupled with implementation of proper supports can result in successful and ongoing employment. This paper provides a review of evidence based research related to employment for individuals with ASD. Specific areas addressed include benefits of employment, state of employment, obstacles to employment, current service options, and an in depth review of supports needed for success. These supports focus not only on job tasks, but also the interpersonal skills needed to foster a positive work experience.

A Data-Driven Analysis of Workers' Earnings on Amazon Mechanical Turk

“…Many people working on low paying HITs are likely from groups traditionally excluded from the formal labor market [1,4,10,64], such as people with disabilities who have challenges in securing jobs at contemporary office work environment [4,65]. Hara and Bigham noted that some crowd work like image transcription can be done by autistic people-a population that has challenge in securing jobs compared to those without disabilities [10,30,33]-but this type of work is exactly what generates the lowest hourly wages as we showed in the topical analysis. We here discuss the implications of our results for the design of worker tools and platform infrastructure, and call on the HCI community to advance research in tools that can help to achieve a fairer distribution of earnings from crowd work.…”

Defining behavioral components of social functioning in adults with autism spectrum disorder as targets for treatment

“…Deficits in social skills are well documented in individuals with ASD across the lifespan and may relate to deficits in other social domains, such as social motivation, social anxiety, or social cognition [Barnhill, 2007;Chevallier, Kohls, et al, 2012;Howlin, 2000]. These skill deficits in adults with ASD are often associated with difficulty in creating and maintaining friendships and romantic relationships, reduced employment rates [Hendricks, 2010;Shattuck, Narendorf, et al, 2012;, and difficulty with functioning in the community [Barnhill, 2007;Hendricks & Wehman, 2009;Howlin, 2000].…”

Research needs and priorities for transition and employment in autism: Considerations reflected in a “Special Interest Group” at the International Meeting for Autism Research

“…Furthermore, people with ASD make a significantly lower mean wage than all other disability groups, with most people with ASD employed in sheltered workshops [Roux et al, 2013]. Studies suggest that individuals with ASD experience difficulties in both finding and maintaining employment [Cederlund, Hagberg, Billstedt, Gillberg, & Gillberg, 2008;Hendricks, 2010;Howlin, 2000;Howlin & Moss, 2012;Hurlbutt & Chalmers, 2004;Nicholas et al, 2014;Nicholas & Roberts, 2012;Shattuck et al, 2012;Taylor et al, 2012]. Those with higher IQ generally have better employment outcomes relative to those with ASD and an intellectual disability, although meaningful, stable employment is often still not achieved [Graetz, 2010;Howlin & Moss, 2012;Levy & Perry, 2011;Seltzer, Shattuck, Abbeduto, & Greenberg, 2004].…”