Employment Search Skills and Workplace Self-Advocacy Skills of Autistic Adults

Abstract

As autistic individuals grow into adulthood, they are much more likely to experience a need for employment-related skills, with research on these skills lacking relative to child-focused research. Accordingly, this dissertation examined existing literature on employment-related skill development and based on community consultation, developed instructional methods to teach some of these skills. A systematic literature review examined employment-related skill instruction with autistic participants. This review retrieved studies from several different search engines and databases, in addition to retrieving citations from existing reviews and meta-analyses on similar topics. This produced a total of 48 studies of interest that examined employment-related skill instruction. Upon analysis, two or fewer studies examined topics such as job search skills, self-advocacy, hygiene, or transportation to and from work. The remainder of this dissertation addressed two of these gaps in literature, the first of which was the instruction of job search skill training. During this study, participants used LinkedIn and Indeed to practice finding jobs of interest and recording information about them, as well as basic profile management on these sites. A total of nine participants (six autistic), as well as an additional nine participants who only completed baseline data, completed the study Results suggest that participants typically entered with some existing skill (often demonstrating about 40-60% of target skills) and mastered the target skills relatively quickly (typically in three to five sessions).

This dissertation also examined familiarity with foundational information surrounding the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). A six-to-seven-session program taught participants to recognize both potential employment discrimination as well as inability to offer certain accommodations. Participants practiced these principles using text-based scenarios. A total of seven participants completed the study (two autistic) and demonstrated that, while most participants showed improvement after instruction, factors such as rehearsal effects undercut the validity of these findings and require additional research.