Making Work Work: Improving Employment Outcomes for Autistic Adults

Abstract

Autistic people have issues with social skills, behavior, and communication (American Psychological Association, 2013) and have significant hurdles to sustained, paid employment (Hendricks & Wehman, 2009). Autistic people are often unemployed or underemployed; they work fewer hours and earn less money than neurotypical people and peers with other disabilities (Chiang et al., 2013). Autistic people also struggle with having their voices heard in their lives; they are frequently unable to determine their career paths and are directed by others into undesired work and goals. The present study answers: 1. What self-determination capacity variables predict gainful, high-quality employment for autistic students? 2. How do the individual capacities (volitional action, agentic action, and action-control beliefs) of self-determination affect employment outcomes for autistic people? 3. What self-determination skills do autistic people value the most in finding and maintaining high-quality employment? 4. What makes autistic people satisfied with their employment? 5. What do autistic adults say about employment and self-determination that would explain the regression analysis? Previous research has only measured employment in terms of wages and hours worked. Wages and hours worked are important measures of employment quality but they do not grasp what satisfactory employment is to autistic adults. Much of the available research does not collect the voices of autistic adults when discussing satisfactory employment outcomes. The present study uses mixed methods to gather the voices of autistic adults through surveys and interviews to answer the research questions. The research found seven themes of autism and employment common amongst autistic adults as well as many areas of silence between the survey and interview results. The findings suggest a new conceptual framework for how self-determination can impact employment outcomes and recommendations on how best to improve employment outcomes for autistic adults.