30220
Early Employment-Related Experiences of Young Adults on the Autism Spectrum
Objectives: To explore early employment-related experiences of young adults with ASD, identifying key challenges to and facilitators of success while considering the roles played by schools, families, service-providing agencies, and employers.
Methods: Qualitative interviews addressing post high school experiences were conducted with 35 parents of young adults with ASD from across the autism spectrum. In twelve cases, the young adult was also interviewed. Material relating to pre-employment and employment experiences was segregated, then coded using the constant comparative method.
Results: Three major themes emerged from family and young adult narratives. Life Aspirations: Families and young adults alike expressed a clear sense of the advantages of work, from potential independence to daily engagement in the larger world. Many mentioned strengths associated with ASD that could prove valuable in the workplace such as attention to detail, an ingrained sense of responsibility, loyalty, and honesty. A father asserted: “The fact of the matter is that someone like my son is the last person who is going to be a security risk because he literally cannot lie… If you tell him that these are the rules, he is going to follow those rules. And there is nothing you can do to make him break the rules.” Such strengths accompanied belief in young adults’ potential, but coexisted with fear that this could be squandered if proper support were not provided. Support and Opportunity: Families often worked hard to create pre-employment experiences (e.g., opportunities to acquire skills, volunteering), but encountered barriers to assisting with actual employment. Influencing what went on within service agencies or employment settings could be beyond their access or simply inappropriate. The mother of a college graduate with ASD explained: “If you have a young adult with a more obvious disability, everybody knows they need a lot of help, and it makes more sense if the parent is alongside of them giving help. But when they look sort of neurotypical, it makes them weirder if mom is involved.” When high schools, colleges, agencies, and employers provided the right support at the right time, families were grateful. More often, however, they reported a dearth of appropriate support. Work Dilemmas: Un- and underemployment were frequently mentioned. Families described how ASD-related challenges (e.g., social blindness, rigidity, anxiety), little experience coming out of high school, inflexible systems, and inadequate support could lead to a young adult’s failure to get or keep a position, with negative consequences. The mother of a son who failed to get a job after multiple attempts said: “I think that's the trigger for his major depression… He says ‘I'm hopeless. Nobody wants me.’”
Conclusions: Young adults with ASD face significant challenges gaining pre-employment experiences and employment opportunities. A better understanding of how both ASD-associated difficulties and organizational practices interfere with success may help high schools, parents, agencies, and employers more effectively support them.