Employers’ Perspectives on Individuals with IDD Working in Integrated Employment Settings: A Systematic Literature Review

Background: Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), which include autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disability (ID), experience high rates of unemployment and underemployment. In 2016, 68.6% of adults without disabilities were competitively employed, relative to 26.3% of individuals with ID (Kraus et al., 2018) and 14% of individuals with ASD (Roux et al., 2017). To improve sustainable employment outcomes, it is imperative to take an ecological systems approach by examining factors and perspectives from both demand-side (employer) and supply-side (employee) that may impact employment opportunities. Studies show that negative societal attitudes toward hiring and/or working with people with IDD contribute to poor employment outcomes (Smart, 2008). Addressing these negative attitudes will create a more inclusive employment culture and diminish the prejudice and discrimination that has become a barrier for individuals with IDD to obtain and maintain employment in integrated work settings (Erickson et al., 2014). Therefore, understanding employers’ perspectives on individuals with IDD working in integrated employment settings is necessary to potentially improve their employment outcomes.

Objectives: The purpose of this systematic literature review is to summarize the research conducted on the perceptions and attitudes of employers on individuals with IDD working in integrated employment settings.

Methods: An extensive literature search on articles published before 2018 that focused on employers’ perspectives of individuals with IDD working in integrated employment settings were conducted. After the initial search was completed, titles and abstracts of the 1765 articles were screened. Inclusion criteria included: (a) contains information on employer perspectives, attitudes, or beliefs about individuals with IDD in the workplace; (b) study is either quantitative or qualitative in nature; (c) include employers in the participant pool; (d) data collected via surveys/questionnaires/interviews); and (e) was published in English. Sixty-nine articles were subsequently identified and thoroughly examined to confirmed the suitability of the articles. This resulted in 33 articles to be included in the final review. Following this examination, ancestral (i.e., reference list review) and forward searches (i.e., Google citations) were conducted with 30 additional articles identified for a total of 63 articles included in the final review.

Results: Based on the 63 articles identified, preliminary data show that <50% employers have prior experience working/hiring individuals with IDD and most employees in these workplaces have an ID versus ASD. Findings also demonstrate that studies have been conducted globally using primarily a quantitative/descriptive methodology and informal non-validated survey tools. Included studies’ outcomes have demonstrated that when employers had experience hiring/working with an employee with IDD, they were satisfied with the employee’s performance and would continue to hire people with IDD if adequate support was provided.

Conclusions: There are few studies and minimal evidence available to inform employment interventions for individuals with IDD from the employers’ perspective or which supports the employer requires. Individual studies suggest a positive shift in knowledge and attitudes towards individuals with IDD at work, however, our understanding on how to promote the hiring of and maintaining individuals with IDD in the workplace is limited.