Myway Employability: Enhancing Independence, Job Readiness and Inclusion for Young People on the Autism Spectrum

Background: In 2012, Australians on the autism spectrum had a 41% unemployment rate; over three times that of people with disability and almost six times the rate of people without disability. Only 44% of autistic adolescents are likely to attend post-secondary education and training which is significantly less than their peers with other disabilities. Unsuccessful transition to work increases the risk of labour-force and social exclusion, as well physical and mental health issues.

A better transition from school to adult life can lead to earlier potential for employment, higher job satisfaction and productivity in the workplace, and greater capacity for independent living. Better Outcomes and Successful Transitions for Autism (BOOST-A) is an online transition-planning tool for adolescents on the autism spectrum to plan for life after school. BOOST-A was developed collaboratively with young people on the spectrum and the adults who support them, and provides a step-by-step guide to career exploration, goal setting, creating work experiences, and developing networks for employment. An Australian-wide controlled trial found that high school students on the spectrum who used BOOST-A had more confidence and self-determination to achieve their employment goals, than students involved in generic transition-planning (N=94 young people on the spectrum). Our challenge was to incorporate the evidence-based BOOST-A into a holistic career planning and employability service, accessible and engaging for young people on the spectrum.

My Way Employability is a mobile-first web application to empower young people to plan and prepare for future study, training and employment. We adopted a five-stage process to design this holistic service: (i) Discovery; (ii) Problem exploration; (iii) Solution exploration; (iv) Market validation; and (v) Preparation for growth and scale. We engaged over 250 stakeholders through interviews, workshops, user testing sessions, and informal conversations to co-design and validate a service that supports young people transitioning from school to adulthood. This involved young people on the spectrum, parents, and allied health and education professionals.

Objectives: In this interactive demonstration, we will conduct live user testing of the MyWay Employability prototype; gathering important feedback to inform the ongoing refinement of user experience.

Methods: The 90-minute demonstration will include:

1. An overview of stakeholder engagement at various touchpoints in the design process
2. A summary of universal design principles and engagement strategies identified by young people on the spectrum that were central to our technology solution
3. Live user-testing and feedback on the MyWay Employability prototype
4. Explanation of the knowledge translation and service design processes used that may have future relevance and utility for audience members

Results: We will present key findings and insights from the design phase of the project, and explain how these recommendations were translated into content and design features to engage young people on the spectrum with MyWay Employability.

Conclusions: Through our reflections of our journey to develop MyWay Employability we will challenge the research community to consider how they might engage key stakeholders in a knowledge translation process and find market opportunities to turn their research outputs into a service that is beneficial and valued by the community.