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Examining System-Level Resources in Building Employment Capacity for Adults with ASD
Despite gains in employment supports for adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), substantial gaps remain. The Canadian population-based Participation in Activity Limitation Survey (PALS, 2006) database suggests that adult males (25-64 years) with ASD, have remarkably lower labour market participation. Only 40% of adult males in this category are employed. Less than half participate in the labour force (employed or unemployed but looking for work). These employment outcomes are approximately 10% lower than other disabled male counterparts. Given these outcomes, it is not surprising that there is a substantial reliance on social assistance and disability benefits (PALS, 2006). Vocation-related service needs for adults with ASD have thus emerged with increased urgency as a growing cohort of adolescents with ASD are aging into adulthood.
Objectives:
This study addressed employment access and support for adults with ASD. It examined the perceived quality of employment supports, and the experiences of adults with ASD, families and employment support service providers, relative to employment support.
Methods:
A mixed method study was conducted in five regionally-distinct provinces across Canada, comprising the following methods:
(A) An employment support capacity survey, and
(B) Qualitative interviews with key stakeholders.
Results:
(A) An employment support capacity survey was completed by n=95 senior level service providers (one per organization) across Canada. Participants ranked, based on percentages, their ASD employment support capacity (followed in parenthesis by mean capacity ranking): (i) organizational capacity to provide employment support to individuals with ASD (88.9%), (ii) organizational capacity to meet the broader needs of adults with ASD (beyond only vocational needs) (75.4%), (iii) organizational capacity for evidence-informed service planning and evaluation (62.2%), and (iii) broader community capacity of the region to meet the employment support needs of adults with ASD (57.8%). With regard to the first three domains, there was general, although mixed and incrementally decreasing, agreement among respondents that their respective agencies were variably successful in addressing the employment support needs of individuals with ASD. In the fourth domain of “community capacity”, there was a decrease in terms of perceived effectiveness to meet employment support needs for adults with ASD.
(B) Qualitative interviews were conducted with n=141 stakeholders, consisting of adults with ASD (n=45), parents/caregivers (n= 60), and service providers (n=36). Interviews indicated that current services are insufficient to provide the extent and nature of support needed by persons with ASD to achieve desired engagement and success in employment and other adult life contexts.
Conclusions:
Vocational challenges for persons with ASD were compounded by a lack of access, coordination and collaboration between agencies, secondary and post-secondary schools, and government systems. Funding was repeatedly not equitably distributed across the ASD spectrum in terms of employment support, and participants consistently conveyed that support agency/program criteria can emerge as a barrier to resource access. Heightened challenges for families with lower SES were identified. Overall, greater opportunity for employment access, retention and advancement for adults with ASD is needed, as are strategies to build employer capacity. Practice and policy implications will be offered.