Relatively little is yet known about employment readiness and elements that promote access to, and the retention of, employment for adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This paper posits elements within the ecosystem of employment and ASD. The ecosystem approach locates employment among persons with ASD as inextricably linked with broader community resources, family support, workplace capacity building (e.g., employer, co-workers) and policy. Application of the approach is offered through process evaluation data yielded from an ecosystem-informed job readiness program entitled, 'EmploymentWorks Canada'. Findings illustrate job readiness in the context of the broader ecosystem that envelopes salient components in the aim of community engagement and quality of life. Recommendations are offered for community-based applications and for program and research development.

The level of educational attainment is increasingly being recognized as an important social determinant of health. While higher educational attainment can play a significant role in shaping employment opportunities, it can also increase the capacity for better decision making regarding one’s health, and provide scope for increasing social and personal resources that are vital for physical and mental health. In today’s highly globalized knowledge based society postsecondary education (PSE) is fast becoming a minimum requirement for securing employment that can afford young adults the economic, social and personal resources needed for better health. Canada ranks high among OECD countries in terms of advanced education, with 66% of Canadians having completed some form of postsecondary education. Yet youth from low income indigenous and visible minority (LIIVM) backgrounds continue to be poorly represented at PSE levels. The current study aimed to understand the reasons for this poor representation by examining the experiences of LIIVM students enrolled in a postsecondary program. Findings show that the challenges they faced during the course of their study had an adverse impact on their health and that improving representation of these students in PSE will require changes at many levels.

Social challenges represent a significantly under-researched area when it comes to the poor employment outcomes in autism. In this exploratory study employees on the autism spectrum (N = 29) and supervisors (N = 15), representing seven continents, provided 128 written examples of workplace-based social challenges, their interpretation, consequences and resolution. Content analysis revealed that types of social challenges were individually oriented or associated with the work-environment. Social challenges were frequently attributed to internal or personal factors with direct consequences for the employee.Resolutions were more frequently targeted toward the individual than the workplace, and hindered employees' experience of work. This international study represents a first look at the types of social challenges that impact equitable work participation of autistic people.

Research on the social determinants of health informs us that employment is a major determinant of mental health not only because it provides income but also because it affords people a sense of identity and purpose, social contacts and opportunities for personal growth (Harnois & Gabriel, 2000;Keon & Pepin, 2009;Raphael, Bryant, & Rioux, 2010). In the case of people with serious mental disorder, employment can provide a stepping-stone to recovery and there is increasing evidence that the ability to participate in employment enriches their quality of life and decreases disability (Ackerman &