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.

Research related to supports for adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is under-developed. As an example, system and service development to support successful transition to adulthood and meaningful vocation for adults has received relatively little research scrutiny until recently, with practitioners and program developers lacking evidenceinformed approaches guiding service delivery. A Special Interest Group (SIG) was convened at the International Meeting for Autism Research in May 2014 and May 2015, with a focus on transitional and vocational issues in ASD. The SIG consisted of 120 international delegates, including self-advocates, family members, researchers, program and policy developers, practitioners, and interdisciplinary ASD trainees. Following a summary of the literature, subgroups of attendees were convened in smaller groups to identify research needs and priorities. International researchers facilitated these discussions with notes taken in each subgroup. Using a qualitative analytic approach, key themes across groups were identified. These key themes, outlined in this paper, address the identified need to (a) advance research capacity; (b) build employer capacity relative to employing persons with ASD; and (c) enhance support resources for adults with ASD and their families. Heightened research activity guiding practice and policy, community/employer engagement, and person and family-centered services were recommended. Implications for advancement and implementation are offered. Autism Res 2017, 10: 15-24. © 2016 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Opportunities to communicate first-person perspectives are essential for self-determination. However, many autistic youth are excluded from sharing their perspectives, specifically those who are minimally verbal or with lower intellectual functioning. Current challenges to capturing their voices include a lack of appropriate inclusive methodologies. Propose an inclusive strength-oriented method to capture first-person perspectives of autistic adolescents. Our protocol (“Autism Voices”) includes a pre-interview survey and semi-structured interview using universal design strategies. It was piloted with 33 participants who were representative of diverse language and cognitive abilities. A coding scheme was developed to identify communicative acts used by participants and mitigation strategies used by interviewers to enhance communication. Interviewer strategies that enhanced communication included question formulation, use of pictures, offering various output modalities, and flexible implementation of the protocol. Non-verbal and alternative communication responses (e.g. choosing to not respond) were informative to youth’s lived experience, especially for minimally verbal participants. Overall, our results highlight that communication goes beyond verbally answering questions and that participants’ unconventional communication conveyed rich information. Autism Voices provides a promising method to promote the inclusion of autistic youth in research. Lay Abstract The perspective of autistic individuals is often left uncaptured, and as a result they are often excluded from making decisions that impact them. Conventional communication can be challenging for many autistic individuals, especially those who are minimally verbal or who have an associated intellectual disability. Currently, a lack of appropriate methods to capture voices across the spectrum is a barrier. In the present study, we developed the Autism Voices protocol using universal design principles to capture the perspectives and experiences of autistic youth with a range of language or intellectual abilities. This protocol was then used with 33 autistic youth aged 11 to 18 years. A scoring rubric was developed to capture the unconventional communication used by the participants and the mitigation strategies used by interviewers to facilitate the interview. Many components of the protocol were found to effectively facilitate communication between the participant and interviewer, including the use of picture cards to support verbal questions/prompts, the fact that participants could respond with their preferred communication methods (writing, texting, pointing), and the fact that interviews were applied flexibly to adapt to each participant. Unconventional communication and mitigation strategies were mostly observed in interviews with minimally verbal individuals, but a fine-grained analysis showed participants were still communicating something through this unconventional communication. Our protocol could help promote the inclusion of more autistic individuals in research and showed that unconventional modes of communication like echolalia provide an understanding that participants’ are invested in conversations and certain topics are more meaningful than others.

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BACKGROUND: Personal and organizational benefits are incurred when individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are employed. However, employment rates among adults with ASD remain unacceptably low. It appears that inclusive employment requires greater community and employer awareness, and a range of strategies and actions that foster employment opportunity. There is limited research addressing employer experiences and perspectives relative to hiring, supporting and supervising persons with ASD. Further knowledge is needed to better understand employer perspectives, and guide employer capacity for engaging and supporting individuals with ASD in the workplace. OBJECTIVE: This paper explores the experiences and perspectives of employers who engaged with individuals with ASD in a workplace sampling opportunity. In doing so, results aim to ascertain strategies and barriers to nurturing greater engagement of individuals with ASD in employment. METHODS: Based on secondary review of program evaluation data, survey administration and qualitative interview data were analyzed. Findings identified perspectives of employers who had engaged with youth and young adults with ASD in employment settings. Specifically, the sample was drawn from employers who participated in a 12-week employment preparedness program for youth and young adults with ASD and employers. RESULTS: Findings highlight factors that foster and impede employer engagement and support for youth and young adults with ASD relative to inclusive employment. Employer participation in this job readiness initiative nurtured knowledge gain and pro-inclusion attitudinal shifts and intention to hire individuals with ASD, based on relationship formation and knowledge gain. Employers reported numerous positive experiences and benefits from working with individuals on the autism spectrum. Benefits included workplace productivity, greater recognition of the contributions of individuals with ASD, and improved quality of work which in turn was viewed to improve employer amenity for inclusive hiring. Yet, continued reticence to employ was noted as an ongoing barrier to widespread inclusive hiring of individuals with ASD. CONCLUSION: Generally, employer capacity building and engagement with individuals with ASD appear to have a positive influence on employer intention to inclusively hire. Overall, employers gained awareness about the competence of individuals with ASD in employment settings. Implications include guidance for engaging employers in capacity building in the aim of greater employment opportunity for youth and young adults with ASD.