Use of Vocational Rehabilitative Services Among Adults with Autism

Abstract

This study examined the experiences of individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in the US Vocational Rehabilitation System (VRS). Subjects included all 382,221 adults ages 18-65 served by this system whose cases were closed in 2005; 1,707 were diagnosed with ASD. Adults with ASD were more likely than adults with other impairments to be denied services because they were considered too severely disabled. Among those served, adults with ASD received the most expensive set of services. They and adults with MR were most likely to be competitively employed at case closure. Post hoc analyses suggest that their employment was highly associated with on-the-job supports. The results suggest the importance of the VRS in serving adults with ASD.

A Systematic Review of Vocational Interventions for Young Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorders

“…Results suggested that, relative to the control group, the supported employment program was associated with improvements over time in 8 of the 12 measures of cognitive functioning. 24 Two cohort studies 17,25 and 1 crosssectional study 26 examined the impact of employment/vocational interventions on outcomes related to independent functioning. One study examined the outcome of a 2-year supported employment scheme for high-functioning adults with autism or Asperger syndrome in the United Kingdom.…”

“…Studies included 1 nonrandomized controlled trial reported in 2 publications, 22,23 2 prospective cohort studies, 24,25 1 case series, 17 and 1 cross-sectional study. 26 Interventions addressed in the studies all involved finding and implementing on-the-job supports for young adults with ASD, and studies were conducted in the United States, 26 United Kingdom, 17,25 Spain, and Germany. [22][23][24] All studies were considered to be poor quality; Table 2 outlines quality considerations and key outcomes for each study.…”

“…A final cross-sectional study 26 examined the effectiveness of vocational rehabilitative services for adults with ASD compared with adults with other developmental disabilities. The investigators identified 1707 adults with ASD from national data obtained from the US Department of Education' s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.…”

“…17,[22][23][24][25][26] All of the studies focused on on-the-job supports as the employment/vocational intervention; no other vocational interventions were reported in the literature meeting our study criteria. Our ability to assess the benefit of supported employment programs is limited, and no study used random assignment, making it difficult to draw conclusions about the effectiveness of the programs.…”

A Systematic Review of Teaching Daily Living Skills to Adolescents and Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…Furthermore, given that single-subject research design requires multiple replications to increase the external validity of an intervention (Horner et al, 2005), this issue is compounded since none of the studies examined the same dependent variables using similar procedures. Perhaps through additional research, including replication studies, future researchers will identify efficient teaching procedures to assist adolescents and adults with ASD achieving independence in post-school environments (Bennett and Dukes 2013), an issue known to be problematic and with deleterious effects for the individual, their family, and society (Cimera and Cowan 2009;Hendricks and Wehman, 2009;Lawer et al 2009;Targett and Smith 2009). Moreover, additional studies can assist educators in meeting the requirements set forth by federal education legislation that requires evidence-based practices that lead to positive results in post-school settings.…”