Brief Report: Improving Employment Interview Self-efficacy Among Adults with Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities Using Virtual Interactive Training Agents (ViTA).

Hamama et al. (2021) tested a short virtual-reality job-interview program called ViTA.

Adults with autism or intellectual disability practiced mock interviews with on-screen avatars.

Before and after the training, each person rated how confident they felt about real interviews.

Confidence scores went up a little, but the change was still real.

The whole study took only one group and no control group, so the gain is a small, first-step signal.

Lemons et al. (2015) ran a similar VR interview trainer six years earlier. They tracked actual jobs and saw big gains: treated young adults were almost eight times more likely to be employed six months later.

Hamama et al. (2021) looks weaker, but they measured self-confidence, not hiring. The two studies ask different questions, so there is no true clash.

Tao et al. (2025) pooled 26 XR vocational studies and found a solid medium boost for job skills. ViTA falls inside that umbrella, showing the small confidence gain is part of a larger, stronger pattern.

You can add ViTA to your transition plan when you need a quick, low-cost confidence builder. Use it as a warm-up before real interviews or before longer programs like Project SEARCH. Track confidence with a short rating scale; if it rises, move the client to live practice or community job try-outs.