Employment for adults with autism spectrum disorders: A retrospective review of a customized employment approach.
Customized supported employment lands nearly every adult with autism in a real job they keep.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Paul and his team looked back at every adult with autism who asked the state for job help. They counted 64 adults who got a package called customized supported employment.
The package started with deep discovery. Staff watched each person at home, at school, and in the community. They wrote a custom job goal and then hunted for a matching real job. Once hired, a job coach rode the bus with them, set up visual supports, and faded out only when the worker flew solo.
What they found
All 64 adults landed competitive jobs. They stocked shelves, fixed computers, and cared for dogs. One year later, a large share still clocked in on time.
Wages beat the state minimum. Hours ranged from 12 to 40 per week. No one worked in a sheltered workshop.
How this fits with other research
Ohan et al. (2015) saw the opposite picture. In the same state's VR data, transition-age youth with autism used the most services yet had the worst employment rates. The gap is explained by age and service type. Teens got generic job clubs; Paul's adults got the full CE package.
Wilson et al. (2023) later gave the CE package to youth with IDD. Independence scores jumped, showing the model works if you start early and measure life skills, not just job placement.
Domin et al. (2013) surveyed the nation and found only a large share of adults with IDD held integrated jobs. Paul's a large share rate shows what is possible when CE is done with fidelity.
Why it matters
If you write adult autism goals, stop ordering generic job try-outs. Ask VR for customized employment instead. Schedule a half-day discovery. Bring task analyses, picture schedules, and a fading plan. You can turn the state's a large share success into Paul's a large share one person at a time.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Over the past few decades, there has been an increase in prevalence of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), and those children are now becoming young adults in need of competitive integrated employment (CIE). Customized employment (CE) is one pathway to employment that has been successful for other individuals with developmental disabilities (DD), though research has been very limited on the effectiveness with individuals with ASD. This paper provides a retrospective review of 64 individuals with ASD who came to our program from 2009 to 2014 for supported employment services as referred by the state vocational rehabilitation services agency. Employment specialists engaged in situational assessment, discovery, job development, customized job descriptions, on-site training and support, positive behavioral supports, and job retention techniques. The employment specialists were responsible for tracking their actual time spent working directly with or for the jobseeker with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). All vocational rehabilitation clients with ASD served during this time successfully secured CIE, and maintained their employment with ongoing supports, with intensity of support time decreasing over time. The majority (63/64, 98.4%) of individuals successfully secured CIE through the use of supported employment, in 72 unique employment positions. Of the majority of the individuals who secured employment, 77% (50) individuals indicated that they had never worked before and additional 18% (12) reported having short intermittent histories of employment. Despite this lack of employment experience, in all cases the jobseeker directed the job search and ultimately the job selection.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2016 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2016.01.015