Employment still seen as a rare triumph
by Patricia
The autism community has long perceived that adults with autism are woefully under/unemployed, and now researcher Paul Shattuck and his colleagues have published a study in Pediatrics that shows our perceptions were correct.
Dr. Shattuck’s study provides data to document that indeed young adults with autism are not transitioning out of high school successfully into the world of work and higher education. More than 50 percent of young adults with autism had no participation in work or higher education in the first two years after high school. Thirty-five percent had no work or education opportunities six years after high school.
Dr. Shattuck shared that “Many families with children with autism describe leaving high school as falling off a cliff.” After graduation, there is a glaring lack of services for adults with an autism spectrum disorder. So much of media attention focuses on children. Dr. Shattuck stressed how important it is for people to realize autism does not disappear in adolescence, and that the majority of a person’s lifespan is spent in adulthood.
There are many stories of success of individuals with autism gaining/maintaining employment — Bob Glowacki published a blog post here earlier this month about Erin, who secured a great job of her choosing at a library. Unfortunately these stories of employment success are too few and far between. For most of us in adulthood, working is simply an expectation. For individuals with autism it is still seen as a triumph.
Easter Seals provides workforce development services across the United States. As a service provider, we are well aware that there is room for improvement in providing services for adults with autism. We will work to do our part, and the publication of Dr. Shattuck’s study should raise awareness throughout the United States that we all have work to do to ensure every student with autism transitions out of school into a meaningful, productive, adult life.