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Transition to Adulthood: Many Difficult yet Essential Challenges for Autistics
As a group, autistics are well-known for having difficulty with many kinds of changes in their lives. The transition to adulthood constitutes one of the most difficult and, at the same time, one of the most important that most people ever make. For autistics, then, this transition usually presents...
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Transdisciplinary Transition Assessment and Instructional Planning
A cornerstone to successful transition from school to work for students on the autism spectrum is individual assessment that yields meaningful information for instructional planning. Transdisciplinary assessment, which involves the student’s full educational team, provides a comprehensive profile...
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Empowering Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder
With the implementation of the Employment First Initiative, integrated community employment has become a nationwide focus that is affording greater opportunities for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). While we’re moving in the right direction, there is still work to be done. According...
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A Transition Model That Works – Project SEARCH Autism Enhancement
Employment is a defining characteristic of adulthood, yet the emerging data regarding vocational outcomes for young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has been less than optimal. Close to half of young adults with ASD are unable to secure employment after high school (Shattuck et al, 2012)....
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Computer Science Inclusion Program Gives Marketable Skills for Adulthood
Businesses are anxious for computer science professionals. However, colleges currently do not graduate enough students knowledgeable in cutting-edge STEM (i.e., science, technology, engineering and mathematics) skills (United States Equal Opportunity Commission, 2014). Computer science programs can...
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Job Skills Are Skills for Life
What we learn at work can often help us in our life, outside of our place of employment, and what we learn during our personal experiences can benefit our performance on the job. Sometimes these transferable skills and behaviors are referred to as “soft skills.” For example, after an IBM...
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Using Community Collaboration to Support Transition-Aged Students
In 2017, the Autism Provider Network of Northwest Ohio conducted a full scope community needs assessment which included a national best practice review, community provider audit, stakeholder focus groups, and an on-line needs assessment distributed to individuals and families. The data collected...
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Supporting Students with Autism Through Evidence-Based Employment Intervention
Unemployment rates for people with disabilities currently are hovering around 80%, with even higher rates for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2017). Over the past several decades, employment outcomes for students with autism have remained consistently poor...
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Post-Secondary Employment for Young Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder
The transition to adulthood represents a particularly vulnerable time for youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), as the entitlements of the children’s service system end and families encounter fragmented systems of care (Friedman, Warfield, & Parish, 2013). Post-secondary transition can...
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27% of Adults with Autism Who Use State Disability Services Have No Work or Other Activities – 2017 National Autism Indicators Report
A quarter of adults with autism who use developmental disability services are not working or participating in other structured activities during the day, with only 14 percent holding a paying job in the community, according to the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute. Since 2015, the Institute has...
