Better employment prospects for autistic adults

There is a well-established employment gap in autism, where autistic people are often willing and able to work, but struggle to find and maintain employment.

Dr Anna Remington leads the Centre for Research in Autism and Education at the IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society, where researchers are carrying out ground-breaking scientific research to improve education, support and employment outcomes for autistic people and their families.

Their work is participatory, involving collaboration with autistic people at every stage of the research process, to ensure maximum alignment with the priorities of the autistic community. 

Given that an estimated 16% of autistic adults are in full time employment in the UK, the Centre has also been working directly with employers, running workshops based on their growing evidence-base, and helping companies to implement changes to their procedures for recruitment and retention.

In partnership with Deutsche Bank and Autistica, the leading UK autism research charity, Anna’s team developed an internship programme for autistic graduates, the first of its kind in the UK. 

The research conducted around the programme is helping to challenge perceptions about autism in the workplace and provide recommendations for creating more autism-friendly workplace environments. 

Anna commented:

“Though autistic people can face many challenges around employment, I hope that our work will help promote awareness of the many strengths that are also associated with autism, and the meaningful contributions that autistic people make in the workplace.

Links

• The Centre for Research in Autism and Education (CRAE)
• Deutsche Bank internship for autistic graduates (news story)
• Anna Remington academic profile
• Q&A with Anna Remington
• Autism research: an interview with Dr Anna Remington on the National Autistic Society website
• Discover Autism Research and Employment (DARE) website 

Image

• Credit: Campaign creators, Source: Unsplash