1. ©Asperger/Autism Network
Employment and AS
Michelle S. Alkon
Adult Services, AANE
ext. 25
DDS Autism Training
January
©Asperger/Autism Network

2. Agenda: Employment and AS
Context
Employment Challenges for Adults with AS
Employment Choices
Strategies
We are going to spend the next 45 minutes or so talking about employment. We all know how important work is for people- the money, the stimulation, the community, the structure. However work is challenging for this cohort. While they are intelligent and may have hard skills, talents and interests, their autism may prevent them from obtaining and maintaining a job.
I am going to talk about the issues and challenges making employment such a struggle for adults with AS who aren’t Bill Gates or Einstein.
I’m also going to talk about how the choice of employment effects the potential for success and then give you some concrete strategies for helping your clients with employment. And I’m going to talk really fast!
Elizabeth is going to give you an adult perspective on employment after.
©Asperger/Autism Network

3. ©Asperger/Autism Network
Sheldon Looks for a Job
I would like to introduce you to Sheldon Cooper from the big bang theory. The producers of this program have never said that he has aspergers but Jim Parsons, the emmy award winning actor who plays Sheldon, has stated publically that he based Sheldon on the Aspergers profile. Sheldon is very aspie in this clip.
©Asperger/Autism Network

4. Employment Challenges
12% full-time employment for individuals with high-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders
6% full-time employment for individuals with classic presentation of autism
80% live dependently with family members throughout their lives
79% Unemployment rate for young adults(ages 21-25) with Autism (full-time employment)
Brenda Smith-Myles/IDEA Partnership 2011
NLTS2 Study; Roux et.al., 2013
You all know the challenges of finding work for clients with disabilities. For adults with autism, the statistics show an even higher barrier than for the disabled population as a whole.
©Asperger/Autism Network

5. Employment Challenges
Unemployed
Underemployed
These are the 4 big challenges for our adults.
We have so many clients who are unemplloyed. They have skills- often associates, college or masters degrees- but are working.
Or, if they are working, it might be in the CVS or Marshalls or they are working in a field they have prepared for but are in an intro job and have been passed over for promotion numerous times.
They have trouble getting a job. They may be aiming for the wrong job for them, they can’t organize the job search, they can’t interview, whatever. They just can’t get traction.
And so many of them can’t keep the job. They yell at the boss or fall behind or pronounce essential job functions “boring and stupid”. A client’s mother told me just this week that her son lost his job. He was working as a contract employee with the understanding that after 6 months he would become permanent. He had been told several times that he was doing really well. But then he made a really big social mistake and was told he was not going to get a job offer. I get it. If he had already been a real employee, they would have worked with him and that would have been that. However, he made a mistake and it was enough to signal that perhaps there might be other mistakes in his future. Better to try with someone else who would be less trouble.
Obtain a Job
Maintain a Job
©Asperger/Autism Network

6. How ASD Impacts Employment
Time Management
Flexibility
Organizing/
Planning
I’m going to run through these slides really quickly because these are the same challenges that make everything else difficult. Jamie spent time on all of these aspects of autism last time. Executive functioning is particularly relevant to employment because it impacts both getting and keeping a job.
Definition
General difficulty with:
Organizing (time, self, space)
Planning
Starting and stopping
Explaining reasoning in words
Job search difficulties with:
Identifying relevant jobs
Making applications
Tracking responses
Scheduling interviews
Workplace difficulties with:
Arriving on time
Starting and prioritizing tasks
Multi-tasking
Understanding open-ended questions and instructions
Envisioning “next steps” of a project
Organizing desk/workspace
Executive Functioning
Prioritizing
Initiating
©Asperger/Autism Network

7. How ASD Impacts Employment
Interviewing
Interacting with co-workers
Networking
Social communication is the “soft skill” that torpedoes our population most often.
Difficulty with:
Non verbal cues
Eye contact
Tone of voice (prosody)
Reciprocal conversation
Sarcasm
Slang or non-literal language
Behavior that most people understand intuitively, needs to be explained explicitly
Workplace difficulties with:
Initial employment interviews
Speaking with supervisors
Working in a group
“Water cooler” conversation
Maintaining employment
“Social Pragmatics”
Basically, people think they are weird and weird is not good at the workplace.
Social Communication
Expressing
Reading cues
©Asperger/Autism Network

8. How ASD Impacts Employment
Social Communication
Executive Functioning
Hidden curriculum
• “I assumed that everyone …”
• “Everyone knows that …”
• “I never thought that I would have to
teach …”
• “It’s obvious that …”
• “He did that on purpose …”
Neuruointegrative Processes: (Theory of Mind &Central Coherence)
General difficulties with:
Seeing the “big picture”
Perspective taking
Flexible thinking
Anxiety, which is one component of emotional regulation
Who here remembers how many points your IQ goes down if you are anxious?
Tony Attwood
Anxiety and IQ: Drops 30 points when anxious
Depression and IQ: Drops points when depressed
Anger and IQ: Drops 60 points when angry
People with AS rely strongly on cognitive abilities to think through situations – if you get too anxious or angry, thinking ability is compromised.
They may also have workplace difficulties with:
Transitioning from one task to another
Generalizing skills learned from one situation to another
Knowing how much information to share (telling “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth”)
Coping with changes in work flow
And with Sensory Sensitivities
Perspective Taking
Sensory Integration
Black & White Thinking
Hidden Curriculum
ANXIETY
Detail Oriented
©Asperger/Autism Network

9. How ASD Impacts Employment
9/22/2015
How ASD Impacts Employment
Miles Tarter coined the term expectation gap.
Autism is an invisible disability. People don’t understand all the challenges that an individual might be experiencing because the person “looks normal”. I cringe every time I hear someone say “but he’s so smart, why can’t he just do this?”
Expectation Gap
©Asperger/Autism Network

10. Employment Choices Example: Employment Goals 9/22/2015 Use ben appell
©Asperger/Autism Network

11. ©Asperger/Autism Network
Strategies
Negative Framing
Disrespectful
Purposeful
Unwilling
Obstinate
Lazy
Mean
Arrogant
Reframing
Social Confusion
Social Anxiety
Coping mechanisms
Doing the best they can with the skills they have
Having AS is EXHAUSTING!
Reframing workplace behaviors like the ones we just profiled is one way to normalize employment for adults. It can help our clients to believe they can be workers. I actually use this slide when I talk with employers, too. I hope it makes them into work believers too.
©Asperger/Autism Network

12. Social Communication: Strategies
9/22/2015
Social Communication: Strategies
Rehearse upcoming job interviews
Be direct and logical
Explain that there are “unwritten rules” in all workplaces:
Where and when to eat lunch
When to knock on a door and when not to
What to do if you are sick
How to request office equipment
What to wear
Again, I am going to move quickly through these strategies. The bottom line is that you have to teach these softer skills explicitly.
An because generalization is an issue (part of the central coherence deficits I talked about earlier), you need to repeat instruction for each unique experience until the particular skill is mastered.
[discuss what’s on the slide]
©Asperger/Autism Network

13. Executive Function: Strategies
9/22/2015
Executive Function: Strategies
Provide information/instructions in writing
Break out the steps of a task and indicate how long it should take to complete it
Help prioritize tasks
Explain context and reason for each assignment
Provide or phone reminders
Set up clear filing and other tracking systems
Allow extra time and coaching for new tasks
The same kinds of explicit instruction are required for teaching executive functioning strategies as well.
[review slide]
©Asperger/Autism Network

14. Neurointegrative Processes: Strategies
9/22/2015
Neurointegrative Processes: Strategies
Preview any changes in daily or work routine
Provide logical explanations of complex issues
Help reduce anxiety
Sometimes a low stress environment is more important than high intellectual challenge
Theory of mind and central coherence as well as emotional regulation.
©Asperger/Autism Network

15. Sensory/Environmental Strategies
9/22/2015
Sensory/Environmental Strategies
Know what replenishes you!
Provide private workspace – less distractions for employee and others
A slower-paced environment will likely be more tolerable and allow for a greater sense of comfort and competence
Advocate for environmental changes at work or home; if you are more comfortable, the people around you will be as well
Modify work schedule
Allow breaks/ID a quiet area
Use ear plugs or noise cancelling ear phones
Modify lighting
Eliminate perfume and other odors
Controlling sensory inputs and anxiety leads to an increased ability to process, think and interact with the world and enjoy life
Spoon theory : coined by Christine Miserandino on her blog but you don’t look sick.com
[discuss slide]
©Asperger/Autism Network

16. Self Awareness/Self Determination
9/22/2015
Self Awareness/Self Determination
Understanding your profile
Conducting a self assessment
strengths
weaknesses
things I love
things I hate
things that disturb me
things that soothe me
What are the areas that need further development?
Developing your vision/goals/plans
Interests, strengths, challenges
Pace and intensity of environment
What about deadlines, sensory input and socialization
Degree of privacy/independence vs. interaction/collaboration
Barbara Bissonnette has written several really good books and articles on the topic of employment for adults with asperger profiles. I have listed her website in the resources section of this presentation.
She talks a lot about making sure the job is a reflection of hard skills, soft skills, interest and personal preferences.
It is important that the client does not let his interest or special passion guide the process. It will be a variable in selecting a direction but not necessarily the most important one.
Here is an example: you might have someone who loves video games. I say might as if it were not 99% of our population. Anyway, he thinks he can work as a developer. However, he has no artistic talent, severe executive functioning challenges, can’t stand noise when the office is an open space and limited stamina.
There are so many elements to this- I could talk for a whole day. The take-away is that successful employment has a lot of pre-work and most of the time we want to jump right to job search. For this population, it is uniquely important to start in the right place.
By the way, Barbara has an “ideal employment profile” assessment tool available for free download on her website.
©Asperger/Autism Network

17. Strategies: Disclosure
9/22/2015
Strategies: Disclosure
When
Before
Between
After
To Whom
Human resources
Supervisor
Co-worker
How
Full
Partial
TMI
Why
To request reasonable accommodations under ADA
The topic of disclosure has to come up in any discussion of employment.
You need to develop a strategy about when, to whom, how and why you are disclosing your special needs at the workplace.
When: do you disclose before you land the job, after the offer but before you start or after you have started and worked for a while? It is usually after for our population and often after they have started to have some problems.
To whom: do you tell HR? Your supervisor? A colleague? The answer is yes to all three, depending on what you are hoping to achieve. However what and how will be different for each stakeholder.
How: do you disclose fully? Partially? how much is TMI? I’m acutally going to speak more about some techniques we recommend.
Why: there are actually two reasons to disclose:
So people do not reach their own erroneous conclusions
To request “reasonable accommodations” under the ADA
You need to disclose to get an accommodation. A client recently came in with a letter she had written to her employer requesting accommodations that she wanted me to review. She never disclosed in the letter, only requested several modifications to her work environment. She said she did not want to disclose her disability. She did a lot of talking to me about her right to privacy but the bottom line is that you have to disclose and to document.
The other key piece of this is the idea of a reasonable accommodation. Many people have a hard time understanding what that means in the workplace and that there is both nuance and context. For example, a person we work with asked that the lab he worked in hire more staff because there was too much for him to do. Another person could not grasp that what was possible for a large corporation was not possible in a 15 person office.
©Asperger/Autism Network

18. Strategies: Disclosure
9/22/2015
Strategies: Disclosure
Strategic partial disclosure is a strategy we encourage in which the person with AS: names and describes the challenge and then Suggests possible solutions, accommodations and modifications
It is not necessary to say autism or asperger syndrome. They can say “neurological problem” or they can say “I talk too much” or “I don’t catch everything if you say it verbally” or “I have trouble thinking if the room is too bright or too loud.”
It is also not necessary to use technical language. In fact it is often off-putting to use medical or psychological terminology in social settings. So, rather than “I have sensory defensiveness.” try “I can’t think clearly if the room is too loud.”
It is also not necessary to describe in gory, minute detail what the problem is. No-over-sharing!
It is necessary to suggest reasonable accommodations and modifications to the situation, environment or relationship
Example: suggest accommodations that might be appropriate
Example: tell employer “ I do not process information verbally so I need instructions in writing” or “I may write this down and show it to you because I don’t want to miss anything”
Example: tell girlfriend “sometimes I talk too much, especially if I am talking about my special interest, so please tell me to shut up. I won’t be insulted but if you don’t tell me, I won’t know.”
Example: This is how my brain works, I am a visual learner, In the beginning of my job I will ask you questions over and over but once I get it, I get it!,
Eye contact- I can focus better by looking at my notes
The benefit of strategic partial disclosure is two-fold. First , the individual actually gets the accommodation that will work for him. But also, the individual has changed the dynamic of the relationship so that he has created an ally versus an adversary.
Strategic Partial Disclosure
©Asperger/Autism Network

19. ©Asperger/Autism Network
9/22/2015
Some Closing Thoughts
AS is an invisible disability: Beware the Expectation Gap
Every individual has quirks that can be appreciated
In the right job, with the right supervisor, in the right environment, and with the right support, people with AS can succeed and become employees valued for their skill and dependability
©Asperger/Autism Network

20. Resources: Articles and Webinars
AANE “toolbox” for employment :
Article with good links as well as good information:
Article by Ashleigh Hillier discussing employment strategies:
Advice about employment from some of our members:
Barbara Bissonnette’s website: for several articles on employment
Webinars : On Demand and Live
Webinar: The Hidden Curriculum of Getting and Keeping a Job by Brenda Smith Myles
Webinar: AS and Employment- How to Find and Keep the Perfect Job by Rudy Simone
Live Webinar Series with Rudy Simone starting December
©Asperger/Autism Network

21. ©Asperger/Autism Network
Resources: Books
How to Find Work That Works for People with Asperger Syndrome by Gail Hawkins
Employment for Individuals with Asperger Syndrome or Non-Verbal Learning Disability: Stories and Strategies by Yvona Fast
Asperger's on the Job: Must-have Advice for People with Asperger's or High Functioning Autism, and their Employers, Educators, and Advocates by Rudy Simone
The Complete Guide to Getting a Job for People with Asperger's Syndrome Find the Right Career and Get Hired by  Barbara Bissonnette
Helping Adults with Asperger's Syndrome Get & Stay Hired: Career Coaching Strategies for Professionals and Parents of Adults on the Autism by Barbara Bissonnette   
 Asperger's Syndrome Workplace Survival Guide: A Neurotypical's Secrets for Success   by Barbara Bissonnette
Social Thinking At Work: Why Should I Care?  by Michelle Garcia Winner and Pamela Crooke 
The Hidden Curriculum of Getting and Keeping a Job: Navigating the Social Landscape of Employment A Guide for Individuals With Autism Spectrum and Other Social-Cognitive Challenges by Judy Endow, Malcolm Mayfield,  Brenda Smith Myles 
©Asperger/Autism Network

22. About AANE
The Asperger/Autism Network (AANE) works with individuals, families, and professionals to help people with Asperger Syndrome and similar autism spectrum profiles build meaningful, connected lives. We do this by providing information, education, community, support, and advocacy, all in an atmosphere of validation and respect.
AANE provides support and community to:
Adults and their families
Families of children and teens
Educators and professionals
Diverse leadership includes adults, family members and professionals
Advocate for appropriate quality services for people with AS profiles.