Environmental interventions supporting autistic transition-age youth employability: A scoping review

• Published in: Research in autism spectrum disorders Vol. 109; p. 102262
• Main Authors: Clouder, Lynn, Karakus, Mehmet, Polat, Filiz
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.11.2023
• Subjects: Autism; Employment; Environment; Transition-age youth; Vocational outcomes; Autism; Environment; Vocational outcomes; Transition-age youth; Employment
• ISSN: 1750-9467; 1878-0237
• DOI: 10.1016/j.rasd.2023.102262

Navigating the transition from school to work presents a challenge to many young people, and for autistic youth the challenge can be such that they never make it into employment. A greater understanding of interventions that support this important transition is needed. We conducted a scoping review of existing literature focusing on environmental interventions to support transition age youth preparing for employment. We categorized and analyzed the corpus of articles against the ‘environmental factors’ aspect of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) published by the World Health Organization. The five domains of environmental factors including the physical, social, and attitudinal environment in which people live offer an a priori framework to identify interventions that have been used globally to address autistic individuals’ needs. We provide an overview of existing practices, specific interventions, strategies, processes, and resources used in schools, further and higher education institutions, and by employers that can account for improved vocational outcomes and/or successful transitions. The employment potential of autistic students can be supported by a wide range of interventions many of which are not costly or difficult to implement. They fall into three broad types: remedial interventions that seek to change the autistic individual and how they [inter]act with their environment, adaptions that promote a more inclusive physical environment, and training and awareness raising interventions for others that promote change and support for autistic individuals in the social environment. We speculate on the insights to identify areas for further research. •Environmental interventions can target physical and social environments, or alter how autistic people interact.•Vocational outcome measures are largely descriptive, observational or anecdotal.•Improved outcome measures used more consistently would provide a more robust indicator of impact.•Further research could explore the neurodiversity inclusive nature of institutional and workplace policy initiatives