Barrow 1

Emma Barrow
Sally Griffin
UWRT 1103 090
4 March 2016
The first paragraph provides background information and explains the originating
idea. The second paragraph draws upon several sources. It explains a question that
might be investigated.

Employment of ASD Individuals

Throughout their lives, every person will be a part of several communities, each having a
unique set of values and assumptions as well as a common goal they all work toward. Society
expects every functioning human adult to contribute to society, making the workplace one of the
most common communities that people are a part of. The minimum goal of a business is to
generate a sustainable profit from supplying goods and/or services to consumers. Because of this,
just about all occupations have social elements. People with disabilities that impair social skills,
such as those on the autism spectrum, can find this a significant obstacle in finding gainful
employment. Because it is generally difficult to get a thorough understanding of a potential
employees technical skills until after theyve already been hired, most of a job interview rides
on the impressions an interviewer gains from how the interviewee interacts with them. This is
true for jobs of varying human interaction levels.
According to certain studies, autistic people are at far more than just a disadvantage in
employability. Survey results state that only about half of autistic young adults have held a job
since high school and a third are currently working. If they do find work, they make slightly

Barrow 2
above minimum wage on average and less than a fifth have ever lived on their own. These results
were lower than that of people with other disabilities. Naturally, this can raise a lot of questions.
For my project, I would like to investigate this by researching journals and studies. I want to see
what employment is like for autistic people and what challenges it brings.