Meet Laurie (See interview below):

Laurie Nederveen has joined the Easterseals UCP team as the Director
of Program Development. In this role, she will be focusing on identifying and
cultivating new opportunities to expand program offerings that are in line with the
strategic plan.
Laurie has worked with individuals who have Autism Spectrum Disorder
(ASD) for over 20 years. Her experience includes the entire range of needs and
ages with jobs in residential care, the TEACCH clinic, and 10 years as founder of
her coaching business, Aspiring Aspies, L.L.C.
Laurie shares her passion of helping students and families within her own
family: an adult brother in law and school-aged nephew.
Laurie earned an MBA Degree and is excited to bridge her skills as an entrepreneur and clinician to
assist people with disabilities to live higher quality, happier lives in their communities.

Interview for Autism Opportunities - Laurie Nederveen (Easterseals UCP NC/VA)

In your opinion, what’s a resource that could be offered to adults with autism to help them secure jobs?

There is a lot of need, so I would say there is a myriad of resources needed.

Generally speaking: more real world, laser-focused transitional skills starting early enough so that
individuals have time they need to learn about careers, themselves, and to build the necessary skills. The core
features of Autism Spectrum Disorder need to be addressed generally and taught with individualized methods so that the
concept is meaningful, interesting enough, and at the right pace for someone who will become employed someday.

For those on the spectrum that are fully included in the mainstream education, they need specialized transitional
support while they are finishing their high school curriculum, and possibly going to secondary education. Addressing
functional skills related to daily living: socializing, communication, executive functioning are typically not
addressed during that age group or not taught as intensively as what is needed to become successfully
employed.

Whether someone is mainstreamed or in any other educational model, the students experience gaps in learning
which makes it more difficult to teach effectively or secure skills that can be generalized. The spectrum may impact how a
student views connections between the social context and job expectations & how socializing techniques change in
different environments and with different people. Taking into account just this example alone, if someone hasn’t had
intensive therapy or skill building for many, many years, no matter how well they perform work tasks, when they show up
to work or an interview there can be a lot of problems in the social sector that will overshadow their employability.

I started a business 10 years ago called Aspiring Aspies where I coached students on the spectrum so that they
could get into college and stay in college. I spent years with some individual - years. It’s really difficult to fully prepare
someone for every aspect of life they may encounter. If we successfully navigated a situation, it was still difficult to get to a
point where we would not have to revisit the same theme or skill that had differing variables. Thus, my clients always
benefitted from having support whether it was coaching, peer counseling or a sounding board that they could trust to
ensure their perspective of a scenario was in line with academic, social, and professional expectations.

Most of my students lacked initiative. Either they were not sure how to start or how to get help--whatever the issue
was, it usually resulted in procrastination to resolve the issue. The end result was usually really worse than the original
problem. For instance, a student would not understand an assignment and then not turn in the work so they would fail an
entire college class rather than initiating a request for help 6 weeks earlier. Their discomfort with initiating a request
resulted in a grade that did not reflect their ability in the subject matter--it was a social skill issue. Thus, tackling some of
the core issues related to a person’s individualized diagnostic picture and learning style is a path toward employment
success even if these transitional type of skill building begins at a much younger age. Teaching people on the spectrum
about different ways to navigate a problem, sharing multiple methods and tools to complete tasks, and giving them time to
generalize these concepts in multiple settings is very valuable and takes a long time.

The second main area that could really help individuals is to learn about work, employment, and careers.
Exposing them to these concepts and showing in very concrete ways will open the door to learning what they may like to
do as a career. Often times the subject does not arise until high school in the midst of other stressors. A job is a complex
concept even for individuals that have higher analytical abilities. It can be confusing and stressful to try to imagine a role
when someone has not had the experience. Show videos, take someone to a work site, bring in professionals to describe
their jobs. Teach individuals early on that employment is about matching your strengths and interests but it also requires
doing tasks that are not always easy and fun. Knowing that reality early on can help our students on the spectrum be
more accepting and flexible when faced with a job environment that does not always feel comfortable.

For instance, a young lady I worked with loved reading and writing stories. She was in her junior year of college
before applying to even a part time job because she had been so focused on her academic life. She decided she was
pressed for time to arrive at career ideas but did not have the skills to create a solid, realistic plan. She simply thought, “I
excel in English, so I will be an English professor”. But there are going to be some downsides to that profession that won’t
match her strength profile. Everybody at that age has that difficulty (imagining what they want to be, what they’re good at
and how they could pursue it), so a lot of times it takes getting into a job, in a volunteer situation and assessing from real
experience how to interpret the role and whether it will be something long or short term.

There are a lot of ways to expose an individual with ASD early on. If they are interested in science and their aunt
works in a lab, maybe auntie can bring them on a tour. Using spring break, and summer breaks to volunteer or learn new
skills when the stress of school is not hovering over everyone. Do something productive that can open up awareness of
‘working’ and how it is different than ‘being in school or sitting at home with nothing to do all day. Many of my Aspiring
Aspies students would learn all kinds of life skills over summer, like riding a bus, or buying shampoo. How would they
know how to clean their work uniform suddenly if a job demanded this if they haven’t learned to do their own laundry? The
earlier the better, and the more steps you can add to make it more concrete, the better.
Could a resource be created to match vocational interests with shadowing opportunities in the community?

At Easter Seals UCP, we offer supported employment, like many other providers. Supported employment is
funded through Vocational Rehabilitation and a job coach assists the individual with a disability in finding training at a job.
Autism Spectrum, unlike other disabilities, presents a complex learning profile that is not straightforward, mainly because
of the social/communication issues I described before. Thus, removing support after someone is trained on the tasks does
not automatically create a long term successful placement. We began a Transition To Employment service that provides
pre-vocational transition employment at four sites -two have the food truck (see SensABLE Snacks). It gives people the
time to learn about themselves, understand what jobs they might be interested in, try them out, and then decide on a path
such as changing career paths, getting more training, or going back to school. The sensABLE snacks food trucks are an
inhouse business for our interns to gain experience in the hospitality field without the risk of being misunderstood.
Because Easterseals UCP has a variety of service lines across the state of NC and VA, an individual on the
spectrum can find various levels of support during their lifespan.

Our sensABLE snack truck teams attended a conference last week where we vended and exhibited. Two adult
individuals volunteered, and just their experience being away from home, being in a hotel, being a part of a team, working,
traveling without their parents, they have already seen changes in confidence and communication. Even how they are
holding themselves. It’s been amazing - I’m really proud of that! But it is an example of how daily living independence can
translate into viable job skills. It is hard to separate the social part from the job part in a true job environment. Give
individuals experiences to stretch and adapt--over time that will make a huge difference when life transitions arise!

How could businesses better provide for people with autism?

One huge help in general is to change the mindset from thinking about employing individuals with autism as a risk
and looking at the benefits. This takes an openness to diversity. Furthermore, thinking beyond hiring one token person
that has autism and considering forming more diverse teams within organizations! Often, it starts from a company
knowing someone personally to recognize the depth and value an individual brings. If leadership of a company knows an
employee or family member who has a child on the spectrum they can learn more deeply about how ASD affects their
thinking and performance. Take the assumptions out of the equation and open the door to opportunities..

Specifically, I think it would be great if businesses had an open house day. If some of their staff were
involved on the board or in volunteer mode with an entity that was connected to individuals with ASD, they could bring in
key players to inform company members. For instance, if an employee knew a teacher who worked with individuals on the
spectrum and brought in a panel to describe the disability this would help eradicate stigma. A lot of the barriers are
assumptions that it’s risky, or that the individual will not work well enough to be paid.

Traditional interviews are not always the best indicator for a good employee regardless of the person but especially in the
case of someone on the spectrum presenting themselves.. So if businesses could make themselves more flexible in how
they evaluate a candidate, it would help them see past any social convention misunderstandings and see the core value
in that an individual can bring.

There are a lot of companies that are recognizing this like Google & Apple, and SAS here in the Triangle. They
see that they can get a superstar worker churning out a lot of good products with an open mind, flexible environment.
After exposure, many employers recognize the benefits of dedicated workers who do not fall into some of the same traps
as their neurotypical employees!

I think if companies that have great experiences employing individuals on the spectrum promoted this more to the
world, the threat of this idea would dissipate over time.They recognizing that there is an untapped labor force out there,
and are capitalizing on it. Rather than keep it as a competitive edge, share it with others so that the number of
underemployed or unemployed adults with ASD will be reduced!

Once employed, having a trusted resource internally to support employer teams would be ideal. Currently the
supported employment model has a job coach pushing into a firm to develop a place for an individual to come in and join
the team. The job coach has to be a liaison and help maintain good communication. When that job coach exits and
misunderstandings occur, our folks on the spectrum often get let go or a reduced work load. Having an internal position
with clinical expertise who can educate company employees, assist with modifications, and actively recruit talent outside
the company would be an amazing improvement in the business community!

What would help adults with autism make themselves marketable to possible employers?

Time and specific resources should be available to individuals to help them present better; however,
these resources should be easier to access. A person on the spectrum may not understand what they need enough to
go searching for a career counselor or vocational coach.

Whomever provides help should individualize it so that the concepts are meaningful and enough hands on
activities can be done to ensure the job candidate can market themselves better.

Here are some other specific ideas:

Know what materials to bring to an interview to bolster their presentation and create these in advance:
-portfolio of work
-video of individual performing duties
-video describing themselves so that they have an interview tape that highlights their strengths and personality but are not
put on the spot with a question in an interview
-video and paper references from others that can speak to their strengths
-resume and cover letter specific to a job (but the basic foundation needs to be created so that every new job interest is
easily adapted for a specific job opening.
-a “personal business card” with phone and email (easy and cheap enough to do these days but good to leave a concrete
way for someone to remember or contact you back especially if networking at an event.
-contact information and address of the business
-pen/paper
-phone that is charged with important numbers saved in case something happens on way to or from interview
-lint roller, breath mints, hand sanitizer, other

Social skill practice and learning:

-hand shake
-dressing for a variety of meetings and interviews
-eye contact and mock interviews. Videotaping these to review with constructive criticism to improve oneself and learn
techniques to avoid pitfalls and overcome issues.
-script for a great thank you letter
-topics to discuss if chit chat needs (elevator, lobby, waiting for all panel members to show up, etc)

Networking techniques, resources and tips is another topical area that would really help provide individuals on the
spectrum with tools to be more successful. Networking can be overwhelming for neurotypical individuals so think about
how daunting it is for someone that may have perspective-taking, executive functioning, and social communication
difficulties! Many blogs and books address this topic but once again, breaking down the concepts and practicing in hands
on ways can help an individual learn and use the skill more successfully.

Disclosure is a whole additional issue; a lot of people do not want to disclose that they have ASD. An individual
may present with an unusual or unexpected reaction to a situation which can seem odd. Human nature is to identify and
label it---a lot of my clients have mistakenly been identified as lazy or on drugs - which is completely not the case they
were just a little bit unaware of customs in certain situations. I am an advocate for disclosing one’s disability so that a
person on the spectrum can communicate in advance something like, “I might not be giving you a lot of eye contact, but
I’m trying to think while you’re talking to me so that I can process your directions and follow expectations. I am committed
to doing this part of the job and I can show you why I’m good at it”.

Learning how to describe one’s spectrum qualities and explain it comfortably to others is a long term goal that can
begin early on as well and will help an individual in many areas of their life. Even if they do not openly state, “I have
Autism”, learning to describe themselves so that they can be accepted by others makes a huge difference for quality of life
but again, the support and time necessary to learn to do this requires attention and planning.

Some individuals do better 1-1 rather than groups. Some like to read a book or watch a video instead of
attending a lecture-based information session. If your website can provide a variety of resources for a variety of
learners, it could become a clearing house on this subject that is accessible globally! Good luck with your
project!

Sincerely,
Laurie