Discover Autism Research & Employment (DARE)

Discover Autism Research & Employment

There is a national autism-employment gap where autistic adults are less likely to be in full-time employment than people in other disability categories. To find out more, CRAE’s Anna Remington pioneered DARE, an evidence-gathering autism employment initiative, together with autism research charity Autistica.

The DARE team conduct research to understand the employment experiences of autistic people. They assess employment outcomes for autistic people and try to determine what meaningful employment looks like for autistic people with and without learning disabilities. DARE researchers also study the experiences of autistic people leaving employment, for example through dismissal, redundancy, or burnout.

Additionally, the DARE team look at the use of environmental supports at work and how effective existing workplace assessments are, in supporting adjustments for autistic people.

To date, this research includes more than 500 participants, and preliminary research findings highlight several key barriers and enablers to employment for neurodivergent people.

These include:

disclosure (if and why people may disclose their diagnosis, and their experiences of it),

masking (strategies that some autistic people use to fit in), and

adjustments (changes to the working environment and practice designed to make jobs and work more accessible).

So far, the research highlights that autistic participants think that a manager’s traits and values, such as their knowledge of autism, being empathetic, and a desire to retain staff, are major factors when it comes to employment practices for neurodivergent staff. Additionally, resources (such as financial costs, convenience for managers, and time and space for adjustments) were also seen as important barriers or enablers.

(DARE)