The realities of unemployment for adults with Asperger Syndrome

I am currently undertaking some reading on the difficulties Adults with Asperger Syndrome confront in finding employment and I am currently reading an Article for my own research "Employment and Adults with Asperger Syndrome" by Karen Hurlbutt and Lynne Chalmers. This article focuses on the individual accounts of six adults with Asperger Syndrome in terms of looking for employment and the difficulties they experience in the area of employment. These adults had negative experiences within employment because. Rosalind one adult with a background and majoring in Accountancy was limited in the type of work she could obtain doing menial work and take anything that was on offer. Xenia another adult, had a degree in Political Science and found the only work she could find was cleaning out cat cages and found this work extremely boring and un challening. What was interesting to note was that all participants expressed frustration with the social aspect of employment and trying to obtain promotion or career advancement and getting a long with co-workers and employers. All the participants in this study shared the common experience of not being able to interact within a social context and according to Joe one of the participants "The most important rule at work is to get along with others at work. I think that jobs usually are 80% social (conversation,lunch, breaks, chit-chat) and 20%work. People with autism are better the other way around!"

The participants agree that if job support was made available that sustainability within employment and performance could have been more conducive. What was interesting is that the participants indicated that disclosure of Asperger Syndrome diagnosis was a personal but the following quote is in itself worth important consideration and demonstrates how the participants felt concerning Asperger Syndrome and the work place “I wish I could disclose the information up front, but I think that it would just prevent me from being hired because people don’t know enough about it and are frightened.” As in the case with one of the participants, Joe “employers were then able to make accommodations, by giving me more time to learn my job.”

For anyone interested in reading the realities of unemployment in adults with Asperger Syndrome then access to this article is a must read. Of course books are also written about Asperger Syndrome and employment. This article I accessed through the University of Queensland Library website and as a staff member, I am able to obtain access to it and other resources of information. Should you have any interest or wish to read about Asperger Syndrome and Employment, here are a couple of useful information sources:

Employment and Adults with Asperger Syndrome - Karen Hurlbutt and Lynne Chalmers

Asperger Syndrome and Employment - What People With Asperger Syndrome Really Really Want by Sarah Hendrickx

Asperger Syndrome Employment Workbook - An Employment Workbook for Adults with Asperger Syndrome by Roger N Meyer