APHL2024: Leveraging the Power of Autistic Expertise and Systems Thinking in Employment Services Research

Employment is a key determinant of physical and mental health and quality of life. Yet autistic people remain un- and under-employed at rates higher than even most other disability populations, with the growing number of employment services interventions doing little to move the numbers. Some limiting factors include the “wicked” complexity of employment which makes it, in some ways, an impossible problem, and the historic lack of engagement by autistic people in exploring, developing, and implementing their own services interventions. We stand now at an inflection point as both community -engagement and systems-level interventions are gaining traction in public health research. In this talk I will demonstrate how privileging autistic lived experience as expertise and learning how to “dance” with wickedness and complexity can innovate a better future. Along the way, I will discuss the Academic Autism Spectrum Partnership in Research and Education’s skilled employment and autistic burnout research and provide concrete actions from our findings for scientists who want to conduct holistic and inclusive research and for autistic people who deserve better employment outcomes today.