Forbes columnist proposes Autism Full Employment Act

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Unless the economy picks up dramatically in the next quarter, a Recovery Stimulus is likely early in 2021, of greater amount than even the $3 trillion CARES Act. Washington DC think tanks, the World Economic Forum, and other policy groups already are preparing their lists of employment initiatives. None of these lengthy lists include employment for adults with autism or other developmental differences. Is there a place in a 2021 Recovery effort for these adults?

Let’s consider what an Autism Full Employment Act of 2021 might look like. It would not follow the lines of other government funding and subsidy requests. It would be rooted in the self-help efforts already underway in the autism community, and mix a heightened role for these efforts with targeted Recovery funding. It would build on the established job placement providers, locally and nationally (Autism Speaks, Best Buddies, Autism Society), and eschew a new national bureaucracy. Most of all, it would draw on the experiences of hundreds of recent autism employment efforts around the country.

The details of the Act will be filled in over the next four months by the autism community itself, with the assistance of its university partners, the autism employment centers at Stanford, Cornell and UCLA. However, a broad outline of strategies, in four general categories, can be set out here. These strategies speak of workers with autism, though autism is meant as a proxy to include the broader universe of adults with developmental differences.

1. Expanding autism employment initiatives in private sector businesses, large and small: Hiring by private businesses starts with the advocacy and volunteer efforts by family members within their companies. The past decade has seen an explosion of targeted autism employment initiatives in the private sector, including in some of America’s largest employers—Microsoft, SAP, Ford. In most cases, the initiatives have been the result of advocacy by family members within these companies. The Act will recognize and seek to encourage this self-help. It will seek to encourage other forms of self-help and mutual support: the job clubs, the volunteer mentoring, the

The Act will augment self-help with targeted wage subsidies, to offset the higher training and retention costs that will be incurred with a segment of the autism workforce. Federal and state government have tried several tax credits and hiring incentives: the federal Work Opportunity Tax Credit, Work Experience and On-the-Job subsidies under WIOA, even wage subsidies (up to 100%) through state-level disability programs. Overall, these incentives haven’t yielded much of a hiring impact in recent years. However, hiring incentives might be taken more seriously by businesses in the post-pandemic economy, where hiring budgets are tighter.

In crafting the hiring subsidies, the architects of the Act will want to draw on the incentives that so far have had greatest results. These are the subsidies administered by third party administrators and employers of record, that continue in decreasing amount over time, and that focus on mid-size and smaller businesses.

2. State and local governments lecture private employers to hire workers with developmental differences; now it’s time for them to do so: State and local governments constantly lecture private employers to hire workers with developmental differences, but they have done little with their own workforces. Several forces are at play: civil service rules, the inertia in government bureaucracies, a sense of entitlement among the current workforce. In 2015, for example, the California state legislature established the State Internship Program for young adults with disabilities, as a foot-in-the-door to lead into civil service Office Assistant positions. Despite active marketing efforts to state departments, over the past five years the Program has been able to generate only 12 internships (the state civil service workforce in California is over 218,000). Department hiring managers see the “disability hiring” as requiring additional time, and outside their core missions.

In opening public sector hiring more widely to workers with developmental differences, the Act will leverage other Recovery funds that are going to the states and municipalities. These funds might carry new forms of hiring requirements or processes. Ultimately, hiring and retention results will require a “culture shift”, a buy-in by public sector managers, that is beyond any funding. But the Act’s hiring requirements can be a start.

3. Professionalizing the direct-support jobs in the disability field: The job coaches, job counselors and job developers form the front lines of autism employment. Currently, several efforts are underway nationally through the National Association of Disability Service Providers and America’s Network of Community Options and Resources to professionalize this workforce and reduce the high turnover in these positions through on-going skills development, certifications, and career ladders.

The Act will abet these efforts, while also addressing the main source of turnover: low pay. The wages for job coaches and other direct support workers are often near minimum wage. A decently-paid direct support workforce will be a priority of the Act.

4. Attention to employment for the more severely impacted, including subsidized employment in public service positions: The high profile autism initiatives, as at the “Autism at Work” companies, have focused on the adults with autism with more advanced skills, particularly tech skills. This is a small segment of the adult autism workforce. The Act will give attention to the more severely impacted— those who do not bring an “autism advantage” of savant skills or focus. Among the strategies for this group, the Act will give attention to subsidized public service employment. Such employment is now being done on a small scale on projects across the nation in park and open space maintenance and cleaning, municipal landscaping, assistance in long term care facilities, and museum support.

Janet Lawson, the long-time director of Autistry Studios in San Rafael, California, a non-profit serving adults with autism, has partnered with the National Park Service on subsidized public service employment projects including trail and facility maintenance, trimming bushes/trees, and serving visitors in concession stands. She writes earlier this month:

“The Park Rangers report that the Autistry crews have been a great support and help at the parks. The Autistry crews have learned to identify the various invasive species present in the parks and have helped the Rangers both in maintaining the aesthetic landscaping of the parks as well as managing the balance of native plant life there.”

She has a similar partnership with the Western Railway Museum, providing subsidized positions for her adults with autism in scanning and archiving historical photographs, assisting in restoration projects, working with Museum staff in specialty exhibits. Lawson adds that several of her adults are working toward Early Childhood Education degrees or certificates and have worked in subsidized positions at local childcare facilities.


A place in the job market for all adults with autism and other developmental differences, however severe, who want to work is the vision animating much of autism employment today. A Recovery Stimulus early in 2021, as it emerges, will provide a rare opportunity to move toward this vision. It’s now up to adults with autism, family members, and their allies to move the Act forward.

Well meaning but useless.

Many autistic people can’t even make a cup of tea let alone have the executive functioning level to do and even hold down a job.

Unemployment and poverty will always be super high among autistics until good biological treatments are created, that allow us to join the human race rather than an outsider at the moment.