Autism jobs can be found in NYC, Los Angeles, NJ, Chicago, San Francisco, Sacramento, Seattle and other big metropolitan cities in the US. Jobs for people with autism and jobs for people wanting to work with autism are growing and becoming more available each day.
Getting autism research jobs for people, jobs working with kids with autism to teach them how to speak and learn, specialty jobs helping teenage autistic people and helping adults with autism are mainly done on a non profit or volunteer basis if you are considering a job working with autism.
People With Autism Finding A Job | Autistic Employment
Autistic people can be successfully employed. All it takes is some thought on reasonable accommodations for them. This is important to understand because employment is the activity adults plan their day around. It is something that can give autistic people meaning to their day.
Reasonable Accomodations For Autism Jobs
It is important to make reasonable accommodations for autistic people to be able to work. Herein it is a good idea to work with organizations that have been established to work with disabled people. Regardless of what the autistic person is trying to achieve (i.e. attend college, go to work) these organizations exist to help them get any necessary accommodations.
Whenever autistic people get accommodations while attending college they can get a degree that will lead to a good job. For instance, they may go on to become an engineer or a college professor if they are in the right environment. Of course, there are also autistic people who work in libraries organizing books (great for autistic people who have an affinity for numbers) or the fast food industry and have specialized duties that they are able to easily handle. Usually these activities are ones that typical employees find boring or repetitive but autistic people are able to excel at for this very reason.
Some of the accommodations that are considered reasonable include:
- A support person
- A visual schedule showing the activities that the autistic person is to do
- A visual list of steps showing how to do each activity
Support Persons To Help Autistic People With Jobs
Some autistic people need help from a support person. This person goes with them and directs them back to the task they are supposed to be doing. They are also ready to step in if there is even the slightest possibility of a melt down occurring. The support person is not there to do the autistic person’s job though. This person is paid out of the state’s system that for services for people who have developmental disabilities. Therefore, the autistic person is able to make money while also paying for part of these services.
Getting Help From A Job Coach For Autism
A job coach can be a very important part of an autistic person’s employment. This job coach is there to do a lot of important tasks for them. These tasks are critical to autistic people. Some of these tasks include:
- Job development. Herein the job coach looks for job duties that an autistic person can do. Depending upon a person’s limitations, these duties may be part of several different jobs or they may find that the person can do an already defined job in a different way.
- Information sharing. A job coach provides employers and coworkers with information on a person’s disability. This is usually done in an informal manner so as not to violate the disabled person’s confidentiality.
- Teaching new jobs to autistic persons. A job coach will break down each job duty into specific steps that can then be made into a list, a series of pictures or a booklet. Autistic people are then able to learn the steps to take in order to perform a variety of duties in this manner.
- Teaching appropriate on the job behavior (i.e. showing up on time, wearing the proper uniform, getting along with co-workers). This behavior is just as important as the job duties a person must perform while at work.
- Finding natural supports for the person while they are on the job. This may be as simple as finding co-workers or supervisors who are willing to remind the autistic person of what they need to do or when they need to do it. At other times, it may require finding a paid support for this person.
In Conclusion
Clearly there are a lot of things that can be done to help an autistic person become gainfully employed. These are all considered reasonable accommodations.