Autism Spectrum
Autism
Spectrum Disorders (ASDs), also referred to as Pervasive Developmental Disorders
(PDDs), are brain-based developmental disabilities that affect a person’s ability
to communicate, understand language, and relate to others. Estimates from the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that 1.5 million Americans
have ASD (Kennedy Kreiger Institute, 2005).
Adults with ASD, especially those
with high-functioning Autism or with Asperger Syndrome, are able to work
successfully in mainstream jobs (NIMH, 2009). Workplace limitations include:
difficulties with social interaction, understanding social conventions, and social
use of language (Kennedy Kreiger Institute, 2009).
This publication is a quick overview of some job accommodations that might be
useful for employees with ASD. For more in-depth information, access JAN's
publications at http://askjan.org/media/atoz.htm. To discuss an accommodation situation,
contact JAN directly.
Exhibiting
Acceptable Workplace Social Skills:
·
Encourage all employees to model acceptable social
skills
·
Provide a job coach to help understand different
social cues
·
Recognize and reward acceptable behavior to
reinforce such behaviors
·
Review conduct policy with employee to reduce
incidents of unacceptable behavior
·
Provide concrete examples to explain unacceptable
behavior
·
Provide concrete examples to explain consequences
·
Use training videos to demonstrate acceptable
behavior in workplace
·
Use role-play scenarios to demonstrate acceptable behavior
in workplace
Interacting
with Coworkers:
·
Provide workplace sensitivity training to promote
disability awareness
·
Help employee "learn the ropes" by
providing a mentor
·
Make employee attendance at social functions
optional
·
Allow employee to transfer to another workgroup,
shift, or department
·
Encourage employees to minimize personal
conversation, or move personal conversation away from work areas
·
Provide telework, or work-at-home, as a job
accommodation
·
Allow alternative forms of communication between
coworkers, such as email, instant messaging, or text messaging
Communicating Effectively
with Supervisors:
·
Provide detailed day-to-day guidance and feedback
·
Identify areas of improvement for employee in a fair
and consistent manner
·
Provide clear expectations and the consequences of
not meeting expectations
·
Establish long term and short term goals for
employee
·
Assist employee in assigning priority to assignments
·
Assign projects in a systematic and predictable
manner
·
Adjust supervisory method by modifying the manner in
which conversations take place, meetings are conducted, or discipline is
addressed
