Understanding autistic people's lived experiences of employment

Abstract

Autistic workers face significant rates of unemployment, and those that do achieve employment often face unsuitable environments built upon discrimination and challenges. This thesis explores the lived experiences of autistic workers and interprets these using the Social Relational Model of Disability (SRMD) to explore the disablement that autistic workers experience. Across three studies, this thesis uses qualitative methods and analyses to explore autistic workers experiences from both the autistic workers and employers perspectives. The three studies include a qualitative evidence synthesis of a systematic review (study 1), a template analysis of interviews (study 2 part 1), and reflexive thematic analysis of interviews (study 2 part 2) and a reflexive thematic analysis of interviews and focus groups with employers (study 3). The findings of this thesis illustrate the value of autistic workers perspectives, as new insights are uncovered into the inappropriateness of disclosure and adjustment requesting processes and the additional labours that autistic workers feel forced into performing. Through the SRMD, autistic workers lived experiences reveal the disablement of the workplace that is enforced through socially created and environmentally implemented barriers that exploit the individual’s impairment effects. This disablement is further enforced by psycho-emotional dimensions that lead to the workers exhausting themselves to meet the expectations set by themselves and their workplace.