OARacle Newsletter

The Department of Labor announced at the end of September that its Office of Disability Employment Policy has chosen “Access to Good Jobs for All” as the theme for National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM), which was observed in October. NDEAM annually celebrates the contributions of the nation’s disabled workers and showcases supportive, inclusive policies and practices that benefit employees and employers alike.

During October, disability organizations, employers, and others highlighted efforts to raise employment rates and support disabled workers. For example, the U.S. Department of Labor unveiled a new tool that provides access to more than 700 accommodation ideas for workers with disabilities and their employers.

For autistic adults, NDEAM is an opportunity to educate employers and others about the barriers they face to finding and keeping a job. A 2021 study published in the National Library of Medicine found that adults with an autism diagnosis have an unemployment rate of around 40%. An April 2024 article on the Rocky Mountain PBS site said that “some private estimates go even higher, suggesting 85% of adults with autism are unemployed.”

A freelance reporter for a public radio station based in Buffalo, New York, interviewed Zoe Gross, director of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network. She noted how “huge” the rates of unemployment and under-employment are for autistic adults and other neurodivergent adults. “the barriers begin before you start the job so they begin during the hiring and interview process…and unfortunately, that being stopped at that step prevents a lot of autistic people from ever beginning a job.”

Gross sees some progress being made in workplaces that have hiring programs specifically for neurodivergent workers. “These interview processes that have been changed to be more friendly to neurodivergent applicants, they focus more on do you have the skills that are necessary to do the job? So you can demonstrate the skills in the interview…And then what we want to see in these places is not only is there that way to get neurodivergent workers in the door, but that’s matched with a commitment to providing accommodations, a commitment to changing workplace culture, to making a workplace more accommodating and friendly to autistic workers and other neurodivergent disabilities.”

Other barriers, such as education—the need to have a bachelor’s degree for example—are also still a challenge, Gross said. “We often can’t complete a bachelor’s degree, even if we try, or even if we have a lot of the relevant knowledge for reasons like lack of accommodations, for reasons like difficulty with independent living on college campuses, so things like that can present barriers as well.”

Angelie Vincent, a late-diagnosed autistic engineer with 23 years of experience in the aerospace industry, wrote about NDEAM and its importance to disabled workers on the Society of Women Engineers’ website. She discussed how difficult employment is as a first step and then accommodations as another hurdle. The affinity group she established, she writes, or a peer support group like it “would have been beneficial for me especially early in my career as I learned to navigate the workplace.”

The NDEAM theme resonates with Vincent because “not all members of my community have had the same opportunity or job access. Job seekers with disabilities often find that getting in the door can be the most difficult challenge, starting with the decision of whether to disclose a disability, especially in the case of a non-apparent one.”

Sherri Alms is the freelance editor of The OARacle, a role she took on in 2007. She has been a freelance writer and editor for more than 20 years.