Verbal Behaviors during Employment Interviews of College Students with and without ASD

BACKGROUND: Even well-educated people with ASD struggle with obtaining employment, partially due to social difficulties during interviews. Although increasing numbers of individuals with ASD are entering college, little research focuses on this population. Particularly little is known about how to help college students with ASD obtain jobs. OBJECTIVE: This study attempts to identify challenges with verbal communication during employment interviews that are specific to college students with ASD. METHODS: We administered mock employment interviews to 16 college students with ASD and 14 college students without disabilities. Responses to interview questions were coded for content and timing. RESULTS: Students with ASD exhibited slower onsets of responses and greater variability in response length than students without ASD. Students with ASD reported less desire for social aspects of employment than other students. They did not differ in self-reported social difficulties in the workplace. Although they overwhelmingly fully disclosed disability status, they rarely shared strengths of ASD or how they overcame challenges. CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight the need to develop vocational interventions for college students with ASD that help them develop impression management techniques during interviews such as demonstrating interest in social aspects of the workplace, educating interviewers about positive aspects of ASD, and replying in a timely manner

“For a Long Time Our Voices have been Hushed”: Using Student Perspectives to Develop Supports for Neurodiverse College Students

Although the challenges that autistic students face adapting to college are often pronounced, they are similar to the challenges that students with other disabilities face (e.g., difficulties with social interaction, self-advocacy, and executive functioning). However, extant evaluations of services for autistic college students are very limited despite an emerging literature examining supports for college students with a range of other disabilities. Given that many autistic students do not self-identify as autistic in college, and consequently might avoid autism-specific services, autistic students might benefit from services that are designed to support a broad range of neurodiverse students, or services that are structured according to the principles of Universal Design. In order to develop such services, we assessed the self-reported needs of autistic college students and their peers with other disabilities. Guided by needs assessments and feedback from students, we developed and evaluated two semesters of mentor-led group programming for autistic college students and students with other disabilities. The first semester of the program focused on social skills; after receiving feedback from participants, the curriculum for the second semester focused on self-advocacy. Participation in social-skills groups was associated with decreased anxiety and autism symptoms. Participation in self-advocacy groups was associated with increased perceived social support from friends, academic self-efficacy, and more accurate definitions of self-advocacy. This research suggests that supports for neurodiverse college students should be developed with their input and should include opportunities to engage with diverse peers

Designing a Summer Transition Program for Incoming and Current College Students on the Autism Spectrum: A Participatory Approach

Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) face unique challenges transitioning from high school to college and receive insufficient support to help them navigate this transition. Through a participatory collaboration with incoming and current autistic college students, we developed, implemented, and evaluated two intensive week-long summer programs to help autistic students transition into and succeed in college. This process included: (1) developing an initial summer transition program curriculum guided by recommendations from autistic college students in our ongoing mentorship program, (2) conducting an initial feasibility assessment of the curriculum [Summer Transition Program 1 (STP1)], (3) revising our initial curriculum, guided by feedback from autistic students, to develop a curriculum manual, and (4) pilot-testing the manualized curriculum through a quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test assessment of a second summer program [Summer Transition Program 2 (STP2)]. In STP2, two autistic college students assumed a leadership role and acted as “mentors” and ten incoming and current autistic college students participated in the program as “mentees.” Results from the STP2 pilot-test suggested benefits of participatory transition programming for fostering self-advocacy and social skills among mentees. Autistic and non-autistic mentors (but not mentees) described practicing advanced forms of self-advocacy, specifically leadership, through their mentorship roles. Autistic and non-autistic mentors also described shared (e.g., empathy) and unique (an intuitive understanding of autism vs. an intuitive understanding of social interaction) skills that they contributed to the program. This research provides preliminary support for the feasibility and utility of a participatory approach in which autistic college students are integral to the development and implementation of programming to help less experienced autistic students develop the self-advocacy skills they will need to succeed in college