Rehabilitation of Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders

2010

Sandra Horne
[email protected]
207-581-1236

Statistical information generated by the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) for fiscal years (FY) 2003 to 2005 indicates that people with autism are severely underserved in terms of achieving employment outcomes by the state/federal vocational rehabilitation (VR) program (see Table). Please be aware that there is a difference between autism and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). While the term autism, used by the RSA, has a much narrower definition, the only data available were for autism rather than ASD. Although the number of individuals with autism achieving employment outcomes increased over the 3-year period, those with autism were a very small proportion of total closures?less than 0.6% in 2005. Of equal or greater concern, however, is the ratio of unsuccessful to successful closures for people with autism. In 2005, unsuccessful closures were still about 1? times greater than successful closures. While the RSA defines individuals served as those having an implemented plan, the primary study group wanted to include all closure types to see if there were any systemic or programmatic barriers in the VR system specific to individuals with ASD. Those barriers are addressed in subsequent chapters of this document.

Reports and monographs

Consumers/Families, Professionals

N/A