Autistic Adult Knowledge of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Employment-Related Rights

As the autism community continues to grow, it is increasingly important to evaluate strategies to teach workplace-related skills to the members of this community. One of these skills is self-advocacy, defined by Test et al. as consisting of four components: self-knowledge, knowledge of rights, commu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Education sciences 2023-07, Vol.13 (7), p.748
Main Authors: Schena, David, Rosales, Rocio
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult education
Adults
Advocacy
Americans with Disabilities Act 1990-US
Analysis
Autism
Autism Spectrum Disorders
Communication
Community Relations
Disability
Disability rights
Educational Facilities Improvement
Electronic Mail
Employers
Employment
Employment Experience
Knowledge
legal rights
Legislation
Literature Reviews
Pattern Recognition
Researchers
Self Advocacy
Skills
Social Differences
Students with Disabilities
Suffrage
Teaching
Visual Aids
Work Environment
Work Experience
Workers with disabilities
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Summary:As the autism community continues to grow, it is increasingly important to evaluate strategies to teach workplace-related skills to the members of this community. One of these skills is self-advocacy, defined by Test et al. as consisting of four components: self-knowledge, knowledge of rights, communication, and leadership. This study aimed to address the second component of this definition, knowledge of rights. Three autistic adults learned information about key terms from the Americans with Disabilities Act. Participants practiced identifying legal rights related to discrimination and inability to provide certain accommodations in a series of short text scenarios, using instructor-modeled rehearsal of similar scenarios as the independent variable. Results show that each participant entered the study with an existing level of knowledge and ability to interpret the rights of various scenarios (30–60% correct during baseline) and that training resulted in small improvements (a 20–40% increase) in accurate scenario interpretation. Future research should include additional techniques, such as role play, to enhance performance accuracy and examine long-term retention and generalization of the skills acquired. Social validity feedback suggests that the training used in this study was acceptable to participants and may be amenable to future studies.
ISSN:2227-7102
2227-7102
DOI:10.3390/educsci13070748