Greater awareness of workplace supports for people with autism required, committee told

Better communication between companies, workers and the wider public is essential if huge levels of under-employment and unemployment among people with autism is to be tackled, an Oireachtas committee has been told by advocates and representatives of trade unions.

Members of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Autism were told initiatives such as the Government’s Wage Subsidy Scheme for people with disabilities and a “reasonable accommodations passport” being promoted by the Irish Congress of Trade unions (Ictu) could help many more people with autism, who make up roughly 1.5 per cent of the population, to access workplaces and thrive there, but that few are aware of supports available.

More supports are needed, the committee heard, but an information campaign to publicise those that already exist could provide shorter-term dividends for those trying to access the work and companies open to employing them.

Social enterprise agency Specialisterne Ireland, which works as a specialist recruiter for neurodivergent people and provides ongoing supports to both employers and employees, said the best available figures put the rate of under-employment and unemployment among those with autism at 85 per cent.

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Head of operations Noreen Murphy said, however, that many companies did not realise how manageable the reasonable accommodations required to facilitate the employment of someone with autism can be. She said they needed to be made aware that “a small change [in the workplace] can make a huge difference over the course of a person’s life”.

[ Children with autism should not be ‘overprotected’, says expert ]

[ Autistic people still facing barriers, new report finds ]

[ Helping people with autism gain access to the jobs market ]

“Nobody is talking here about companies employing people who can’t do the job – it is about allowing people who can do it to the best of their ability.”

Ictu’s David Joyce told the senators and TDs present: “Awareness and communication are key issues here. Earlier this year we were asked by the Department of Social Protection on how their reasonable accommodations fund could be improved to help more people with disabilities gain access to decent work.

“But it is interesting to note, and this was in an OECD report done over the last couple of years, that despite the potential of that fund to assist businesses, only 10 per cent of employers were aware of the fund and 70 per cent said they had never received any advice on delivering disability services or retaining people identified as having a disability.”

Mr Joyce said Ictu had suggested a national awareness campaign, and committee chair, Senator Micheál Carrigy, said it was the sort of practical suggestion that members were likely to support as they formulate policy on the issue.

Details of the “passport” scheme, adopted from the UK – which provides a document allowing workers and their line managers to set out exactly what has been agreed in terms of reasonable accommodations – were also outlined. This, the committee heard, could prove invaluable to all sides when a manager changed or an employee moved to a different role.

Peter Brabazon, chief executive of Specialisterne, which has placed clients with the likes of SAP, AIG and Microsoft, and many smaller companies since its establishment, said the organisation’s placement success rate is “approaching 50 per cent”. With the help of a “buddy” system and the more general support of colleagues, many clients had forged rewarding careers for themselves.

The problem, he said, was getting their careers started, because despite often having high levels of education, they tended not to have had jobs of the sort many others take for granted, and so had no experience of the workplace.

He and Ms Murphy talked about examples of reasonable accommodations required to facilitate employment, including placement of desks, changing of lighting and relaxation of dress codes.

What companies got in return was an employee who tended to be “intensively engaged” and loyal, although Mr Brabazon acknowledged that some clients stayed long-term with particular firms because “they are just so glad to have the job”.