UCL recently launched the #MadeAtUCL campaign to highlight innovative research being conducted at the university that has made a significant impact on society. CRAE Director Anna Remington’s research on improving employment prospects for autistic adults has been featured by the campaign under the category of “Justice and Equality”.

There is a well-established employment gap in autism, where autistic people are often willing and able to work, but struggle to find and maintain employment. Given that an estimated 16% of autistic adults are in full time employment in the UK, CRAE has also been working directly with employers, running workshops based on their growing evidence-base, and helping companies to implement changes to their procedures for recruitment and retention.

In partnership with Deutsche Bank and Autistica, the leading UK autism research charity, Anna’s team developed an internship programme for autistic graduates, the first of its kind in the UK. The research conducted around the programme is helping to challenge perceptions about autism in the workplace and provide recommendations for creating more autism-friendly workplace environments.

Anna commented: “Though autistic people can face many challenges around employment, I hope that our work will help promote awareness of the many strengths that are also associated with autism, and the meaningful contributions that autistic people make in the workplace.”

You can read more and vote for the story here https://bit.ly/2kNL50j

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