Drexel University recently uncovered some astounding and unnerving statistics regarding autistic adults in the US. While this research pertains explicitly to public unemployment services, it is evident that Americans with autism are not receiving the support they need in a wide range of areas.
99% of Autistic Adults Not Receiving Public Employment Services in the US
From 2008-16 an estimated 1.98 million autistic adults — or 99%, of those who likely needed employment services — did not receive support through Medicaid or Vocational Rehabilitation Administration, a new study from Drexel University’s A.J. Drexel Autism Institute finds.
“Employment is a key social determinant of health and well-being for the estimated 5.4 million autistic adults in the United States – just as it is for citizens without disabilities,” said Anne Roux, a research scientist and director at the Policy Impact Project in the Autism Institute’s Policy and Analytics Center (PAC), who is lead author of the study.
Across both Vocational Rehabilitation and Medicaid programs, the research team estimated that only 1.1% of working-age autistic adults who potentially need employment services are actually receiving them. Only around 4,200 autistic people were receiving services through Medicaid waivers in 2016, while nearly 18,000 received Vocational Rehabilitation services.
The Policy Impact Project
The Policy Impact Project is a venture of the Policy and Analytics Center, under the direction of Dr. Lindsay Shea at the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute at Drexel University. This project was created in response to the need for changes in policy – today – to address the needs of autistic people and their families in the US. In some cases, the need for policy changes is specific to autism, but often, changes to policy that impact broader populations are necessary to improve outcomes for autistic people and their families.
Improving the Lives of People With Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities
The Policy Impact Project uses research findings to propel systems-level policy solutions that improve the lives of autistic people and those with other developmental disabilities. We work to achieve this by building the infrastructure needed to highlight research findings that have potential to inform policies and decisions that affect the lives of neurodiverse individuals.
The key activities of the Policy Impact Project include:
- engaging key community partners, including those with lived experience
- conducting research on policy-relevant issues
- highlighting research findings for policymakers – to speed up and improve policy creation and implementation
- collaborating with researchers to prioritize research questions that inform policy
- communicating with policymakers to better understand their information needs
- providing researchers with the tools and resources they need to produce and measure the policy impact of their own research
A Cause Worth Supporting
As a steadfast advocate for services, support systems, and policies that enable autistic adults to thrive, I love what The Policy Impact Project is striving to achieve. Positive impacts on public policy pertaining to the autistic community can only be accomplished when the policymakers are moved to action. And while it may be tedious, statistics and hard data must be accurately gathered and shared with policymakers for real change to happen.
The Policy Impact Project is actively searching for researchers to make sense of the data and policymakers who want to use that information to affect change.