Each year, the TASH Conference brings together our constituents to share resources and success stories, learn about field-driven best practices, and network within a community engaged in shared values. The Conference is attended by passionate leaders, experts, and advocates from every corner of the disability community. Conference attendees are influential in their fields and communities, and play an important role in the provision of services and supports for the millions of individuals and organizations around the world; and include professors and researchers from leading institutions; those involved in local, state, and federal governments and public policy; special and general educators, and school administrators; self-advocates, adult service providers; students, family members, and many others. This year’s conference theme, Building Diverse and Inclusive Communities, reminds us that equity, opportunity, and inclusion relies on the input of broad perspectives and experiences.
Researchers have shown high rates of un- and under-employment among individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), including those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disability (ID). For instance, 26.3% of individuals with ID (Kraus et al., 2018) and 14% of individuals with ASD (Roux et al., 2017) were competitively employed relative to 68.6% of individuals without IDD in 2016. While intervention has historically occurred at the individual level by promoting job skills, we believe to improve sustainable employment outcomes, it is imperative to take an ecological systems approach by intervening from both demand-side (employer) and supply-side (employee). That is, employers can play a significant role in creating change to support a more cohesive, diverse, and inclusive community for employees with IDD. In order to provide employment opportunities for people with IDD, we must better understand how we can support employers' perspectives and knowledge. As such, the purpose of this systematic review was to aggregate studies which addressed the perspectives of employers on individuals with IDD working in integrated employments settings. With this information, we will provide an overall picture of the employers' perspectives literature and will summarize outcomes of the studies. Implications for future practice and research will be included.
