Environmental interventions supporting autistic transition-age youth employability: A scoping review

Background: Navigating the transition from school to work presents a challenge to many young people, and for autistic youth the challenge can be such that they never make it into employment. A greater understanding of interventions that support this important transition is needed. Method: We conducted a scoping review of existing literature focusing on environmental interventions to support transition age youth preparing for employment. We categorized and analyzed the corpus of articles against the 'environmental factors' aspect of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) published by the World Health Organization. Results: The five domains of environmental factors including the physical, social, and attitudinal environment in which people live offer an a priori framework to identify interventions that have been used globally to address autistic individuals' needs. We provide an overview of existing practices, specific interventions, strategies, processes, and resources used in schools, further and higher education institutions, and by employers that can account for improved vocational outcomes and/or successful transitions. Conclusions: The employment potential of autistic students can be supported by a wide range of interventions many of which are not costly or difficult to implement. They fall into three broad types: remedial interventions that seek to change the autistic individual and how they [inter]act with their environment, adaptions that promote a more inclusive physical environment, and training and awareness raising interventions for others that promote change and support for autistic individuals in the social environment. We speculate on the insights to identify areas for further research.