Despite their many strengths, some people with autism have difficulty maintaining employment. One of the barriers to job retention involves frontline managers lacking an understanding of autism. To address this issue, Professor Lanovaz and his team have designed a mobile application for managers. This mobile application, My Autistic Employee, is divided into five modules and aims to facilitate the inclusion of autistic individuals in the workplace. As part of the development of the application, their research team evaluated its effects and satisfaction among managers. Preliminary results suggest that using the application improves knowledge, but not attitudes and openness towards autism. Nonetheless, manager satisfaction with the app remained high. The presentation will discuss opportunities for and pitfalls of developing apps to facilitate workplace inclusion in the future.
Marc Lanovaz is a researcher in behavior analysis and psychoeducation. He is an associate professor and researcher at the University of Montreal. His work focuses on the use of machine learning to improve clinical decision-making and the development of mobile and web applications to facilitate the delivery of services to people with autism or intellectual disabilities. His program offers a cross-sectoral approach to research on developmental disorders. In particular, his projects combine health, social sciences, and computer science.
Dan Samosh is an Assistant Professor in Employment Relation at Queen’s University and Academic Co-Lead of the IDEA Incubator Hub on Transitions to Work and Career Development.
The IDEA Speaker Series provides an opportunity to hear guest speakers talk about their efforts to create stronger and more diverse labour markets that include persons with disabilities.
IDEA is supported by funding from the Government of Canada's New Frontiers in Research Fund and Youth Employment and Skills Strategy
