Autism and Employment: Bridging the Gap
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s recent comments regarding autism are deeply troubling and rooted in misinformation that perpetuates harmful stereotypes about autistic people. He falsely claims that vaccines are a major cause of autism, despite overwhelming scientific evidence disproving this (see our appendix for a list of just a few peer-reviewed medical studies proving there is no link between vaccines and autism).
These dangerous comments not only undermine the scientific consensus but also perpetuate stigmas about autistic individuals, portraying us as victims of a manufactured epidemic rather than as people with diverse neurological profiles. He says we won’t work, pay tax, have a relationship, or play baseball, and that we destroy families. Such rhetoric fuels fear, spreads unfounded conspiracy theories, and detracts from the real challenges that autistic people face – including a lack of access to appropriate support, discrimination, violence, and exclusion.
RFK Jr.’s comments contribute to a harmful environment where misinformation leads to further marginalisation of autistic communities (Autistic Self Advocacy Network, 2025). For many of us, we won’t be feeling as safe in identifying as, or unmasking our neurotype in the current climate – if we ever were beforehand.
As a late-realised autistic person, Autism Acceptance Month is personal for me. Understanding my neurodivergence as an adult helped me make sense of my experiences at work—the strengths I bring, the challenges I face, and the way I’ve simultaneously masked and self-accommodated throughout life. Now, as an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion consultant, I support organisations to make employment fairer and more accessible for autistic people – from leaders, to colleagues, to clients, customers, and communities.
Autism and Employment: The Reality
The statistics are clear: autistic people face significant barriers in accessing secure work. Only 30% of working-age autistic adults in the UK are employed (Financial Times, 2024), compared to 54.7% of all disabled people and 81.3% of non-disabled people (House of Commons Library, 2024). Autistic employees also experience the one of the biggest pay gaps of marginalised groups; earning almost 28% less than neurotypical and non-disabled colleagues (ONS, 2024).
For autistic graduates, the situation is just as stark. Only 36% find work within 15 months of leaving university—less than half the employment rate of neurotypical graduates (2024). Autistic graduates who do secure jobs are more likely to be overqualified, on zero-hour contracts, and in non-permanent roles (UK Government, 2024).
Why is The Employment Rate Lower for Autistic People?
The Buckland Review of Autism Employment (2024) explored five key themes:
- Raising awareness, reducing stigma, and supporting autistic employees.
- Preparing autistic people for employment.
- Making recruitment more accessible.
- Supporting autistic employees in the workplace.
- Helping autistic staff to progress in their careers.
The review found that lack of understanding and negative stereotypes are the biggest barriers autistic people face at work. These misconceptions shape policies, hiring practices, and workplace cultures in ways that exclude us.
Other common challenges include:
- Recruitment processes that don’t work for autistic candidates. Job descriptions are often vague. Interviews focus on social skills rather than job skills. Application processes don’t allow candidates to showcase their strengths (Davies et al, 2023).
- Lack of workplace adjustments. Many autistic employees feel unable to ask for adjustments. Of those who do, over a quarter are refused and more than 1 in 10 say the adjustment was poorly implemented (UK Government, 2024).
- Sensory and communication barriers. Open-plan offices can be overwhelming. Unstructured meetings and unclear instructions make tasks harder (UK Government, 2024).
My Personal Experience: What Helps Me at Work
For me, clear and direct communication makes the biggest difference. I thrive in environments where expectations are clear, feedback is constructive, and colleagues don’t assume I’ll work based on subtext and euphemism. I work best when I can communicate in ways that suit me—sometimes that’s writing instead of speaking, sometimes it’s thinking out loud, sometimes it’s from notes. Agendas are a big part of my ability to bring my most creative, thoughtful, and solution-focused self to meetings.
I also benefit from flexibility. Remote working helps me manage sensory challenges, and engage in my routine to ensure I’m caring for my brain and body. As a chronically ill and disabled person, I know what I need in order to manage my day-to-day, and having the agency to self-regulate makes a big difference. Having control over my schedule reduces stress, and means I can ensure I show up as my best self to meetings and client deliveries.
Myth-Busting: Autistic People and Empathy
A common myth is that autistic people lack empathy. This isn’t true. Many of us experience deep empathy—we just express it differently. Some of us show it through problem-solving rather than words. Some of us need more time to process emotions (Brewer et al, 2023). Dismissing autistic people as “unfeeling” or “cold” is not only incorrect, but harmful. It leads to workplace cultures where we’re misunderstood and excluded.
Autism and Intersectionality: Why It Matters
Autism doesn’t exist in isolation—it intersects with race, gender, class, disability, and other aspects of identity. Understanding these intersections is key to creating truly inclusive workplaces.
For example, research shows that autistic women and non-binary people are less likely to receive a diagnosis than autistic men (Trundle et al, 2025). Many of us are misdiagnosed or overlooked because outdated stereotypes frame autism as something that primarily affects white, cisgender men (Trundle et al, 2025). This diagnostic gap can mean we go through life without the support we need—especially when it comes to employment.
Race also plays a role. In the UK, Black and South Asian autistic people face additional barriers to diagnosis and support (Babalola et al, 2024). They are less likely to be identified as autistic in childhood and more likely to be misdiagnosed with other conditions. These disparities don’t stop at diagnosis—they extend into the workplace, where racism and ableism combine to limit opportunities and exclude people from career progression (Lindsay et al, 2023).
Similarly, class and financial privilege impact access to employment support. Some autistic people can self-fund workplace support or technology to help navigate challenges. Others rely on overstretched public services or receive no support at all. For those in precarious jobs, asking for workplace adjustments may not feel like an option, especially if there’s a risk of losing income.
Ignoring these intersections leads to one-size-fits-all solutions that don’t work for everyone. If we want to close the autism employment gap, we need to tackle the multiple, overlapping barriers that autistic people from marginalised backgrounds face. That means listening to those with lived experience, challenging biases within workplaces, and ensuring that autism inclusion efforts don’t only serve the most privileged of us.
Five Ways to Make Workplaces More Inclusive
We see it everywhere – diverse and inclusive teams help businesses perform better. Take a look at SAP’s Autism at Work programme (started in 2013) to see how they’ve created inclusive, accessible spaces for neurodivergent talent and teams (SAP SE, 2025). Microsoft launched their Neurodiversity Hiring Program in 2015 (Microsoft, 2025), and other companies hiring autistic talent with specific programmes of work include JP Morgan & Chase, Ultranauts, Daivergent, Spectroomz and Ernst & Young (Sahu, 2024), so you may have some catching up to do…
At Included, we work with businesses, teams, and autistic individuals to improve workplace accessibility. Based on our client, and indeed personal, experience, coupled with research, here are our top five recommendations:
- Autism and Neuroinclusion Training
Provide training to help your teams understand autism and challenge stereotypes. A workplace that understands autistic people is a workplace where we can thrive.
- Accessible Hiring Practices
Increase accessibility by redesigning job descriptions, offering alternative interview formats, and ensuring reasonable adjustments are available from the start
- Sensory-Friendly Workspaces
Create workspaces that meet autistic needs – by adjusting lighting, noise, and layout to reduce overwhelm and increase productivity.
- Mentorship and Career Support
Set up mentorship programmes so autistic employees get the guidance they need to navigate workplace culture and advance in their careers.
- Reviewing Policies and Leadership Commitments
Encourage leadership teams to ensure workplace policies support autistic staff – from flexible working arrangements to clear communication policies and resources.
Final Thoughts
Autistic people want to work. We have valuable skills to offer. But we need employers to meet us halfway. When businesses take real steps towards inclusion, they build stronger, more diverse, and more successful teams.
We recommend our readers look into the works of Dr TC Waisman, Patrick Dwyer, Dr Morénike Giwa Onaiwu, and Dr Steven Kapp for robust, and authentic research into and publications on the experiences of autistic people – as autistic experts themselves. You can also look at the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) and International Society for Autism Research (INSAR). We suggest avoiding the work of harmful group ‘Autism Speaks’ – largely denounced by the autistic community for damaging practice and unethical messaging.
If your organisation is ready to make meaningful changes, we’d love to support you. Let’s work together to create workplaces where autistic people can not just work, but thrive.
Bibliography / Sources:
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Babalola, T., Sanguedolce, G., Dipper, L. et al. (2024). ‘Barriers and facilitators of healthcare access for autistic children in the UK: a systematic review’. Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 11(1), pp. 1–18. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40489-023-00420-3 [Accessed 25 April 2025].
Brewer, N., Georgopoulos, M. A., Lucas, C. A., & Young, R. L. (2023). Autistic adults’ perspectives on appropriate empathic responses to others’ emotions. Autism Research, 16(8), 1573–1585. https://doi.org/10.1002/aur.2965
Davies, J., Heasman, B., Livesey, A., & Remington, A. (2023). Access to employment: A comparison of autistic, neurodivergent, and neurotypical adults’ experiences of hiring processes in the United Kingdom. Autism, 27(1), 123–137. https://doi.org/10.1177/13623613221145377
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Appendix: A Selection of Peer Reviewed Scientific Studies de-bunking the Myth that Vaccines cause Autism:
Taylor, L.E., Swerdfeger, A.L., & Eslick, G.D. (2014). Vaccines are not associated with autism: An evidence-based meta-analysis of case-control and cohort studies. Vaccine, 32(29), 3623–3629.
This comprehensive meta-analysis reviewed data from over 1.2 million children and found no relationship between vaccination and the risk of developing autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Hviid, A., Hansen, J.V., Frisch, M., & Melbye, M. (2019). Measles, mumps, rubella vaccination and autism: A nationwide cohort study. Annals of Internal Medicine, 170(8), 513–520.
Analysing data from over 650,000 children in Denmark, this study found no increased risk of autism associated with the MMR vaccine, even among children with higher genetic risk.
DeStefano, F., Price, C.S., & Weintraub, E.S. (2013). Increasing exposure to antibody-stimulating proteins and polysaccharides in vaccines is not associated with rates of autism. The Journal of Pediatrics, 163(2), 561–567.
This study examined the total antigen exposure from vaccines in the first two years of life and found no association with the presence of autism spectrum disorder.
Institute of Medicine (2011). Adverse Effects of Vaccines: Evidence and Causality. The National Academies Press.
This comprehensive review by the Institute of Medicine concluded that vaccines are not associated with autism, based on a thorough evaluation of epidemiological and biological evidence.
Taylor, B., Miller, E., Farrington, C.P., Petropoulos, M.C., Favot-Mayaud, I., Li, J., & Waight, P.A. (1999). Autism and measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine: No epidemiological evidence for a causal association. The Lancet, 353(9169), 2026–2029.
This early study found no evidence to support a link between the MMR vaccine and autism, countering the claims made by the now-much-retracted and discredited study by struck off and guilty of ‘serious professional misconduct, dishonesty in how the study was conducted and reported, and unethical treatment of vulnerable children’, Adrian Wakefield.
