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Collaborative Job Seeking for People with Autism: Challenges and Design Opportunities

Zinat Ara, Amrita Ganguly, Donna Peppard, Dongjun Chung, Slobodan Vucetic, Vivian Genaro Motti, Sungsoo Ray Hong

TL;DR

The paper tackles the challenge that autistic job seekers face in collaborative job seeking due to communication differences and social stigma. It combines Study 1 with 20 interviews to identify internal, external, and technology-related challenges, and derives a design space with four key directions. Study 2 prototyping and focus groups validate these directions, highlighting socially supported executive planning, communication, stage-wise preparation, and peer networking as promising avenues. The work contributes a nuanced taxonomy of challenges, a concrete design space, and prototype-driven insights to guide Neurodiversity-aware, CSCW-informed, and human-AI-enabled job-search tools with potential for real-world impact.

Abstract

Successful job search results from job seekers' well-shaped social communication. While well-known differences in communication exist between people with autism and neurotypicals, little is known about how people with autism collaborate with their social surroundings to strive in the job market. To better understand the practices and challenges of collaborative job seeking for people with autism, we interviewed 20 participants including applicants with autism, their social surroundings, and career experts. Through the interviews, we identified social challenges that people with autism face during their job seeking; the social support they leverage to be successful; and the technological limitations that hinder their collaboration. We designed four probes that represent major collaborative features found from the interviews--executive planning, communication, stage-wise preparation, and neurodivergent community formation--and discussed their potential usefulness and impact through three focus groups. We provide implications regarding how our findings can enhance collaborative job seeking experiences for people with autism through new designs.

Collaborative Job Seeking for People with Autism: Challenges and Design Opportunities

TL;DR

The paper tackles the challenge that autistic job seekers face in collaborative job seeking due to communication differences and social stigma. It combines Study 1 with 20 interviews to identify internal, external, and technology-related challenges, and derives a design space with four key directions. Study 2 prototyping and focus groups validate these directions, highlighting socially supported executive planning, communication, stage-wise preparation, and peer networking as promising avenues. The work contributes a nuanced taxonomy of challenges, a concrete design space, and prototype-driven insights to guide Neurodiversity-aware, CSCW-informed, and human-AI-enabled job-search tools with potential for real-world impact.

Abstract

Successful job search results from job seekers' well-shaped social communication. While well-known differences in communication exist between people with autism and neurotypicals, little is known about how people with autism collaborate with their social surroundings to strive in the job market. To better understand the practices and challenges of collaborative job seeking for people with autism, we interviewed 20 participants including applicants with autism, their social surroundings, and career experts. Through the interviews, we identified social challenges that people with autism face during their job seeking; the social support they leverage to be successful; and the technological limitations that hinder their collaboration. We designed four probes that represent major collaborative features found from the interviews--executive planning, communication, stage-wise preparation, and neurodivergent community formation--and discussed their potential usefulness and impact through three focus groups. We provide implications regarding how our findings can enhance collaborative job seeking experiences for people with autism through new designs.
Paper Structure (43 sections, 1 figure, 2 tables)

This paper contains 43 sections, 1 figure, 2 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. Study 1: Method
  4. Participants
  5. Interview
  6. Qualitative Coding Process
  7. Study 1: Results
  8. Internal Challenges and Practices
  9. Executive Functioning
  10. Challenges:
  11. Difference in communication style
  12. Challenges:
  13. Fear of Networking
  14. Challenges:
  15. Emotional Dysregulation
  16. ...and 28 more sections

Figures (1)

  • Figure 1: Four design probes from the design space of Collaborative Job-seeking for People with Autism.