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

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.