Abstract

This article reveals that people with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often struggle with finding and keeping a job. These challenges originate from discriminatory attitudes and a lack of means. Objective: The present systematic literature review and meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the association between employment discrimination and autistic individuals and to examine the support, along with said factors associated with the discrimination. Method: In total, 843 studies were obtained by searching in Web of Science, PubMed and Scholar and were screened for the relevance of our topic for the year 2000 to 2023; of these articles, 15 studies remained after applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA). Results: The results indicate statistical significance with a p-value less than 0.05 and a z-score of 4.125 for the effect magnitude. The forest plots show p-values at less than the 5-percent significance level, indicating that the observed results of the studies correspond to the expected average outcome, despite the presence of substantial variations. The article concludes that autistic individuals are significantly associated with employment discrimination, as well as a lack of support and understanding in the workplace. In addition, factors contributing to discrimination include disability disclosure and educational level. Support at the workplace is also a significant factor associated with employment discrimination against autistic individuals.