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Employment outcomes for autistic 1 individuals are often poorer relative to their neurotypical (NT) peers, resulting in a greater need for other forms of financial and social support. While a great deal of work has focused on developing interventions for autistic children, relatively less attention has been paid to directly addressing the employment challenges faced by autistic adults. One key impediment to autistic individuals securing employment is the job interview. Autistic individuals often experience anxiety in interview situations, particularly with open-ended questions and unexpected interruptions. They also exhibit atypical gaze patterns that may be perceived as, but not necessarily indicative of, disinterest or inattention. In response, we developed a closed-loop adaptive virtual reality (VR)–based job interview training platform, which we have named Career Interview Readiness in VR (CIRVR). CIRVR is designed to provide an engaging, adaptive, and individualized experience to practice and refine interviewing skills in a less anxiety-inducing virtual context. CIRVR contains a real-time physiology-based stress detection module, as well as a real-time gaze detection module, to permit individualized adaptation. We also present the first prototype of the CIRVR Dashboard, which provides visualizations of data to help autistic individuals as well as potential employers and job coaches make sense of the data gathered from interview sessions. We conducted a feasibility study with 9 autistic and 8 NT individuals to assess the preliminary usability and feasibility of CIRVR. Results showed differences in perceived usability of the system between autistic and NT participants, and higher levels of stress in autistic individuals during interviews. Participants across both groups reported satisfaction with CIRVR and the structure of the interview. These findings and feedback will support future work in improving CIRVR’s features in hopes for it to be a valuable tool to support autistic job candidates as well as their potential employers.
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Understanding the socializer influence on engineering students’ career planning
This research paper describes how engineering juniors and seniors perceive the influence of socializers on their post-graduation career planning. Grounded in Expectancy x Value Theory (EVT), this qualitative investigation is part of a sequential mixed-methods study that included two survey phases and an interview phase. An exploratory analysis of 72 interview excerpts revealed four dominant socializer groups, namely, family, peers, university related individuals, and work related individuals, as well as three distinct areas of socializer influence: thinking about specific jobs, job exploration in general, and choosing whether to pursue further education. A closer look showed that while parents, peers, professors, and supervisors were all important to students’ career plans, the type of influence each had tended to differ. In-depth examples of socializer influence and their impact on students’ job related decisions are shared in this paper. The results are insightful for researchers, university and industry stakeholders, and students.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1360958
- PAR ID:
- 10074793
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference, Salt Lake City, UT, June 24-27, 2018
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Antona, M; null (Ed.)Employment of autistic individuals is strikingly low in relation to the skill level and capabilities of this population. Roughly 65% of autistic adults are either unemployed or underemployed relative to their abilities but there is increasing recognition that this number could be greatly improved through empowering autistic individuals while simultaneously providing a boost to the economy. Much of this disparity can be attributed in part to the lack of awareness and understanding among employers regarding behavior of autistic individuals during the hiring process. Most notably, the job interview—where strong eye contact is traditionally expected but can be extremely uncomfortable for autistic individuals—presents an unreasonable initial barrier to employment for many. The current work presents a data visualization dashboard that is populated with quantitative data (including eye tracking data) captured during simulated job interviews using a novel interview simulator called Career Interview Readiness in Virtual Reality (CIRVR). We conducted a brief series of case studies wherein autistic individuals who took part in a CIRVR interview and other key stakeholders provided lived experiences and qualitative insights into the most effective design and application of such data visualization dashboard. We conclude with a discussion of the role of information related to visual attention in job interviews with an emphasis on the importance of descriptive rather than prescriptive interpretation.more » « less
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