Unfortunately, autistic individuals experience higher unemployment rates compared to people with other disabilities: 80% of autistic people are estimated to be unemployed worldwide (Ki-moon, 2015), and for example, unemployment rates in the United Kingdom are higher for autistic people than other disability groups (Office for National Statistics, 2021). These rates emphasise the need for targeted interventions (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2020; Nicholas et al., 2017), as employment is considered crucial for positive outcomes, providing social engagement, enhancing skills for independent living, and fostering feelings of competency and autonomy (Gal et al., 2015).
In order to respond to this difficulty, the IVEA project was created. The Innovative Vocational Education for Autism (IVEA) project aimed to foster social inclusion of people with autism through employment. Running from October 2018 to September 2021, the project was funded by the European Commission’s Erasmus+ programme and was awarded with the Inclusive E+ Prize by the Portuguese Erasmus+ National Agency. The main results of this project were the European Guide, based on real experiences (available here), and an innovative App for smartphones.
The IVEA mobile application was developed for Android devices and it can be installed on smartphones and tablets. It includes an adapted version of the European Guide, combined with multimedia material (graphics and video). The app has two versions, an easily ready version for autistic jobseekers and the standard version addressed to employers. The app’s original language is English but it is also available in Portuguese, Spanish, Hungarian, French, and Greek. The user can choose his/her language in the first section of the app. You can download the IVEA app here and find more information on IVEA project here.
