This qualitative study explores the lived experiences of nine individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) working in open (mainstream) employment in Australia. The findings highlight a gap in Australia’s current disability employment policy, particularly the Disability Employment Services funding model which incentivises short-term job placements over long-term career development.

This strategy is the fourth state disability plan and sets out actions that will help the Victorian Government meet its United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities obligations in order to make things fairer for people with disability.

This report synthesises findings from research and roundtables about organisational inclusion of employees with disabilities. The findings reflect lessons learned by employers, by practitioners supporting employers, and by employees working to identify possible directions for improvement.

This submission calls for a new approach to supporting people with disability into fairly paid work and urges the Australian government not to press ahead with a rushed and inadequate review of Disability Employment Services in isolation, without adequately seeking support from with people with disability and their advocates.

This report finds that overall, universities do not appear to understand how students with disability think about their careers. It recommends a new funding model for Disability Employment Service providers to compensate their investment in supporting university students with disability and to enable their engagement with students from the first year of their studies.