Dr. Rosalyn Tamming:

I will build on the bit on autistic adults. We did a study in 2017 looking at the international literature to see where services were being provided well. We restricted it to autistic adults who do not have a concurrent intellectual disability. These are the people who really fall through the gap. People with an intellectual disability are often engaged with mainstream disability services. The study found there was not consensus about a really good model of practice emerging from other countries. People are doing different things in different ways. The main countries with programmes in place were England, Scotland and the US.

Dr. Doherty mentioned specialist disability services and that is not necessarily the way to go. Scotland had a specialist approach which was quite comprehensive. Following a diagnosis there was follow-up care to allow that person to accept and understand their diagnosis with the supports they needed then provided. For instance, someone could be gone for years but could come back if a problem arose, which was a good system. It also had one-stop shops where people could go for information. It is a little bit like our Citizens Information but specifically for autism. While the evaluations of them were quite positive, the ongoing funding did not happen. There was a pilot which was great, but then it did not happen. I am not sure that is necessarily the best approach.

Regarding attitudes towards employment, since 2001 we have done a national survey on public attitudes to disability every five years. The last one was in 2017. It shows that in general attitudes to people with disabilities stays roughly the same across time. It is generally poor for people with mental health difficulties. People with autism or an intellectual disability tend to be on the lower end of the scale compared with people a physical disability. That is borne out by research across the world.

The interesting point here is contact theory. When one looks at people in the survey who have a family member, work colleague or someone close to them with a disability, their attitudes are a lot better. The thing to do, therefore, is make people with disabilities more visible within their communities. That is where inclusive education and employment come in. I do not know if we can say that a workplace will automatically employ more people with a disability, if there are already people with a disability in that workplace. However, it makes sense if that is working out, whether there are more job opportunities or not. From research we have done previously, employers say they do not know enough about disability. They are not disability competent, if we can put it that way. They are afraid of what it might involve, what some of the pitfalls could be, and if it will cost them a lot of money. Once a lot of those myths are dispelled, and supports are in place, employers become a lot more engaged. The Senator's final point was on universal design, and a report. I apologise but I have lost what report that referred to.