Delia Popa

Delia Cristina Popa is a BCBA certified Behavior Analyst and Vocational Counselor. Within Autism Voice, Delia coordinates the therapy programs and vocational trainings, and is part of the team that built the Work Aid Kit program, addressed to neurodivergent young people, but also to companies that want to become inclusive.

Before joining Autism Voice, Delia worked for 14 years in various corporations, being involved in complex projects in all areas related to human resources: process design, policies and procedures, organizational design, performance management, recruitment, compensations and benefits.

She is a graduate of the Faculty of Management-Public Administration and the Faculty of International Economic Relations within ASE-Bucharest and followed the Master of Managerial Communication and Human Resources at SNSPA. Currently, she attends the courses organized by the Faculty of Psychology.

Presentation: Vocational assessment for people with autism

Abstract:

Finding a job or identifying a way to gain financial independence are certainly important pillars in the life of any young person, and young people with autism are no exception. Since the incidence of autism increased by 317% from 2000 to this date, it is clear to us, as a society, that we cannot afford to ignore them. Young people with ASD are the most affected by unemployment, even compared to the rest of people with disabilities.

Due to their communication difficulties, 85% of them fail to pass the first interview, even if from a cognitive point of view, they are perfectly capable of meeting the requirements of a certain job. As specialists, it is important to keep in mind that inclusion is a two-way street: on the one hand, to ensure that we follow the development of the skills necessary for the independent life of young people with ASD, and on the other hand, to ensure that we present for the business environment/employers strategies that help them increase their degree of inclusion for vulnerable categories.

The first part of the paper will present methods of approaching the vocational assessment for young people with disabilities and the areas that are important to follow in this assessment.

The second part presents an example of a development plan and how it can be structured so that the beneficiary, the therapy team, and the parents, will know what are the (pivotal) skills to be improved in order to increase the integration potential at a future place of the work.

The third part of the paper briefly explains what are the main challenges of neurodivergent young people at work and how they can be anticipated and managed by employers. It also points out the main advantages that an employer has when integrating a neurodivergent candidate.

During the last part of the paper, we will discuss the important elements to consider when we make the “match” between our beneficiaries and the workplace: the recommended method to carry out the selection and onboarding process, how we build the job description and other adjustments that the employer is guided to make in order to provide a friendly and inclusive environment.

Work Aid Kit, a complex program about the integration on the labor market, in companies, of neurodiversity people

Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) are organizational frameworks that seek to promote the fair treatment and full participation of all people, especially groups that have been underrepresented or discriminated based on identity or disability. Neurodiversity is an invisible disability that began to be a subject of social acceptance only since the 90s at the international level. In Romania, neurodiversity has been talked about for less than ten years, and at the level of integration on the labor market, it is hardly discussed at all. DEI management on the labor market is also in a nascent state at the national level in almost all aspects. DEI practices are rather taken over from the Human Resources departments of well-known companies, while DEI policies are adapted to the Romanian legislation, but also to local culture and mentality according to incongruous criteria.

Autism Voice launched this year the Work Aid Kit program, a complex program dedicated to the inclusion of neurodiverse people on the labor market, with an emphasis on the solutions dedicated to potential employees, as well as employers, companies in the country, who want or need concrete resources for DEI of Neurodiversity. Starting with 2025, the association will also open a matchmaking platform service in this sense. The organization will also present for the first time, during the Conference, the results of the first DEI qualitative study of Neurodiversity on the labor market, in the national companies, which it is carrying out together with partners, with quantitative data and qualitative case studies, and other information valuable, which will emphasize the importance of the stringency of both the program and its results so far, as well as the awareness and education of the general public regarding invisible disabilities from an economic, social and legislative perspective.