A Professional Career with Autism: Findings from a Literature Review in the Software Engineering Domain

Autistic individuals possess many unique skills that are beneficial to the workforce, especially the technology industry. However, research shows the unemployment rate is still considerably high among the autistic population compared to their neurotypical peers. It has been suggested that some autistic individuals may excel in software engineering roles. This paper presents a Multi-vocal Literature Review (MLR) to highlight the cognitive style and talents of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). An analysis is carried out to fully understand the challenges faced by autistic individuals transitioning into the workplace while also highlighting the challenges faced in their day to day working life. These challenges include workplace environments as well as workplace ceremonies, including, for example, daily stand-up meetings. Many neurotypical software engineers, software engineering firms and academics can benefit from this information as they work towards a more inclusive and more effective software engineering community.