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To access and maintain paid employment is of importance for all people in our society. Today a large number of people are more or less excluded from the open labour market. One of these disadvantaged groups is people with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). This paper presents the project KVAS - Assessment and Validation Asperger Syndrome, that took place in the municipality of Botkyrka in Sweden during the years 2007-2010. The Empowerment network in the Autism and Asperger Association in Sweden initiated the project aiming to develop ways to visualize the abilities of individuals with Asperger Syndrome to increase their chances to permanent paid employment. The outcome of the project The Validation Process is introduced together with the Barometer and My Profile, self-assessment tools that were developed in the project to assist people with ASD in assessing their own resources and support needs to increase self-advocacy. The Validation Process consists of 4 modules that concern work in different ways. The model was originally developed for group sessions in combination with individual work, but can also be used individually. It can be used in the Supported Employment process for work preparation, vocational profiling or as job support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several researchers stress the importance of listening to autistic adults' own experiences of work and related issues. This paper critically explores an ambivalent discourse of empowerment using notions of employment and work life in the Swedish autistic self-advocacy movement. The discourse analysis is based on articles from the Swedish autistic self-advocacy magazine Empowerment. In the data, three key themes linked to the notion of work are identified: alternative meanings of a 'real job', formulations of work-related problems, and solutions to these problems. We identify two storylines. The first, more dominant one, we call the recreated norm storyline. This storyline, in line with an individual/medical perspective on autism as deficit, represents autism as causing people with autism to have difficulties finding and keeping jobs in the open labour market and as entailing employment support. The second, counter narrative we call the challenged norm storyline. In line with the social model of disability, it focuses on structural barriers and discrimination against people with autism on the labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the production of a counterhegemonic discourse of "autistic normalcy" among adults with high-functioning autism by analyzing notions of diagnosis. The discourse analyses are based on material from ethnographic fieldwork in a Swedish educational setting. Study participants were 3 male and 9 female adults who had been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome. The notion of diagnosis comprises issues concerning coming out and knowledge production. The findings capture an ongoing reformulation process among people involved in the autistic self-advocacy movement when it comes to the meanings of Asperger syndrome and what it means to be a person with Asperger syndrome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]