Researchers in Poland read other research studies and decided to survey autistics to get their opinions on how, in the workplace, technology can help with communicating effectively, time management, stress management and emotional control, and sensory overload. The researchers advertised on autism-focused websites and discussion forums for autistic people to participate in their study. The autistic people who responded then took a survey that asked them to rate accommodations that made it easier for them to do their jobs.

The survey asked autistic people to rate specific types of accommodations on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 was very bad, and 5 was very good. Most of the accommodations they rated were provided by technology.

113 women and 27 men took the survey. All of them were autistic adults. 85% of them were employed when they took the survey. 65% of them had some college education, and most of them had been working more than five years.

Here are the accommodations that received the highest ratings in the survey:

• The survey also found that autistic people who were in their first five years of work preferred task management apps more than autistics who had been at work longer.
• Autistic employees with less education preferred task management apps more than autistic people with more education.
• Overall, autistic employees gave the highest scores to accommodations that help limit sensory overload.

This research study indicates that autistic employees prefer a number of workplace accommodations, many of which are technology tools. These findings could help convince employers all over to offer workplace accommodations to autistic employees. If employers need ideas on what accommodations to offer, this data shows some popular accommodations.

But regardless of what this study found out about autistic employees as a group, this data can never replace the value of asking individual autistics about their own preferences for workplace accommodations.

• The study only took place in one country: Poland.
• Autistics chose to participate in the study after seeing it advertised online; this means the sample wasn’t random.
• Many more women than men or non-binary autistics took part in this study. This means that the study wasn’t balanced in terms of gender.
• Offering technology solutions for accommodations can bring with it the danger of “techno-stress”.
• Research that shows a group of autistics prefer one kind of thing over another cannot be applied to every autistic.