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

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Systems, Software and Services Process Improvement (EuroSPI 2021)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 1442))

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Abstract

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 Multivocal 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.

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Acknowledgement

This work was supported with the financial support of the Science Foundation Ireland grant 13/RC/2094_2 and co-funded under the European Regional Development Fund through the Southern & Eastern Regional Operational Programme to Lero - the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software (www.lero.ie).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computing, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland

    Emma Costello, Sara Kilbride, Zoe Milne, Paul Clarke & Silvana Togneri MacMahon

  2. Lero – The Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software, Limerick, Ireland

    Paul Clarke, Murat Yilmaz & Silvana Togneri MacMahon

  3. Department of Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey

    Murat Yilmaz

Authors
  1. Emma Costello
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  2. Sara Kilbride
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  3. Zoe Milne
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  4. Paul Clarke
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  5. Murat Yilmaz
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  6. Silvana Togneri MacMahon
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Silvana Togneri MacMahon .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey

    Murat Yilmaz

  2. Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland

    Paul Clarke

  3. I.S.C.N. GesmbH, Graz, Austria

    Richard Messnarz

  4. IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems, Krems, Austria

    Michael Reiner

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Costello, E., Kilbride, S., Milne, Z., Clarke, P., Yilmaz, M., MacMahon, S.T. (2021). A Professional Career with Autism: Findings from a Literature Review in the Software Engineering Domain. In: Yilmaz, M., Clarke, P., Messnarz, R., Reiner, M. (eds) Systems, Software and Services Process Improvement. EuroSPI 2021. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1442. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85521-5_23

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85521-5_23

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