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The meaning of work is different for people in different social groups, and research exploring perceptions of meaningful work among adults with high-functioning autism (HFA) is scarce. The aim of this paper is to explore how narratives of satisfactory and meaningful future jobs are portrayed relative to two alternative discourses of work – the 'obligation to work' discourse, and the 'disability rights' discourse. This group of individuals are high functioning on the one hand, while at the same time holding legally-mandated special disability rights, an exploration of how this group reason about work-life and satisfactory jobs is particularly interesting. Through ethnographic fieldwork in Sweden, seven young adults with HFA were followed, and 17 interviews were conducted. The main findings and conclusions are that jobs that are individually assessed to be ‘ideal’, are put aside in favor of jobs that are more compatible with general labor market demands, as long as enjoyment and meaningfulness can still be experienced.

Sweden, like other Western countries, has a disability legislation that coexists with the Active Labour Market Policies. ALMP address a discourse emphasizing the importance of the able and productive ‘citizen-worker’, who is expected to crafthis/her own success through meaningful personal goals and ambitions. This discourse also impacts disability groups who are actualized for support-to-work interventions, such as people with high-functioning autism (HFA). The objective of this paper is to analyse how narratives targeting ambitions and self-realisation in work life are expressed by individuals with HFA in relation to the citizen-worker discourse. This ethnographic study comprises 26 qualitative interview narratives by 11 participants with HFA. Findings indicate that the participants have developed a strong citizen-worker identity. The will is an essential point of gravity, expressed through notions of individual meaningfulness and ambitions of being perceived as resources in any vocational context. Barriers to these ambitions are experienced as personally counteractive support-to-work practices. These results suggest that disability legislation and policies are caught in a mantra of stagnating normalisation, resulting in disability-worker interventions that are incompatible with meanings emphasized in the citizen-worker discourse, which is the new ‘normal’ of today.

À l’instar d’autres pays occidentaux, la Suède a une législation sur le handicap qui coexiste avec les politiques d’activation sur le marché du travail. Le discours de ces dernières met l’accent sur le « citoyen-travailleur », compétent et productif, dont on attend qu’il réussisse en réalisant ses ambitions et des objectifs qui leurs soient personnels et auxquels ils attachent du sens. Ce discours touche aussi les groupes de personnes handicapées qui bénéficient d’aide à l’emploi, par exemple les personnes atteintes d’autisme de haut niveau de fonctionnement. En lien avec ce discours sur le citoyen-travailleur, l’article propose d’analyser comment ces personnes expriment leurs ambitions et rendent compte de la réalisation d’elles-mêmes dans la vie professionnelle. Cette étude ethnographique est constituée de 26 entretiens qualitatifs, menés avec 11 participants atteints d’autisme de haut niveau de fonctionnement. Les résultats montrent que les participants se sont approprié une forte identité de citoyen-travailleurs. La volonté joue un rôle central, elle s’exprime via les notions de sens personnel et d’ambition à être considéré comme une ressource, quel que soit le contexte professionnel. Les pratiques qui s’opposent aux mesures d’aide au travail sont perçues comme des obstacles à la réalisation de ces ambitions. Nos résultats suggèrent que la législation et les politiques du handicap restent prises dans l’éternel mantra de la normalisation, ce qui aboutit à des interventions auprès des travailleurs handicapés difficilement compatibles avec le sens valorisé par le discours du citoyen-travailleur, nouveau standard contemporain du « normal ».

Changes in the management of human service organizations impact national service provisions for people with disabilities in western societies, where service provisions are given in a scattered field of social work arenas. High-functioning adults with autism (HIA) represent a disability group that is actualized for different forms of work life preparative services. This ethnographic study was conducted in two different service provisional contexts in Sweden, a folk high school program (FHS) and a vocational rehabilitation program (VRP). The main focus in this paper is an exploration of how these diagnosis-specific provisional contexts and professional approaches adhere to key components in social work, such as person-centered services and notions of equity and empowerment, and how these approaches are experienced by program participants. Content analysis on field notes, interview narratives, and a complementary Institutional Logics perspective result in the conclusion of an adverse consumer perspective in the VRP and highly present person-centeredness in the FHS, both of which are reflected in the experiences of the participants.

The aim of this article is to broaden the understanding of how Swedish disability policies are constructed to meet the objectives of the ratified UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) regarding active citizenship and full participation on an equal basis with others. The study examines two policy domains: health and employment. Recently issued legal documents are analyzed using the approach of directed content analysis and the theories of ‘social risk’ and ‘governance’. The results suggest that the policy area of employment implicitly and explicitly overshadows the policy area of health and related rights accounted for in the CRPD. A more nuanced perspective in disability policies concerning employment in relation to active citizenry and full participation is required, accompanied by social policy schemes that encompass the perspective of the CRPD as a whole in all support-to-work services, instead of the limited focus of finding full-time employment.