The Knowledge Translation for Employment Research (KTER) Center (https://kter.org) at American Institutes for Research (AIR) is funded to test, in vocational rehabilitation (VR) agency settings, a knowledge broker model in which individuals are positioned to bridge the worlds of research and practice (Long, Cunningham and Braithwaite, 2013). As part of preparing the VR knowledge brokers, who will be known to the agency staff as “research liaisons,” the KTER Center will recruit and train VR supervisors on specific areas of research, one of which is assisting adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in identifying and maintaining employment.

To guide content development for the upcoming training, the KTER Center engages in several forms of outreach to VR stakeholders. The Center works closely with members of its Technical Working Group (TWG), consults regularly with its partners at the Council of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation (CSAVR), and presents at conferences VR staff attend. As part of this set of activities designed to identify informational needs, KTER conducted focus groups with individuals receiving vocational rehabilitation (VR) services and counselors in State VR agencies.

From October to December 2016, researchers from KTER conducted two telephone focus groups, one with five VR counselors and a second focus group with five adults with ASD. Four of the adults with ASD participated on the telephone. One adult wrote responses to the questions asked during the focus group. Researchers recruited adults with ASD who had received VR services. However, none of them had ever worked with any of the VR counselors in the focus group. To take part in the focus group, VR staff had to have worked for a State VR agency and provided counseling services to adults with ASD. To garner interest, KTER publicized the focus group among a group of 30 VR counselors with expertise in ASD who had been assembled for a previous project from AIR, Vocational Rehabilitation Service Models for Individuals with Autism.

The focus group of adults with ASD gathered data on the challenges they and other people with ASD have when finding and holding jobs, what services VR counselors can provide, and what training VR counselors and employers need. The focus group of VR counselors addressed the services, training, and resources that could enhance the services that the counselors provide to adults with ASD. The facilitator of each focus group recorded the audio of the session. The audio was transcribed to text. Two members of the research team analyzed the content and organized the data into themes (outlined below). Project leaders from KTER and members of KTER's Technical Working Group reviewed and finalized the analyses.