The European Commission’s European Disability Strategy 2021-2030 has identified social exclusion as one of the grand challenges that people with disabilities in Europe are facing. People with disabilities are the most disadvantaged in society, exacerbating many inequity issues. For example, they may have limited access to basic education, significantly reducing their chances of obtaining meaningful and gainful employment in adulthood. The risks of social exclusion are even more challenging for autistic people.
Autism is a global societal challenge. The prevalence of autism has increased by 200% over the past 20 years resulting in rising societal costs and impact. Many autistic students have unmet educational needs as they are not receiving the personalised support they require. This has caused higher rates of school dropouts and exclusion among autistic children compared to their peers without autism. For example, in the UK, only 16% of autistic students attend tertiary education. Consequently, the lack of education often leads to lower employment rates among the autistic population. Only 10% of autistic individuals in the EU are employed, as opposed to 47% of people with disabilities and 72% of people without disabilities.

Cost Action CA19104, advancing Social Inclusion through Empowerment and Technology (a-STEP) is a pan-European consortium of 135 members from 35 countries. The COST Action is a multi-sectorial consortium of researchers, practitioners, service providers, educators, developers and people with disability. The COST was established to build an interdisciplinary, intersectoral pan-European and beyond, network which is dedicated to promoting the social inclusion and empowerment of the autistic community and their families through assistive technology (AT).

AT can help to bridge the gap between social exclusion and social inclusion for autistic people. Building global capacity for AT will provide a unique opportunity to support independence, inclusion and the transition from education to employment for the autism community. Despite the technological advances in recent years, there are low rates of AT adoption throughout Europe by service providers, educators, employers and policymakers. The findings from our Delphi study highlighted the economic challenges surrounding funding and resource allocation is the primary barrier to the advancement of AT in Europe.
This session will discuss the main challenges and barriers in accessing and utilising AT and will propose solutions. The session will highlight the main findings from a-STEP as well as lessons learnt and recommendations. This paper will advocate for policy change as it is only by ensuring a strong policy foundation and enabling regulatory environment that the extraordinary enabling potential of AT can be realised.