Background: Customized employment (CE) is recognized in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (2014) as a strategy for promoting competitive integrated employment. However, the existing body of evidence supporting CE is mainly descriptive rather than experimental research.
Objective: This study examined the impact of CE on the employment outcomes, hours worked per week, and wages of transition-age youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Method: The outcomes of transition-age youth participating in a CE intervention were compared to those receiving treatment-as-usual using a randomized controlled trial design.
Results: Participants receiving CE were significantly more likely to secure competitive integrated employment than controls who received treatment-as-usual. Participants in the intervention and control conditions earned similar wages. Participants in the control condition worked more hours per week than those in CE.
Conclusion: The findings from this study demonstrate the effectiveness of CE to assist transition-age youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities in obtaining competitive integrated employment, but future research is needed to examine factors impacting weekly hours and wages of participants in CE.
Keywords: Customized employment; competitive integrated employment; intellectual and developmental disability; transition-age youth.