This guide lists accommodations ideas and adjustments for various aspects of employment related life, including;
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Most autistic individuals with job interviews, which can be thwart with a set of unspoken rules difficult to follow and also be extremely exhausting and stressful
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A standard office environment can be full of sensory issues that an autistic individual might struggle to be around for any length of time
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A guide to effective meeting planning and scheduling, respecting the needs of neurodiverse individuals
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Most promotions processes can be unintentionally exclusive to neurodivergent individuals
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Communication issues are rarely the fault of a single individual, but the fault of every party involved in the conversation, we should not assign blame to any person when it fails, but collectively work harder to improve communication difficulties and reach a middle ground
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Detailing further accommodations in the workplace, that support the differences in the way people work, i.e. flexitime
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A presentation resource on the subject of autism
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Explanation of some of the language used in this document
I am a late diagnosed autistic individual working in the technology industry as a software engineer in the United Kingdom.
I am not a trained medical professional, nor am I a formally trained expert on neurodiversity, this list is created from personal lived experiences and personal research into the subject of neurodiversity, and more explicitly autism.
This document focusses on Autism, but I may use the term neurodiverse and Autism interchangeably depending on context, lots of information here may also be applicable to the larger neurodiverse community beyond autism.
Autistic and neurodiverse individuals are typically commonly not in employment, despite a willingness to work and having a good skill-set to offer, the workplace can be designed from a neurotypical perspective which may be hostile towards an autistic individual, making life harder and more difficult, often being overlooked for the opportunities they are qualified to do.
There is a widespread lack of understanding of what an autistic individual may need to help them thrive within the work place, and also a general misunderstanding of neurodiverse conditions such as autistic and ADHD.
- Just 3 in 10 autistic adults are in work, compared to 5 in 10 for all disabled people and 8 in 10 for non-disabled people.
- Autistic people face the largest pay gap of all disability groups.
- Autistic graduates are twice as likely to be unemployed after 15 months as non-disabled graduates. Only 36% finding work in this period
- Autistic graduates are most likely to be overqualified for the job they have.
- They are most likely to be on zero-hour contracts and least likely to be in a permanent role.
Buckland Review Of Autism Employment
e.3 Autistic people face the largest pay gap of all disability groups, receiving a third less than non-disabled people on average. Autistic graduates are twice as likely to be unemployed after 15 months as non-disabled graduates, with only 36% finding full time work in this period. Autistic graduates are most likely to be overqualified for the job they have, most likely to be on zero-hours contracts, and least likely to be in a permanent role.
e.4 There is a wide range of potential barriers to work for autistic people; poor preparation by employers, unfair hiring practices, unclear processes and outdated attitudes all play a role. From a young age, autistic people are less likely than their peers to have the time, connections or support to seek out work-related experiences and career advisors are often poorly equipped to support autistic people. This has knock-on effects for later employment prospects.
e.5 Autistic people have far more negative experiences of interviews, group tasks and psychometric tests. Autistic job seekers must navigate vague, generic job descriptions, ambiguous interview questions and challenging sensory environments, often with an emphasis on social skills rather than job skills. Many feel they must mask their autistic traits to succeed.
e.6 Even after finding work, maintaining long-term employment remains a challenge for autistic people. Many do not receive the necessary support or adjustments to enable them to fulfil their role in the face of inaccessible sensory and social environments. Many autistic adults are not aware of their legal rights around reasonable adjustments. Only around 35% of autistic employees are fully open about being autistic, with 1 in 10 not disclosing to anyone at work. For those who do disclose, the most common time to do so is after starting a job – highlighting a persistent and well-founded fear of discrimination during the recruitment process
It’s thought that around 75% of adults who have ADHD are undiagnosed, and therefore untreated. This in itself can cause issues, but there is specific research that surrounds the risks and challenges associated with untreated ADHD at work, highlighting how difficult it can be.
It has been reported that adults with ADHD are around 60% more likely to be fired, 30% more likely to have ongoing/chronic employment issues, and 3 times more likely to quit on impulse.
The neurodiverse are disabled by environment, rather than by any other factor, autism is a condition rather than a disorder, in the same way a person in a wheelchair may need a ramp instead of stairs to be self sufficient, somebody with autism also needs accommodations within the environment in order to function fully within society.
In many ways however, in writing this document I feel like I am just detailing good leadership and management driven by empathy that should be obvious and implemented for everybody, regardless of neurotype.
The intent of this document is to be a living document, accepting contributions from others with further ideas and suggestions for workplace accommodations.
It is likely some wording will need to be corrected, it should be a reasonable expectation that the information in this document is communicated well, but the scope for poor expression, more so when it comes to explanations for neurodiversity and conditions such as Autism should be crafted well and are concise, scope for getting it wrong can be quite large and upset a large number of people if not precise, accurate and in-line with more modern attitudes to neurodiversity.
This is general guide for both employee and employer, but more specifically the language is crafted to appeal to the employee, this is for people on both side of the fence, seeking a starting point for guidance on what accommodations can be asked for reasonable with a brief explanation of why and the consequences should an accommodation not be provided.
I have written this mainly from the perspective of an autistic individual, but hoping that a lot of the accommodations and tips here can be adapted to others who also identify as neurodiverse, such as those with ADHD.
I found there wasn't a detailed playbook for what and how to ask for neurodiversity related accommodations of specific changes to ask for and to adjust to, finding a starting point can be daunting without a deep understanding of your condition and how it relates to you personally.
After gaining a diagnosis, it can feel like a door has open suddenly flung wide upon into an endless pool of light, you know you need help, but as an adult not many resources exists post diagnosis to aid and guide you into effective decision making to support your own interests, accommodations aren't that easy to personally define and even that confidence in self that you truly need and deserve them.
You don't know what to ask for, and often those you need to ask are equally uneducated on the subject and can provide little assistant for accommodations ideas unless they've had previous experience before, they'll look towards you for guidance.
You can be overwhelmed with a set of conflicting feelings and thoughts about whether you should ask for accommodations, whether you are "autistic" or broken enough to deserve those accommodations. Guilt can cloud personal judgement about what accommodations to ask for, for people who may not be used to asking for any help whatsoever with a lifetime of perpetual people pleasing and pushing yourself and needs to one side in an effort to hide your struggles and fit in with other people.
If you are well prepared, with good resources behind you that explains adequately reasonably accommodations there is no reason why your requests should be rejected. However it important to note that "reasonable" is highly subjective to interpretation, it's important during your requests to reduce the subjective interpretation and explaining succinctly why you need the accommodations, leaving little room for
This guide is also specific to typical office environments, I don't have enough personal experience to contribute to other working environments which may be hostile to the neurodiverse (however, I'd like to research this and update this guide at a later date); you may work in a retail shop for example, or in a factory or on a building site and you also need reasonable adjustments, perhaps in a environment that may be even more hostiles to your needs due to extreme social bias.
..can be a daunting experience, more so for the newly diagnose who may be struggling with concepts of self advocating and self acceptance, it is difficult to gauge and judge what exactly you need when you may have also had years of denial and gaslighting to contend with and un-pick.
Finding that confidence to self advocate for accommodations can be met with brain fog and confusion, it requires self acceptances and needing a safe space to re-test your own boundaries and capabilities, whilst avoiding burnout and meltdowns.
Information, research and knowledge here are of paramount importance, enabling you to confidently ask for adjustments, and be ready with suggestions for how accommodations might work and how they might be successfully implementation to the benefit of yourself and your employer, if you're well looked after, you are more productive, this value needs to be emphasized to your employer.
It's important to keep reminding yourself as an employee that you are not asking for special treatment, you are asking for the playing field to be level, for equality, guilt can be an overriding feature when needing to ask for help, when you've been conditioned throughout your life to reject it.
When asking for accommodations you're asking for the same opportunities as other employees and for the barriers to be removed to being able to spend time in the office without it being hostile to your sensory needs, being able to engage in a promotions process where the quality of your work counts for more than than your ability to socialise outside of work, and being able to reach the end of the day and not be physically and mentally exhausted to engage in personal hobbies and interests.
It's likely if you're an late diagnosed autistic adult in employment, that you've already experienced exclusion behaviours in the workplace, you may be under hired and feel exploited because you are unable to "play to game" that others perform by instinct, if you're employed at all.
accommodations are often needed to open the door of opportunity that have otherwise been unavailable to you, despite having all the relevant skill-set and experiences you still feel have passed you over.
Asking for accommodations can single you out amongst other employees if not sensitively handled by management, again, an emphasis must be placed on ensuring accommodations aren't seen as exceptional treatment for individuals by other employees.
There will be accommodations only relevant to the specific neurodivergent person, but more often than not it should be considered if an granted accommodation might not be suited to being offered to all the employees within a work place, if accommodations are seen as a mostly positive change within the workforce, that may results in improved employee performance, why not extend them to others?
It is important your employee fully understands what it means to be neurodiverse and live life as an autistic individual, they may adhere to stereotypical versions of people with autism and ADHD, such as Rainman, Sheldon Cooper and Bart Simpson, this may result in employers being less sympathetic towards individual who do not present appearances adhering to these stereotypes, i.e. they may not take you seriously if you do not look "autistic enough" to them.
it's important you have some understanding of how your employer will react to your disclosure at being autistic, you should educate yourself upon the legal rights you have to ask for accommodations in your country, but you should take adequate steps to protect yourself and know what to do next if your accommodations are rejected, or agreed to but not enforced or supported by your employer.
Your employers behaviour may not be fully in-line with the law of your country, you should be aware if you do raise accommodation requests of any change in behaviour towards you that may not be positive.
You may be in the position where you also have to be the one educating them on the subject of neurodiversity.
Autism and neurodiversity understanding varies dramatically from country-to-country, it's important you use your bests judgement related to your country and work place, it's unfortunate somebody with autism for example would need to withheld a disclosure of the condition to others, but sometimes it is required to protect yourself and your interests in the best way possible.
It's an unfortunate reality in some places that I feel need to write about the risks of disclosure, even if perhaps your country of residences include legal protection against discrimination.
With such a large list of accommodations it's important to highlight the strong advantages somebody with a different mindset can provide to a business;
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Exceptional attention to detail, analytical thinkers
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Innovative, providing alternative solutions to problems
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Reliable and loyal
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Ability to focus on a single task and explore in great detail all of aspects to a problem
Often a person with autism maybe exceptional good at tasks you may think are difficult or impossible, a workplace should enable the identification of these tasks with a particular individual and give them the space to perform, rather than limit their abilities within typical working constraints, providing support to these skills is the key and part of identifying not only personal strengths, but weaknesses too. Autistic people and the neurodiverse tend to have spiky profiles, providing support in their weaker areas is also essential, weakness cannot be generalised but some commonalities do exist so efforts again must be made to personalise assistance.
It is recommended you send your employees on training course for the understanding of neurodiverse staff members, both senior and non-senior team members, all could potentially benefit from an increased understanding into the ways different people think and behave, with a need to challenge poor social stereotypes relating to conditions such as autism and ADHD.
Several companies can provide coaching and training relating to this area, it is a benefit to all in encouraging understanding providing a net positive in the way your companies hires and treats it's employees.
The National Autistic Society provides services to business here and courses understanding autism in the workplace, although I have not had direct experience with these services and therefore I am cautious about provide a direct recommendations, it is however a good starting point.