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What I Want Non-Autistic Colleagues To Understand
If you’ve spent time in any kind of work environment, at some point you’ve probably seen someone cast out the throw-away line: I think they’re on the spectrum. Or perhaps they’re hedging their bets with: they might be a bit on the spectrum.
It seems everyone in the workplace has an idea of what being autistic looks like, while at the same time oblivious to the presence of actually autistic co-workers in their midst.
The prevalence of diagnosed autistic adults is estimated at around 1 in 50. If you add those who have self-identified because they can’t access assessment processes and those who haven’t self-identified because the dominant narrative of autism doesn’t fit, the numbers rocket. Expand this to include other forms of neurodivergence, most notably ADHD, and we’re dealing with a significant chunk of the population.
Yet one of the biggest barriers to autistic employment is lack of awareness in workplaces of what it is to be autistic or neurodivergent. Many highly skilled and capable autistic people are excluded from workplaces that fail to accommodate them because their needs are not understood or taken seriously.
