Employing adults with autism: Don’t write them off
October 16, 2009 by admin
Filed under Career News and Advice
Robyn Steward teaches about Asperger’s syndrome in the workplace. Photograph: Frank Baron
At the age of 16, Robyn Steward’s first taste of a career in IT seemed to augur a world of possibilities. “It was four months’ work experience, supervised one-to-one by a computer technician,” she recalls. “He saw that I was good and would trust me to do stuff on my own.”
But for Steward, now 23 and who has Asperger’s syndrome, her initial optimism was to be short-lived. “After that I struggled, which was a bit of a surprise because I felt quite confident,” she says. “I seemed to have difficulties with my interpersonal skills with colleagues. I got bullied in one of the smaller computer shops I worked in: they took the mick out of me for my literal interpretation of language.”
She also took a long time to complete tasks because she was so keen to do things perfectly. This riled her co-workers, who became critical and aggressive. “I ended up very anxious and was worrying about work all the time. I felt like a failure,” she says. “It ended up with me getting depressed.”
Steward then undertook formal training as a computer technician, which she passed with flying colours. But she has found the lack of understanding of her needs as a person with Asperger’s – from her college tutors and in a range of workplaces – has meant she feels unable to contemplate applying for jobs.
Despite being at the high-functioning end of the autistic spectrum, she is far from alone. A survey just published by the National Autistic Society (NAS) to accompany its Don’t Write Me Off campaign discovered only 15% of adults with autism are in full-time paid work.
It’s not that people with autism can’t work or don’t want to. But employers, says the NAS, can be anxious, ignorant and prejudiced about taking on autistic staff. This is alarming given recent research on the worldwide prevalence of autism – which includes Asperger’s – found that one in 100 people have the condition to some degree.
More than 60% of those surveyed who weren’t working said they wanted a job, hardly surprising when the alternative is an existence spent on benefits or dependent on parents for support. And poverty is the reality for many; over half, it turns out, have spent time with neither a job nor access to benefits, some for more than 10 years.
Some of those surveyed explained the specialist support they needed to navigate the benefits system was not available, even through disability employment advisers at their local Jobcentre Plus. This meant they could not understand the forms, could not fill them in and were unable to get money. Others spoke of years searching for a suitable job, yet being unable to find the “bridge” that would get them over the practical and psychological hurdles of starting work for the first time.
NAS chief executive Mark Lever says the issue is not about hiring someone out of charity: people with what is known as “high functioning” autism can be highly analytical and numerate. For those whose condition is more disabling, lower-level jobs – and not just as supermarket trolley-stackers – may be perfectly feasible, with a little advance preparation by employers.
But how realistic is it to expect employers to see the sense in making this kind of adjustment?
Consider the potential benefits in comparison to the …
Read the original article at Guardian
