Thanks so much for posting this, it makes a lot of sense to me. I am watching a TedX talk by Monique Botha - she is is doing wonderful work to expose the real reasons for the prevalence of anxiety and depression among autistic people, and she is autistic. Found this TedX talk by Monique on YouTube which is brilliant (please note the risk of suicide is discussed but in a very sensitive way): https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NCAErePScO0 The talk starts with an overview of what autism is, her discussion of mental health and autism starts at about 9:22
This talk is very relevant to issues at work Tom - Monique says 80% of autistic people are bullied at work, she also says 42% of autistic people lose their jobs because they can't fit in socially.
Monique includes a quote from the UN which says that for autistic people discrimination is the rule, not the exception. I'm sure many of us will endorse this.
I'm interested in the way autistic adults are sometimes not allowed full agency and are expected to remain as 'children'. Management relationships often veer towards parent:child rather than adult:adult in any case.
In autism organisations set up or run by parents of autistic children, who are not actually autistic themselves, it may be a real challenge to hand over power to autistic adults (on some level they may always be seen as 'children').
I am sure in some organisations this problematic dynamic has been overcome, but it might explain some of the tensions that occur. Does this connect with the theories you mentioned?
I'm interested in the way autistic adults are sometimes not allowed full agency and are expected to remain as 'children'. Management relationships often veer towards parent:child rather than adult:adult in any case.
In autism organisations set up or run by parents of autistic children, who are not actually autistic themselves, it may be a real challenge to hand over power to autistic adults (on some level they may always be seen as 'children').
I am sure in some organisations this problematic dynamic has been overcome, but it might explain some of the tensions that occur. Does this connect with the theories you mentioned?
