Do I tell my clients that I'm autistic?

What do you do?

It might depend on what your relationship with them is like and the answer might be different in each case.  Some folks don't care who's providing it, they just want the goods or service.  Some folks like to build rapport with the people who they deal with.  Some I dare say would appreciate all that extra effort and attention to detail and be curious about how your autism helps you produce that, some might be more understanding of the anxieties in the social part of the process.  Others, I guess might not get it at all and have all sorts of misconceptions about what autism is.  Of course, you might have some clients who are neurodivergent themselves in some way and prefer to deal with you rather than another provider for that reason.

Do you have anyone around you who might be able to help you judge who you should tell and might respond positively and who might not?  I can see it might be nice to take off the mask with at least some of your clients.

Thanks Dawn.

I work in design. As it's a creative field I feel like being autistic will be more widely accepted by people.

I didn't for one minute consider that some of my clients would be on the spectrum, but you're absolutely right. I know one of my clients suffers from anxiety too, and we have talked briefly about it which really helped me feel more at ease with them knowing about my anxiety.

I could get advice on who I should tell, but I like the idea of either being an openly autistic designer, or not telling anyone at all. I would feel bad if I told someone 3 projects in that I was autistic because they might not feel I have been honest with them.

Thanks Dawn.

I work in design. As it's a creative field I feel like being autistic will be more widely accepted by people.

I didn't for one minute consider that some of my clients would be on the spectrum, but you're absolutely right. I know one of my clients suffers from anxiety too, and we have talked briefly about it which really helped me feel more at ease with them knowing about my anxiety.

I could get advice on who I should tell, but I like the idea of either being an openly autistic designer, or not telling anyone at all. I would feel bad if I told someone 3 projects in that I was autistic because they might not feel I have been honest with them.

I've been so, so lucky in that respect.

My boss is a big cuddly bare of a neurotypical guy.  He's so sweet.  But he used to be a teacher dealing with kids on the spectrum all the time.

I'd been ill for so long and he was so supportive.  When I finally figured out that autism could possibly be underlying my problems, I told him.  He recognised it straight away actually and he was so supportive the whole way through the assessment process.   

I only have a few years left to retirement, but I don't want to work anywhere else now. Love my job

That sounds like a healthy work environment you're in. That's the sort of freedom and understanding I'm hoping to achieve I think.

Yeah I get that.

But yeah, 1% of the population have a diagnosis, but there are more of us than that out there.  I'll bet you have a few clients who are either on the Spectrum or else have someone close to them who is.

I work in a team of 11.  Two of us are diagnosed ASD and another with diagnosed kids has worked out both she and her husband are too, they just haven't bothered getting that officially diagnosed themselves, and another has a partner waiting for an assessment.  We're all very open about it.

LOL it makes for amusing moments in office meetings when the jokes have by passed one or other of us, but seriously helps because nobody minds if we pipe up "Sorry, too many inputs at once there, just go over that again", or get a bit blunt, albeit polite, with our honesty.