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Adult revealing autism at interviews?

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Hello everyone. Thanks for being so welcoming yesterday. I'm wondering if you can help me. People at work have cottoned on to my autism and have been making life difficult. I have left and I know that in my line work there will be verbal references about me, so I am thinking of explaining at my interviews that, although I am not diagnosed, it is likely that I am autistic. What do you think of this approach? What information should I have to hand? How should I educate myself about how "normal" people see autistic people? So far I know about reasonable adjustments, the Equality Act and harassment, from the .gov website. What else will I need? It would be a shame to throw away my career because of this. At least if I tell them, they can decide whether they want to employ me. I feel like I have fewer cards to play, but perhaps I have a new card - diversity. Does this card work? Thanks, and have a great day! Slight smile

Parents

  • Unfortunately you are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea!  If you do not declare you could be caught out later, perhaps with disciplinaries and performance issues.  If you do declare your autism, you stand a chance of being discriminated against but this would be difficult to prove.  They should make reasonable adjustments for you in the interview process to make things easier for you.  

    If you get the job, I would look into applying for help from Access to Work, who may provide you with help with anything you need and could provide you with a support worker.  This help though, although paid for by the government varies between areas of the country depending on whether there is suitable help available in your area.  In the West Midlands I had a support worker provided by Autism West Midlands.  Access to Work do not always find suitable help unfortunately.  

    But the emphasis should be on your workplace accommodating your disability if it is declared.  Not on you to put on an act in an attempt to be something you are not.

Reply

  • Unfortunately you are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea!  If you do not declare you could be caught out later, perhaps with disciplinaries and performance issues.  If you do declare your autism, you stand a chance of being discriminated against but this would be difficult to prove.  They should make reasonable adjustments for you in the interview process to make things easier for you.  

    If you get the job, I would look into applying for help from Access to Work, who may provide you with help with anything you need and could provide you with a support worker.  This help though, although paid for by the government varies between areas of the country depending on whether there is suitable help available in your area.  In the West Midlands I had a support worker provided by Autism West Midlands.  Access to Work do not always find suitable help unfortunately.  

    But the emphasis should be on your workplace accommodating your disability if it is declared.  Not on you to put on an act in an attempt to be something you are not.

Children
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