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Job-related challenges

belles12345

I have autistic traits (possibly enough to be autistic- currently undergoing assessment), and I am now very much aware of the difficulties that I have in my work due to my research on autism.  Aside from the social and communication difficulties (which I know are big challenges for me), I also feel that I struggle in other areas in job-related organising/communicating etc.  However I am a perfectionnist and am unable to understand if these challenges are also fairly normal for neurotypical people too and within the 'normal' (if it exists!) range of daily challenges... these are the following:

- difficulty remembering to do a task that I am aked to do after a minute unless I write it down

- asking something that I have already been told or that is obvious, only to realise that I already knew the answer before but completely forgot

- not realising something seemingly obvious, such as that a schedule can change (I tend to view it as fixed and work around it, then feel stupid when I realise that there was no reason to be so rigid)

- difficulty reading 'inbetween the lines'- I think this is fairly standard for those on the spectrum as far as I can gather

- feeling irritated when interrupted doing a task, and struggle to do so unless directly asked

- looking through piles of work repeatedly if they're not clearly organised (due to lack of space to organise properly), to check that there is nothing I should have done in the pile

- forgetting to take some essential equipment (some of which it is dangerous to be without)

It would be great to gain some perspective on these struggles, as I am aware that I may be getting these out of proportion in my head and that actually I am coping ok when sometimes I feel like I am not.  I suppose it also depends on the frequency that this happens, which I am not sure, and again compared to what.

Parents

  • I can certainly concur with Trogluddite. I wasn't diagnosed until mid fifties. I struggled through life thinking the difficulty was the same for everybody, just that I wasn't good at resolving these issues.

    It takes having the diagnosis to realise that these difficulties exist as a result of the disability, and that other people generally aren't so encumbered.

    The difference between able and disabled is nowhere more apparent than in the context of using a wheelchair. I do voluntary accessibility assessments, sometimes with a wheelchair user, sometimes on my own just thinking wheelchair (I cover all disabilities including issues for autism, but wheelchair is the commonest application). Seeing a wheelchair user in a situation exposes many of the failings of able-thinking designers, but sometimes just getting into a building needs a walking assessor.

    You would think by now that people sufficiently understood what is involved with wheelchair access. Just to give a simple example, seen in a recently built disabled toilet - a Dyson hand dryer at normal height. You might just have to think that through for a moment.

    Another one is a disabled toilet in a new supermarket - perfect - but in a passageway accessed from the shop area on one side, by very heavy doors opening inwards, which don't allow enough space to get the wheelchair into the corridor and able to turn round to reach it.

    A common problem is outside doorways where a disabled ramp is on one side (so as not to get in the way of people walking) but faces the door frame side panes not the doorway.  Another where the entrance was at the top of steps, the disabled ramp to the side, but requiring the wheelchair user to be in position in front of the power-assisted doors, which opened outwards, necessitating the wheelchair user to back away towards the top of the stairs!

    Able people just cannot think disabled. You only understand the barriers of autism when you've got it, and know you've got it. No-one who doesn't have autism can really understand.

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  • I can certainly concur with Trogluddite. I wasn't diagnosed until mid fifties. I struggled through life thinking the difficulty was the same for everybody, just that I wasn't good at resolving these issues.

    It takes having the diagnosis to realise that these difficulties exist as a result of the disability, and that other people generally aren't so encumbered.

    The difference between able and disabled is nowhere more apparent than in the context of using a wheelchair. I do voluntary accessibility assessments, sometimes with a wheelchair user, sometimes on my own just thinking wheelchair (I cover all disabilities including issues for autism, but wheelchair is the commonest application). Seeing a wheelchair user in a situation exposes many of the failings of able-thinking designers, but sometimes just getting into a building needs a walking assessor.

    You would think by now that people sufficiently understood what is involved with wheelchair access. Just to give a simple example, seen in a recently built disabled toilet - a Dyson hand dryer at normal height. You might just have to think that through for a moment.

    Another one is a disabled toilet in a new supermarket - perfect - but in a passageway accessed from the shop area on one side, by very heavy doors opening inwards, which don't allow enough space to get the wheelchair into the corridor and able to turn round to reach it.

    A common problem is outside doorways where a disabled ramp is on one side (so as not to get in the way of people walking) but faces the door frame side panes not the doorway.  Another where the entrance was at the top of steps, the disabled ramp to the side, but requiring the wheelchair user to be in position in front of the power-assisted doors, which opened outwards, necessitating the wheelchair user to back away towards the top of the stairs!

    Able people just cannot think disabled. You only understand the barriers of autism when you've got it, and know you've got it. No-one who doesn't have autism can really understand.

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