Guaranteed Interview Scheme

I think this depends on how obvious his difficulties are. If the autism is obvious and he would struggle to get through the interview because of communication problems then it could be better to declare it up front. If the employer is genuine about positive measures then they should decide on his qualifications and his knowledge etc from the interview.

Otherwise I would not declare it until after an offer has been made. Even then, it may not be necessary to declare it unless you felt you needed to. In my current job, I had to go for pre-employment medical and declared it on the forms at that stage. If I was feeling more sorted then I might not declare it at all - I managed to get through many years of employment without knowing I had it and was therefore not in a position to declare anything.

The point at which I would personally declare a disability is after a written job offer has been made but prior to starting employment (my current job was an exception but only because I had already been working there as a volunteer for a year and the manager doing the hiring suggested I apply).  This does mean you won't get a guaranteed interview or be able to request any adjustments during the interview process, however it also means that you are still covered by disability discrimination laws during employment and it makes it very difficult for them to argue that they haven't discriminated if they suddenly withdraw a solid offer following your disclosure.

Of course it is a personal decision as to whether this trade-off works to your advantage.  Some people also think this is unfairly deceiving the employer in some way, however if they are going to not hire you purely based on disclosure of a disability rather than your actual ability to do the job (assessed by the usual CV/application/interview process they have used on everyone else), I think this is fair enough.

Hi,

hmm, this a tricky one.  From my own personal experience I would be inclined to say to your son not to declare autism.  I'm a 4o something woman who was diagnosed just over a year ago.  I have a mental illness which was diagnosed about 8 years ago.  I have a good work history and have worked in very specialist fields (theatre and museums), I found that with mI I got interviews and when offered jobs would have to see occupational health to check my wellbeing.  Since putting aspergers on application forms, no interviews, therefore no job offers.  I even went for an interview for a job at my old workplace that i'd practically been doing before moving elsewhere.  I got an interview but no job offer.  This was after declaring aspergers and for a large, public sector " disability friendly" institution.

i feel like you are dammed if you do, dammed if you don't.  By not declaring a disability if you gave problems then I think you can be fired if they find out about it.  Certainly, they won't be able to instigate reasonable adjustments and he won't be covered by the dda.

the caveat, for me is that I never had problems gaining employment prior to diagnosis but did struggle considerably once in post.  On short (3-6 month) contracts I could hide my problems but not so well on longer jobs.  A lot depended on the work environment and colleagues as to whether I would or would not have issues.  Frequently I could fulfil a contract with no problems but sometimes I would fall apart.

with regard to interviews, I used some really good books on interview techniques and competency based interview skills.  i think competency based interviews could be beneficial for aspies because they enable you to take previous experiences and apply it to the job role.  I didn't get the concept at first but they are quite formulaic and answers could potentially be scripted.