Published on 12, July, 2020
I’m wondering what people’s thoughts are on the issue of post-diagnostic autism assessment, as a basic standard practice for both adults and children alike, which should be a legal obligation for those tasked with diagnosing autism, in both private and public health settings, in respect of both adults and children with autism - without a post diagnostic assessment, one has no idea what one’s support needs are and therefore there is no way to legally enforce one’s entitlements to have reasonable adjustments put in place, for example in employment - we are totally reliant and dependent on the goodwill of charities to provide the support that we need which should be a legal requirement within a legal framework and as certain basic minimum standards that are legally enforceable - autism experts should be brought in to help design proper support and assessment as well as helping to draft laws that will force society to properly provide for us by properly having support structures in place, the proper implementation of which will be backed up by force of law - current laws are simply not good enough and given the statistics, this situation is even more unacceptable - aside from campaigns for increased funding, campaigns for legislative change should be launched
Ok what I'm about to say will only really apply to great britain, the equality act doesn't cover northen irland atm afaik. As things stand you have a right to reasonable adjustments in employment, education, services and public functions even if you don't have a diagnosis. the law cares about whether you have a disability not a formal diagnosis. Now in practice in court everything requires evidence and a formal diagnosis is the best evidence of disability. Having a second report saying what your suport needs are would be useful in a court, but it's not legaly binding on the court or your employer. Creating a law requiring post diagnostic reports wouldn't automaticly avoid court cases unless you also passed a law making them legaly binding in some sence. Also these things are situational. The resonable adjustments for an office job would be difrent than for a supermarket or for a school or a student club. It's probably not fesable to write one report that covers all eventualities.
Now what could be done is to make occupational heath assesments a right. Right now if you go to your employer / educational institution and say I have disability X, the good ones, will orgonise an assesment to determen what reasonable adjustments you need, often done by an external body. It would be fesable to make that a legal right, to have an assement done by an acedited external body, if you have a diagnosis.