Hello NAS community,
Recently discovered I am autistic at 26, tentatively self advocating for accommodations and awareness in my personal and work life.
I am excited to hear from people in the autism community about their lives.
Hello NAS community,
Recently discovered I am autistic at 26, tentatively self advocating for accommodations and awareness in my personal and work life.
I am excited to hear from people in the autism community about their lives.
Thank you for the adviceprofdanger
Thank you for the adviceLittle Owl . I like your username 
Welcome to the 'Latelings' club!
I am pleased that you feel strong enough to self advocate.
Regarding adjustments at work be prepared and then double prepared when asking for accommodations at work. Know your legal rights as you may well need them. I am assuming you are in the UK for this bit. Read the statutory guidance on the equality act produced by the EHRC as this is supposed to make understanding the law easier and is supposed to be the gold standard that employers should follow.
Now for me asking has been a nightmare. I have been removed from my role/department and told to find another positions. I have been minimumised , invalidated, harassed and discriminated against. I am now in the process of legal redress through an employment tribunal. I have to have the strength to see this through as it is a costly process in monetary and emotional terms.
Not everywhere is as bad as my public service employer (who should know better) who has further legal duties to perform under legislation. Hopefully you will not meet resistance in your employment. Be aware that most people have unconscious bias based on stereotypes and show there true feelings at times such as this.
Good luck
Welcome from another non binary / gender questioning person! It's great to hear that you're advocating for yourself. It can be difficult, especially at work and sometimes with family too! My work has been great, they are generally good at supporting their staff and I do feel listened to. It's a shame that not all work places are as supportive, diversity brings great strength to an organisation in my opinion. I have different skills to some of my colleagues and my skills suit my job well - I couldn't do their jobs and they couldn't do mine (or they wouldn't enjoy it)!
My only tip for asking for adjustments at work is to go into any meetings with a clear idea of what you want to get out of it. Make some notes before hand so you don't forget anything and if you have a colleague or friend who you trust, take them with you so they can remind you if you forget to mention something and generally offer support if you need it.
The sad thing is that many people get bullied or even made redundant/fired/not prolonged after disclosure. So better be careful. Not everywhere it works.
Hi Alien0n3arth thank you for describing the situation with your work :)
Hi, welcome to the community!
It's good that you self discovered. Advocating for your needs is important, but at work it's sometimes tricky. Especially disclosing your condition. In my case I'm a warehouse worker, it's a warehouse of a hardware store, so at times it's very loud there. I'm allowed to wear earplugs. Other accommodation is that I get additional explanation if I don't understand the situation (was it joke or serious for example) and my manager looks at my direction at times when they sit together and chat even though I don't take part or sometimes very rarely. I'm not tge only ND person there and they seem to be more open for people with conditions and disabilities both physical and mental.
I told my manager what suspected condition I have, described him shortly what are my struggles and needs. I told him, that I can't take part in a social chat, although I would like to, because it's all too fast and too chaotic for me. He smiled but understood. I also have strengths - catching all transportation damages on the goods, documenting and reporting then Immediately (I know, they struggled with it before I came) and I have a "laser" in my eyes - when we get a delivery of screws and nuts, my colleagues swear but I just take it and quickly and accurately sort them on the shelves and hangers. I'm known for being hard working but also weird and I get questions if I can speak or people doubt that I understand, what they say. Yes I do. Recently one lady was amazed that I can write. I'm not sure if it was bullying or what. Kind of off-handed complement?
Hello Beech474 and welcome to the community.
I hope you enjoy being here and that you find it useful. I’m a late diagnosed woman in my 60s and I think my working life would have been much easier if there had been more awareness when I started out. From what other people in this community have said about about self advocacy and accommodations at work, the process isn’t always straightforward so I think profdanger talks a lot of sense.
Hello there Beech474! I hope that recognizing that you have Autism has helped you to understand yourself much deeper.
One thing that I can say is that getting accommodations at work tends to be very difficult, even if you have a formal diagnosis. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but a lot of employers seem to try and avoid giving accommodations (I’m judging that mostly by what I’ve heard others say on here).
I’m currently working a job where my employer knows my condition and takes care to accommodate for it, but it’s a unique situation because I work for a business that helps people with disabilities. So yeah, it’s possible, but again it sounds like my situation is not typical.
