Published on 12, July, 2020
Hello, my name is Jordan and I am 25 years old. I was diagnosed just over a year ago and still have not fully processed this yet, I do not think. In December I managed to achieve what many autistic adults struggle to in managing to find full time work. I was very proud of this at the time and felt it was with possibly one of the best organisations for me to be understood properly and treated fairly. I won't name the organisation but safe to say this was not the case.
I feel that over the last 12 months or more that I have seen that autistic people are still seen primarily for their weaknesses rather than what they have to offer. I try to watch content that is aimed at promoting better awareness of autism where I am aware of it. So far, what I have seen generally focuses on difficulties of autism again, not the strengths and capabilities. Not showing autistic people thriving in a host of situations where their stereotype could not. And in some cases even portrays autistic people as freaks to be pitied.
For one reason or another, the ultimate aim of increased understanding and awareness and by extension, equal opportunities, is not being fully reached. I have tried to get involved in projects through my work to use my experiences and set of skills but have found this to be far harder than it should be. It has been like butting my head against a wall. If anyone is aware of any projects that I would be able to get involved with in some capacity, I would be most grateful. I don't know what form that would take but I am very open about my diagnosis and am keen to use my experiences and see how I can be best utilised to help.
Any questions, feel free to ask.
I work for a department that should be very disability friendly and although my line manager is amazing a lot of people assume I can't do things I'm very capable of because of my label, which is incredibly frustrating.
I'm newly diagnosed too and would love to have videos or case studies of autistic people thriving at work that can be used embedded into autism awareness training.
Yes I feel your pain. I think the assumptions are still out there, that all people with autism have the same traits and difficulties. I don't know the answer to this other than to have open discussions where people who don't understand are able to ask without feeling worried they will say something wrong. It is certainly a difficult situation but I have spent long enough thinking and not taking action that now I am determined to keep moving forward with this.
Sadly it might be the case that being good on neurodiversity might just be a publicity stunt in a lot of cases. If you are aware of any projects or blogs or anything that you think represents autism in an interesting way i would love to hear about them.