Hi All, hope you are all amazing.
My 17 year old son (Alex) was diagnosed with ASD back in 2013. Since then, he has graduated school, surpassing all of his target grades, and is now studying A-Level engineering at College. He is an amazing young man and he makes us proud every day.
Although he was awarded DLA during the early years, when DLA ended to be replaced by PIP, Alex was deemed to not qualify based on his ability to brush his teeth and make a meal (I know I am dumbing the criteria down, but that's what it felt like when we went through the application process).
Don't get me wrong, I actually agree with the refusal for PIP since Alex is clearly doing really well with his education.
However, as he has progressed through his College education, we have seen so much bias towards Alex as a person with ASD, it's really worrying for his future. As part of his course, he has to attend work placement for 1 day a week to gain industry knowledge. This has meant interviewing with companies to see if he would be a good fit. Alex interviewed with over a dozen companies, and not one of them would give him a shot - even though he was respectful, asked really good questions, and showed interest in the various companies (he researched each before attending for interview).
We realise that it's a tough world out there, but from what I saw, this could only be attributed to conscious or sub-conscious bias against his disability. Even when we knew there were no other candidates applying, he was refused regardless.
My worry is what will happen after he graduates from college? I know some companies list themselves as disability aware on the various job sites, but that is meaningless really if they still refuse to give him the time of day.
If anyone out there has been through similar, I would love to hear from you.
Kind regards, Phil