So you may not know but April is World Autism month. April was chosen in 1970 to be autism month by Bernard Rimland Ph.D, a psychologist and autism researcher, he chose April to coincide with his son’s birthday as well as it being the start of spring – a time for new beginnings. So what does this month mean? It’s a time to raise awareness around autism or autism spectrum disorder, about accepting autism and autistic people, a time to promote inclusion and also how to support those who are autistic. So what is autism or autism spectrum disorder?
It is a neurodevelopmental disorder, if someone is autistic then their brain works in a different way. This is characterised by changes with certain behaviours they may exhibit. Autism or being autistic is not an illness or disease. It’s not something you develop either, you either are autistic or you aren’t. However, there are different types of autism, it is a spectrum and autistic people may require different levels of support. You may have heard the term low or high functioning previously, these terms are no longer used. Each autistic person is also unique in the way it affects them and what support they may need.
It is not known what causes autism, it’s not caused by vaccines, diet, infection or environment. Being autistic does not mean you are above average intelligence either, you may recall the term aspergers used, this is also a term no longer used and this now comes under the autism spectrum disorder. People may refer to themselves as neurodivergent rather than autistic, the language used is what that person prefers. Neurodivergent is the umbrella term given to a group of neurodevelopmental conditions. If you know someone who is autistic then it is important to use the language they are comfortable with.
One thing I am asked quite often as a Co-Chair of a Staff Disability Network is what reasonable adjustments people who are neurodivergent should have in the workplace. I struggle to answer this, as I mentioned above every autistic person is different, and therefore their support needs are different. So my go to question is for them to think about what they struggle with. Now this is not that easy a question to answer, especially for someone newly diagnosed as an adult. So let’s think about this a bit more.
Imagine going your whole life not quite feeling as though you fit in, then you finally have the answer as to why but now you have to navigate how to fit in all over again whilst also working out who your authentic self is, and also how much of that person you want to now show, as you’re more used to showing the world the other masked undiagnosed version of yourself. Let’s put this into better context to understand. You’ve navigated the world, your childhood, school, university, puberty etc all whilst being undiagnosed, just feeling a bit weird like you don’t quite fit in. You don’t really know why; you’ve always wondered what the appeal of going out drinking or clubbing is when you’d rather be at home reading or researching your interests. You’ve struggled with friendships, not quite understanding social settings or people’s facial expressions or why you always seem to say the wrong thing or behave in the wrong way. Why friendships are so hard to maintain? You’ve always been good at your job, meticulous with details but again the social side of the workplace has always felt strange to you.
Then something happens and you start to wonder if you might be autistic or something like that. This becomes your new interest, you begin to research it daily, reading people’s blogs and watching YouTube videos, feeling understood for the first time as people explain their traits and you think ‘that’s me’. And then you finally get diagnosed, it’s not as climactic as you think as by that point you’ve realised you most definitely are autistic. The way you struggled as a child, a teenager and as an adult suddenly makes sense. Everything you’ve ever struggled with makes sense. But now you’re faced with a new dilemma, how do you change overnight to being a diagnosed autistic person? And how are you meant to behave now?
Post diagnosis you start to realise more what causes you to feel overwhelmed, the triggers for your meltdowns and what can help. But implementing these, especially in the workplace can be really tricky. Sensory issues are a very real thing for autistic people, and in a busy office there are so many of these, but especially noise, smell, and lights. Now have a think about your office and what sensory triggers you may have. Most offices have horrible fluroescent lighting which gives a lot of people a headache after a while. Open plan offices seem to be the norm now as well which makes noise a real issue, especially post pandemic as working from home allowed neurodivergent people to control their environment. And the last one, smell is obvious again, open plan offices allow smells to waft across the office. And I don’t just mean lunch smells, an autistic person may have a very sensitive sense of smell so even the smell of a morning coffee or cereal could be unpleasant, or even a coworker’s perfume or after shave. Some reasonable adjustments for these would be to allow an autistic person to sit in a quiet area if your office has one, or maybe a vacant meeting room, wearing noise cancelling headphones and possibly dimming the lights in one area to make it more comfortable. Anything that can be done to reduce these triggers will reduce the overwhelm that can be experienced which can lead to a meltdown. The smell trigger is more difficult, but one way would be to avoid the areas where people sit for lunch, maybe getting outside for some fresh air or sitting near an open window could help.
The other issue autistic people may have in the workplace can be communicating with colleagues. Autistic people need clear instructions, to know what’s expected of them, for things to be planned well and to be prepared for what’s happening on any day. So you may think well what reasonable adjustments could we do for all these? I think the basics are quite simple, being very clear with an autistic colleague with any tasks they are given; what do they need to do, how do they need to do it and when does it need to be done by is a good thing to remember. This removes any ambiguity from a task and allows them to focus without worrying if they are doing it correctly. Overthinking is a common issue for autistic people along with catastrophising about anything and everything. This reasonable adjustment can also be applied to meetings; be clear of what the meeting is about, having an agenda is also useful, be clear what their role is and the outcome you want from the meeting. This avoids an autistic person becoming frustrated and overwhelmed in meetings when conversations go off track or people mention new topics not on an agenda.
It’s also important to remember when someone has a reasonable adjustment that this is not special treatment, it’s an adjustment to enable them to work in a way that does not cause them any harm or discomfort, so for an autistic person the adjustment can hopefully help to avoid their meltdown triggers, stop them feeling overwhelmed and in some cases can remove some of the overthinking. And please remember that reasonable adjustments are about equity not equality.
The things mentioned are just a few things that can be done to help autistic people in the workplace, and some of these will also apply to other neurodivergent conditions. The important thing to remember is that all autistic people are different, so it’s important to ask them what they struggle with to work out how to help them. And be understanding, a trigger may seem daft to you but to an autistic person it disregulates them and can lead to a meltdown or burnout which can take days or weeks to recover from. We all work in different ways and being mindful of this makes the workplace a much better and equitable place to work for everyone but especially autistic and neurodivergent people.
And if you think you may be autistic or want some help around this topic, I have put a few links below that can help you start this journey.
National Autistic Society
NHS
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/autism/
Autism Wales
Fighting Fit 