Okay, without getting overmuch into detail here (for reasons that any employed blogger should be familiar with), I have become quite curious as of late about actually useful guides (in the form of books, pamphlets, web sites, etc.) that one might be able to show to one's employers regarding autism and workplace communication and other issues.
I have not been able to find anything like this. And I've looked. Most of the literature I've come across is just, well, horrible and likely to cause more problems than it solves.
I do not think any of us on the autistic spectrum need our bosses reading all kinds of stuff about how we need "mentors" to be assigned to us (my last experience with someone trying to "mentor" me ended with them trying to induct me into a cult, so...yeah, not too interested in setting myself up in that kind of relationship these days), among other things.
I am actually thinking of trying to write something, but who knows if that will actually happen -- a lot of this stuff is just really difficult to explain.
But I think something needs to be there because some of the stuff I've seen and experienced is just ridiculous.
One of the things I and probably a lot of other spectrum adults have dealt with (in a variety of contexts) is the problem of either having it assumed we have abilities we don't, or that we don't have abilities that we do, and hence getting all the wrong kinds of "help" offered! I cannot even count the number of times in my life that, upon it becoming obvious that I have difficulty in something, people have reacted as if I either need everything done "for" me, or as if I am "refusing" to do that thing, etc.
In particular (again without getting into too many details) I think it needs to be a lot more understood that when someone has a lot of difficulty in one area, that does not mean that they are incapable of doing anything at all, or that asking for a logical accommodation is some weird coded way of asking for fewer responsibilities or "easier" work.
I don't want "easier" work, I want a way of doing my work that actually makes sense and can be done in a logical order. And I want some way to explain that what might be a "trivial" interruption for someone else is not trivial for me, and that while I can get a lot done when I have the opportunity to focus, it is not going to "train my brain to multi-task" by progressively requiring more and more activity transitions on a day to day basis. And so on. But so far this is not something I have been very successful at, so I would appreciate any tips.
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
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8 comments:
Yeah, someone needs to write something decent because all of the literature on this is horrible.
Dora Raymaker recommended an article on workplace accommodations in a blog post she wrote in January. The article has plenty of suggestions and references; it can be found here.
Stephanie: Indeed, most of the material I have come across tends to have some things that apply to me and seem helpful, but other things that would be really bad for me if done.
Communication about that stuff is hard enough without misconceptions complicating things.
abfh: Oh interesting. I read change.org but must have missed that post.
I scanned over the article and there are some good things in there (like the AAC stuff and the suggestions to provide clear written instructions, etc.), but I am looking more for something that is more geared toward the employment period rather than about "setting up" a job situation.
From what I recall, job posting descriptions tend to state what's expected of the employee in their job role (and subsidiary training material tends to emphasize this too). Perhaps what's needed - what you can recommend - is a brief paragraph or two on what the employee expects from the company and their co-workers to facilitate getting their job done.
And every 6 months or so, such "job expectations" can be updated by both the employee and the company.
Sure some people don't know what they need in terms of accommodations until a bad accommodation has bitten them in the butt; but this really can't be helped with anything other than experience.
Having a periodically updated statement of expectations would allow each role to be specialized for the particular needs of the particular employee, and the particular needs of the particular job.
I could definitely use this, too, in about a year. I'm tired of people offering me college accommodations based on listening to tapes when I have poor auditory processing. Same thing happened at the Department of Rehabilitation regarding their orientation. Then everyone gets hissy about my refusing their accommodation, because if it helped someone with a totally different condition, I should be grateful.
I looked at the Raymaker article and it seems to be targeted at service jobs. None of the examples were for college-educated autistics and I suspect that employers would quickly decide that someone else had a better portfolio if I asked for an alternate interview, let alone on-the-job help.
I don't know if he's published
any guidelines, but a Danish
entrepeneur named Thorkil Sonne
staffs his tech company mostly
with people on the autism spectrum.
He seems to have definite ideas
about about how to make this work
well for all.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specialisterne
-L.M.
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