Autism and racism at work

Race Reflections AT WORK

In today's episode Simone reflects on autism, neurodivergence and racism in relation to work.

They begin by talking about how and why they decided to cover this topic, reflecting on how they are autistic and work supporting autistic people, and how autistic and neurodivergent people are often unable to remain in employment or are unceremoniously fired. How these stories are systemic but are often carried as individual shame.

They remind us that neurodivergent is an umbrella term, autism is part of this umbrella but that the terms shouldn’t be used interchangeably. Then they explore a TikTok account by Professor Sol that summarises a variety of studies regarding autistic people: https://www.tiktok.com/@better_sol

They consider the statistics that only 16% of autistic people are employed. And that autistic employees face the biggest pay gap and are the most under employed group whilst being the most overqualified group of all disabled groups. Then they reflect on how in addition to this people who are not cisgender white men are often misdiagnosed/undiagnosed as not autistic because of the way that white autistic men are the stereotype associated with autism in the media and in general. They discuss how for multiply marginalised people self diagnosis and self advocacy is incredibly important and valid. And how the criteria developed and employed around autism is fed by white supremacy and white “western” ideas, and how self diagnosis is a way of reclaiming experience.

Then they think about how racism, classism, sexism and other systems of oppression exacerbate autistic people’s difficulties in workplaces and with employment. How this contributes to autistic burnout and autistic shutdown and seriously effects people's health. They look at the study "Intersectional Stigma for Autistic People at Work: A Compound Adverse Impact Effect on Labor Force Participation and Experiences of Belonging https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36777372/

One of the things highlighted in this study is how little research exists about autistic people at work because the majority of autistic people don’t work. They think about what “work” means within our current cultural moment and whether “work” works for any of us. The study found that white autistic people living in the global north are more likely to have jobs and to have jobs that are accommodating for autistic people, And that women, non binary and transgender people feel less included at work and that feeling that someone cares is more important than accommodations.

They conclude by talking about accommodations that can be made but also that there are larger systemic adjustments that need to be made, and that employers and workplaces need to be attuned to intersections of oppression, to be attuned to how autistic people are not to be cured, fixed or exploited. But that this is a tough conversation for autistic people to have because the stigma means that many people don’t feel safe to be openly autistic in their workplaces.

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