[HN Gopher] The Buckland Review of Autism Employment
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       The Buckland Review of Autism Employment
        
       Author : rbanffy
       Score  : 47 points
       Date   : 2024-02-29 17:06 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.gov.uk)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.gov.uk)
        
       | Frummy wrote:
       | I think one of the easier changes is to have more informational
       | sharing in an organization. Those in charge often feel
       | psychologically safe with an informational advantage - but it's
       | probably less useful than they feel. That mutual trust will
       | benefit the entire organisation, and not just autistics who may
       | need to do first-order logical inference rather than just copying
       | what others are doing.
        
         | rexpop wrote:
         | > Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.
         | 
         | Seems somewhat at odds with your call for "mutual trust."
        
       | banannaise wrote:
       | I think this item from the executive summary is particularly
       | significant:
       | 
       | e.13 The report notes that many of the changes employers could
       | make that would help recruit, retain and develop autistic people
       | would also benefit people with other types of neurodiversity and
       | disability, and non-disabled people. Adopting a universal
       | "inclusion by design" approach, so an autistic person need not
       | disclose their autism to secure the support they need, could
       | reduce the need for separate workplace adjustments and the stigma
       | this can sometimes entail, as well as improving overall
       | productivity and reducing costs.
        
         | allium wrote:
         | This is absolutely correct (curb-cut effect) but it's also why
         | employers will fight it.
         | 
         | The reason neurodiversity is such an issue for employers is
         | that there's no good way to measure people for talent (everyone
         | needs to believe they are atypically talented in order to
         | invent in the corporate "meritocracy," even though it's not a
         | real one.) So instead they run on a system of blame and shared
         | suffering, an attrition tournament that serves no purpose but
         | is the best a company can come up with. Autistic people need
         | exemption to thrive, but this is something everyone else wants
         | --to be evaluated on merit rather than suffering--but that the
         | firm, politically, will never be able to achieve.
         | 
         | Autism is an exaggerated version of the human experience. In
         | many ways we are less robotic and more intensely human, with
         | our hyper focus and extreme sensory experiences. Although we're
         | only about 5 percent of the population, there is a universality
         | about us that makes us impossible for private sector firms to
         | accommodate. If they treat us well, they have to treat everyone
         | well, which is something executives will never stand for.
        
       | droopyEyelids wrote:
       | I'm surprised to see that the report doesn't address any of the
       | 'disability' aspects of autism.
       | 
       | There are people with autism who are nonverbal even as adults,
       | who are not able to care for themselves. The challenges those
       | people and their families face will not be addressed by any
       | amount of awareness or affordances at work.
       | 
       | There is some weird tension in autism advocacy where the
       | disability gets swept under the rug and all attention goes to
       | people who have milder forms of the condition.
       | 
       | Disabled autistic people still need to be able to live with
       | dignity and I think it bears mention in a report like this.
       | Changes at work are only a part of addressing the issue- aid to
       | the disabled is another essential component.
        
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       (page generated 2024-02-29 23:01 UTC)