Aspies For Freedom

I have just found out that where I live has some legislation for workplace support of people with disabilities.  It is actually more geared to people who become disabled than born with disability.  No one can be fired or treated unfairly because of a disability and reasonable accommodations must be made so the person can do their job.

       http://www.ohrc.on.ca/english/publicatio...policy.pdf

Most of the problem with the government guidelines is that I have to get the job first, then ask for accommodations.  I am competing with people who have no disability for few jobs I feel I can do.

I do not have to disclose my disabilities (AS, asthma, some environmental sensitivities) to my employer but I can ask for specific accommodations.

What specific accommodations should I ask for?

1) I can not understand multiple step verbal instructions.  I need instructions written down.  For training, I can not have it all done on one day and just have someone demonstrate and verbally explain it.  

2) I have some problems with remembering names to faces and just remembering faces.  

3) I have some problems with people bullying me.  I do not know when someone is lying to me or being sarcastic.  I often do not know when someone is angry or frustrated at me.  

4) Sometimes I am unaware that my actions or comments are bothering someone.  I was mostly unaware of how my disability affected my co-workers and presentation to others until recently.

There is anti-discrimination legislation in Australia but as was said earlier, it applies more to people who've actually been employed than to those looking for work.

It's a vexed question - one solution is to have quotas and affirmative action but that quickly backfires if other more qualified people are knocked back and the word gets around. Then they will say the person with disability "only" got employed because of the quota.

I certainly cannot see what is so hard for employers to provide proper written instructions: even without ASD, we have different learning styles and some people have a distinct preference for written guidance.

I don't formally call it a special accomodation.  When someone wants to teach me something at work I simply say "Let me grab a pen.  It is much easier for me to remember if I take notes (or screen shots) as we go along."  Then I ask them to pause to let me catch up on writing when I need to.  That is something anyone might say.

As to not knowing if someone is joking or if you are annoying other people, I don't really know what a company can offer in the way of reasonable accomodation.  That is something that probably has to be worked out between individuals unless you have a job coach with you.

Actually, most of the people I deal with have no objection to taking notes.  It cuts down on future confusion over what was discussed.

My dad (who seems to be on the spectrum) is slow at learning multi-step stuff such as how to work the cash register. He usually justs tells them this and asks that they be very patient, that if they start getting frustrated with him then he's not going to take that.

He has not had so much trouble that he's needed to get officially dx'd (I hear it's expensive, and we really don't have spending money). Although he tries by just asking informally his employers, he has on occasion brought up Asperger's (which has come up before, as when I was diagnosed almost a decade ago). If you're officially dx'd, this would probably help you even more, as then they can't deny it.

As for the names/faces thing (I have this problem too!) I would just say that I have this trouble, and to please not be offended if I have trouble recognizing new people or remembering names. One thing that helps me is to tell about how it took me months to connect names to the faces of some of my closest friends.

In any case, these do sound reasonable, and any reasonable person should be willing to accommodate. If not, there's always the law to go to.