Blogs & Insights
Embracing Autism as Culture: How Leaders and Allies Can Foster a More Inclusive Workplace
Creating organizations that truly welcome autistic employees requires an understanding of autism that goes beyond the outdated medical model. It involves recognizing Autism not just as a difference in neural wiring, but also as a culture, a unique way of experiencing...
“I Don’t Know How to Do That” – When Your Autistic Employee Says This, It’s a Sincere Attempt to Learn, Not Dodge Responsibility
I’ve existed as an autistic person in a neurotypical world for over four decades, and it took me well into my third to discover that many neurotypical people view genuine, literal requests for information as an attempt to dodge responsibility, show someone up, or make...
Why Your Autistic Employees May Turn Down Food at Company Events
Trigger warning: Food, eating, and eating disorders. For many people, regardless of neurotype, food is a sensitive issue. That’s why I’d like to start this article by saying I’ll be mentioning food, social eating, and eating disorders for those who would rather skip...
5 Steps to Take Before You Fire Your Autistic Employee
As you know, when an autistic person gets on a subject, we get on a subject! When I wrote my first article for Specialisterne on the trauma of suddenly being fired, I wasn’t planning on turning this topic into a series of sorts, but here we are. The good news is, this...
From frazzled to flow: Neurodiversity, inclusion, and enabling the best work.
Most organizations want to hire people with high potential to be productive and creative. In many cases, "spiky profiles" of neurodivergent people offer that sought-after productivity and creativity potential; focus and creativity have been identified by research as...
How to Move Beyond Autism Acceptance and Into True Autistic Inclusion
April is Autism Acceptance Month, and while acceptance is a step in the right direction, that’s all it is; a step. We have to keep going if we’re going to move toward true autistic inclusion in the workforce and in society as a whole. Acceptance Must Be Actionable,...
Flexibility in the Workplace and Unlocking Neurodiversity Inclusion
Flexibility in the workplace has always existed. For a long time, however, it was doled out to the privileged few or acquired with much effort via accommodation requests. Often, neurodivergent and disabled people were denied flexibility - it was not seen as a...
Why Being Fired as an Autistic Person Has a More Harmful Impact Than Being Fired as a Neurotypical Person
If you’ve been reading my content for a while, you know I’ve already written about the trauma of being fired as an autistic person and some unfair and unfortunate reasons employers have given for firing their autistic employees. You’d think I’d have it covered by now,...
How the Autistic ‘Spiky Profile’ Creates an Expectation-vs-Reality Gap in the Workplace
If you've never employed an autistic person before, you may have some outdated ideas about our neurology that could derail your ability to create a neuro-inclusive workplace. One of the most common outdated misconceptions is that autistic people are either limited or...
The Great Win-Win: Supporting Neurodivergent Employees in Job Crafting
One size does not fit all. This is true of all humans, and it is especially true of neurodivergent people. Our "spiky" ability profiles mean that while we may excel in some tasks, be it creative design or detailed quality control, other tasks might come with more...