Background

It is always difficult deciding who, at work, to tell about your autism and when to tell them. Some people prefer not to disclose their diagnosis and like to confront issues themselves to gain a sense of achievement and to have opportunities to learn. Others prefer not to tell colleagues because they fear negative stereotypes and biases and also worry that it will give others the right to interfere and to think they can make decisions on their behalf.

Whether people disclose or not tends to be linked to the age at which they were first diagnosed. Those diagnosed in childhood, are more likely to disclose as they have lived with a 'public' diagnosis since school age. However those diagnosed later in early adulthood and beyond have not had the experience of others knowing.

In either case, research overwhelmingly shows that disclosing your diagnosis to colleagues has a positive effect on working relations as once they know, they are more likely to try to find out how your autism affects you, be understanding and provide support when necessary.

How could this affect me?

At work, while you can ask for support from Human Resources and Occupational Health, and some paperwork can be passed on to your line manager, it is your responsibility to tell people about your diagnosis AND to explain to them what that means for you.

Even if somebody knows about autism and Asperger Syndrome, it doesn’t mean they know how it will affect you or that they are aware that there are positives as well as negatives to the condition.

Some people on the Autism Spectrum find it difficult to explain the difficulties they may experience due to their autism, which might partly be because, before work, other people were on hand to do it for them.

“I’m always afraid of being turned away or not being able to explain myself well, or being misunderstood and having that change the way I’m treated.”

(Autism&Uni survey response)

So it’s really important to think about not just who you tell or how, but what you tell people who can help you and how comfortable you feel with explaining your needs. You may find the following useful to tell others about your personal needs:

Then it’s easy, for the person, responding to understand what the issue is and what needs to be done. But it’s hard not to get emotional or angry when people don’t seem to get it. It’s your life, not just a sandwich! Sometimes it helps to do it in writing as it gives you time to think about the best way of getting the information across.

Practical tips

Being open about your autism means that the stigma some people feel around autism is more likely to go away. Start with people you can trust and specific issues you think they might notice anyway.

If other staff know how autism affects you and what might make you less anxious, especially if you tell them in plenty of time, they’re more likely to be able to help you. You need to be as specific as possible. If colleagues are aware of the things you may feel anxious about they may be able to give you support.

Additional information and links

• Wikihow provides a few helpful tips on how to talk about your autism to others. You can find it in this link here.
• You can access a video with tops tips about disclosing your diagnosis here.

About the author

The content of this section has been adapted from the Autism&Uni project. The original Autism&Uni project was funded with support from the European Commission with partners in the UK, Finland, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain. For more information about this project please visit: http://www.autism-uni.org

You may want to read after

• The employee’s view on disclosing diagnosis
• The employer's view on disclosing diagnosis
• To disclose or not to disclose