Going on a interview is enough to give any job seeker sweaty palms and racing thoughts.
But for many autistic people, busy office environments, complicated questions and high-stakes can cross from expected nerves to sensory overload — and lost opportunity due to lack of understanding.
The interviewing process simply wasn’t created with autistic people in mind.
A new PSA called “Could You Stand The Rejection?” shows this in action, allowing viewers to step into the shoes of an autistic person on a job interview. Inundated by bright lights, vague questions and judgmental glares, the situation quickly intensifies into an overwhelming experience of sensory overload.
“I’m not unemployable,” the interviewee says in the PSA. “I’m autistic — and sometimes I get too much information.”
The PSA was recently released by the National Autistic Society, a UK-based nonprofit providing support services for autistic people and their families. The organization also advocates for more inclusion and understanding.
“Some workplaces are full of too much information; too many sounds, lights, stares, glares – and too little understanding.”
According to the National Autistic Society, about 84 percent of autistic adults in the UK lack full-time employment — a statistic which hasn’t improved in a decade. But 77 percent of those unemployed autistic adults reported a desire to enter the workforce.
And the statistics are just as staggering in other global regions. In the U.S, an estimated 66 percent of autistic youth do not have a job or educational plans two years after graduating high school.
The PSA is part of an ongoing campaign by the National Autistic Society called Too Much Information, which spreads awareness of barriers facing autistic people in the workforce. Through the campaign, the National Autistic Society hopes to mobilize the government and employers in the UK to double the number of autistic adults in the workforce.
Image: NAtional Autistic Society
“Some workplaces are full of too much information; too many sounds, lights, stares, glares — and too little understanding,” the organization writes on its website.
To accompany the campaign, the National Autistic Society also created a petition to call government officials and employers to close the autism employment gap.
The organization is also providing essential inclusion information as part of the campaign, like tips for employers looking to make their workplaces more autistic-friendly, and a series of real first-person stories of autistic people who have struggled to navigate the workforce.
[H/T The Mighty]
