Disability History Month blog: Opportunity and Inclusion: Disability, Livelihood and Employment

Julian Gwinnett, Disabled Staff Network co-chair, details how we can transform the autism employment landscape by embracing strengths and challenging misconceptions. 

This year’s theme for Disability History Month is Disability Livelihood and Employment – two incredibly pertinent issues for many people with disabilities given the struggles many of us face, finding and securing adequately paid work.

As an advocate for disability inclusion, I’m shocked but never really surprised when I talk to a person with a disability that the same four issues nearly always form topics of the conversation: Education, Employment, Housing and Loneliness (social exclusion) – with employment usually the dominant issue. How to get a job, how to keep a job, whether to reveal that you have a diagnosis, how to get the help and support that you need – these issues dominate our lives in ways that people who don’t share our experiences fully realise or understand. This is particularly true when it comes to autistic people like me.

As an autistic person, I often get asked by parents of autistic children: “Will my child have a normal life?” of course the answer is yes – well sort of. If this sounds slightly evasive that’s because, believe it or not, this is far from a straightforward question.

For a start, what is meant by ‘normal’? I guess in this context it means to get a job, own a home, get married, have children – just like everyone else. In theory there is no reason why they can’t – as being autistic shouldn’t prevent you from doing any of these things.

However, shouldn’t is not the same as doesn’t.

Many, if not most, of the challenges autistic people face have very little to do with autism itself and everything to do with how we ‘other’ people who are different to ourselves and who don’t conform to how we expect them to behave.

Put simply, if you’re autistic you will face any number of challenges and barriers throughout your life that others simply don’t and, are therefore, unable to relate to or even imagine. These challenges and barriers are mostly due to misconceptions about what autistic people can or can’t do.

It probably won’t surprise you to know that despite some progress, there’s still a significant employment gap (around 30%) between people with disabilities and those without a disability. What you’re probably not aware of is that this figure is far worse for autistic people than almost any other disability type.

According to the Department for Work and Pensions official statistics, 82.5% of adults without a disability are in employment, compared with 53.6% of people with a disability. Whereas data from The Office for National Statistics (ONS) states the figure for autistic people is a shocking 22%. For comparison, a recent report by the Criminal Justice Joint Inspection (CJJI): Neurodiversity in the Criminal Justice System estimates 16%-19% of prisoners in the UK may be autistic – meaning you’re almost as likely to be imprisoned, as an autistic person, as you are to be employed!

Whilst employment prospects for graduates are better, they’re not significantly so. Earlier this year, The Buckland Review of Autism Employment revealed that “Autistic graduates are twice as likely to be unemployed after 15 months as non-disabled graduates, with only 36% finding full time work in this period.” I know autistic people with PhDs in Chemical Engineering and Material Science who cannot get jobs – despite there being a desperate need for these skill sets within the UK economy.

Moreover, just as unemployment itself is an issue for autistic people, so too is underemployment – the same review revealed that “Autistic people face the largest pay gap of all disability groups, receiving a third less than non-disabled people on average.”

Consequently, simply having a job – even if it’s a low-skilled, poorly paid one – feels like a major achievement. The bar is very low indeed!

Why is this?

Much of the reason lies in widespread misconceptions, amongst employers, about how autistic people perform in a workplace environment in comparison to their colleagues.

A Gallup poll, commissioned by the All Parliamentary Group on Autism: The Autism Act, 10 years on, revealed that 27% of employers questioned thought an autistic employee may struggle to ‘fit in’ to their organisation, whilst 31% thought they’d require too much support – confirming that there’s still a lot of work to do in challenging and overcoming these persistent stereotypes that significantly impact autistic people’s employment prospects.

The personal cost is obvious, for many people with disabilities, this is especially true of autistic people. Autistica’s 2022 Employment Plan reveals that autistic people experience many of the worst outcomes associated with unemployment and underemployment, including: poor mental health, not being able to live independently, not having enough income to meet their basic needs and feeling generally unhappy and unsatisfied with their lives.

Perhaps it’s no surprise then that the suicide rate amongst autistic people is so high, – “Studies have shown that up to 66% of autistic adults have thought about taking their own life, and an alarming 35% have attempted suicide”.

It's crucial to acknowledge and address these concerning statistics, but we must also maintain a balanced perspective and avoid assuming that suicide is an inevitable outcome for autistic individuals.

We know that often, suicidal distress is complex and can emerge owed to an accumulation of factors such as loneliness, disconnection, hopelessness, unstable or unmet social needs such as housing and employment. So far, within this blog, I have pointed to evidence that would suggest these factors can be commonplace for those living with Autism. Tragically, for many, the pain of living, surviving, and not thriving, becomes too much. On the other hand, many, find a way to cultivate hope and recognise that they matter and have a place in this world as individuals who contribute to our society and enrich the world around them. 

As autistic individuals find ways to overcome challenges and contribute their unique skills and perspectives to society, it becomes increasingly evident that fostering inclusivity and understanding benefits everyone. Therefore, it’s crucial to recognize that the implications of the autistic employment gap extend beyond the autistic community, significantly impacting society as a whole.

A 2022 report by Autistica, estimated that the autistic employment gap costs the UK economy £14.5 billion every year – let that sink in! All those cuts to services, winter fuel payments etc. They really don’t need to happen – we just need to be better at helping those left behind, those we’ve overlooked to get the help they need.

Yet despite this gloomy backdrop, there is cause for optimism… For perhaps the first time in my lifetime I’m beginning to sense that things are starting to change for the better. The Buckland Review is itself a welcome intervention – as no previous government had even acknowledged the problem of autism and employment, never mind outlined its scale. Furthermore, the new government has announced that the Mental Health Act will be reformed to stop the barbaric detention of autistic people in care facilities. These may be small, well overdue, steps – they are welcome, nonetheless.

In addition, the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) has pledged to make the West Midlands “the best place to live and work for people with disabilities.” We also have Thrive into work Neurodiversity Services, funded by the WMCA, the only employment service in England that is dedicated to offering out of work and in work support for people with a neurodivergent condition.

More than anything, I’m proud of the work, we ourselves are doing at this university, through our Disability Equality Action Plan (DEAP), to ensure that all people with disabilities are valued during their time at the University of Wolverhampton. We are also forging ahead with several initiatives to improve inclusion for people with disabilities and neurodivergent people – both within and beyond our institution. These include RIDE Higher, Line Manager training, our disability disclosure campaign, events for Disability History Month and Neurodiversity Week events, our Autism and Suicide podcast series, our monthly online neurodiverse staff forum, Disability Advocacy Network, creating safe spaces for people at a moment of crisis/a meltdown and several, disability themed episodes on the D.I.I.verse Hub podcast channel.

Uniting all that we do is our adoption of an affirmation-based model of disability (Swain and French, 2000), a non-tragic, non-deficit focused approach to disability inclusion that emphasis strengths not weaknesses. It changes the narrative, from what people ‘can’t do’ to what they ‘can do’, by instead giving prominence to the knowledge and experience people with a disability acquire through overcoming the challenges and barriers they face – and succeeding. This is what makes us unique, makes us who we are – innovative and exceptionally creative individuals with an abundance of transferable skills.

As someone who has often wondered ‘why don’t I get the same opportunities as everyone else, is it because I’m different?’, I cannot emphasise enough how important and transformative this change of narrative will be, in enabling people with a disability to feel that they have just as much chance of succeeding as everyone else.

Therefore, I welcome all that we are doing as an institution to address this imbalance and ensure that everyone, within our institution, has the same opportunities – no matter who they are – as evidenced by our Strategy 2035 Creating Opportunity, Transforming Futures, which “commits us to playing a leading role in delivering a more inclusive, productive and sustainable society.”

Broadly speaking, beyond our organisation, whilst I fear that it may be too late for my generation, I am hopeful that those of the future may never have to walk in my shoes or fear they will be treated differently because they are different.

I take further comfort knowing that one day, hopefully in the not-too-distant future, when an autistic person arrives for an interview, there may be a genuine sense of excitement about how their difference could be beneficial instead of, as is usually the case, something that needs to be overlooked. Speaking as both a person with a disability as well as an autistic person, it would be great if people could see “what’s right with us” as opposed to ‘what’s wrong with us.’

Thinking back to those parents who want to know their children can have good lives… I’m always faced with a dilemma between hope and reality, between telling them what they want to hear and what they need to know – because no problem, so far as I’m aware, has ever been resolved by pretending it didn’t exist. Truth is that life as an autistic person can be extremely difficult – mostly because of how people treat you because of it.

That said, I obviously don’t want those parents to think their children will face a lifetime of struggle – as I have – because that doesn’t have to be the case.

Wouldn’t it be great, instead, if I could tell them they had nothing to fear and believe it myself!

Therefore, with this year’s theme (Disability, Livelihood and Employment) in mind, let’s instead imagine a world where no one is left behind and where everyone has an equal chance of succeeding. Isn’t this a world we should all be living in?

To learn more about life as an autistic person, listen to ”a beautiful curse” on the D.I.I.verse Hub podcast – available on Apple, Amazon, Spotify and Online.