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Policy call, Autistic Pride Day Symposium 2024
Government workplace supports for autistic staff were hidden away, an employment panel heard
In short
At the 2024 Autistic Pride Day Symposium, a panellist argued that employers were missing help that already existed, and Tammie Sinclair said the rigidity autistic workers are accused of belongs to employers.
Read it instead, 4 minutesThe transcript
The story
The help employers need to take on autistic staff already exists, the employment panel at the Autistic Pride Day Symposium heard in June 2024, and most employers never find it. Asked whether employers knew what support they could get, a panellist said “the supports that are out there aren’t really advertised very well”. The example offered was one the speaker said had come up earlier. Headphones can be bought as an accessibility measure, the panellist said, and employers did not know it.
Kyriakos Gold, who hosted the session, had opened that line of questioning by asking Tammie Sinclair, from a rights perspective, what was stopping employers from embracing autistic staff, and offering some possibilities, among them that employers thought it too hard, feared for their return on investment or did not know what support they could get. Sinclair’s answer was that it was a bit of everything. There was a lack of understanding, and there was the too hard basket. Most businesses, Sinclair said, are capitalist and looking to make a profit, which Sinclair called all well and good, but that pressure keeps many autistic people from getting a foot in the door. If they disclose, Sinclair said, they are likely to be rejected before they reach an interview.
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Sources the story draws on
- What is the Employment Assistance Fund? (opens in a new tab), JobAccess (Australian Government, maintained by the Department of Social Services)
- What the Employment Assistance Fund can cover (opens in a new tab), JobAccess (Australian Government, maintained by the Department of Social Services)
- The compelling case for disability employment in Australia: the unrivalled benefits of an underutilised labour market (opens in a new tab), JobAccess, with research by Dr Dianne Sheppard, Monash University
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