Teena Tom Being an SLP, I have spent time with Autistic people, and my occupation and field, in general, have given me more knowledge about how I can make things easier for them. But, this is not true for a vast percentage of the population. This is why, I wanted to make full use of Autism Awareness Month and throw light on how we can make our workplace Autism Friendly.
- Provide for their Sensory Needs: An autistic person may find loud places too overwhelming, thereby reducing their efficiency. Accommodations, such as providing them with noise-cancelling headphones, allowing hybrid working conditions, or just giving them a quiet place would work wonderfully.
- Make Adjustments in the Team: When working in a team, the employer can make sure that the team members understand the autistic person’s communication styles. The Autistic person themselves can make it clear for the team, or clear communication guides can be given out for making things smooth.
- A Schedule: This is a very important part, that a workplace would anyways need. A schedule can make things clear for an autistic person and thereby they can work to match expectations. Making the deadlines and the expected outcome clear can help in increasing their efficiency.
- Flexibility: While a schedule is important, the schedule should have more than just what the work demands. The schedule should have clarity on the fact that breaks can be taken and re-adjusted according to the needs of the person. Again, flexibility in the form of work-from-home accommodations, alternative time schedules, or frequent short breaks can also help.
- Aids: Autistic people respond differently to different aids. Some may need more than just audio to understand, and in such a case, a visual aid would work miracles. Therefore, the representation of instructions, information and schedules in a visual format should be provided as a guide for them.
These are a few pointers that must be kept in mind for making the workplace Autism friendly. However, it must be kept in mind, that every Autistic person would have their own coping mechanism, and while an organisation cannot make adjustments for all of their needs, the company must be open to accepting their ways of adjustments.