Employment Discrimination
Hey, guess what's grinding my gears today? The issue of unemployment in the autism community, as well as the issue of employment in the autism community. Both are problematic, and as with most things it's an institutional problem.
The figure I hear is 90% unemployment among the autism community in the US. That's a pretty staggering number. It's apparent to me that only 10% of us are willing or able to contort ourselves into such a shape that we fit into the box society demands we fit in to carry the status of being "employable".
In the professional world, employers are nuts over the concept of a job being a "good fit" for someone; you'll hear that term a lot in the world of cubicles and despair. People are hired, fired, and retained on the basis of "fit". I always found the term to be an unfortunate sort of ironic, because no job has ever been a good "fit" for me; rather, I've gained and maintained employment by making myself into a good "fit" for the job. I've hidden my struggles, I've remained silent as my senses were assaulted and violated for 8 hours straight, and I've maintained a facade of professionalism while everything in me was screaming at me to bolt and go hide somewhere dark.
I know, boo-hoo, who cares? Well, logic would dictate that my experiences are shared by others like me. I don't really care about myself, but I don't like how others are excluded from the workforce and the implications thereof. Nothing empowers a person like the sense of purpose, necessity, and belonging that gainful employment has the potential to provide, and so many of us are denied that simply because we, the minority, are not the same as they, the majority. There's a word for that; it's called discrimination.
Discrimination takes on more subtle forms than the simple "Irish need not apply" type that might first come to mind when we hear the term "discrimination". The discrimination I'm talking about is institutional. We are not "less", we are simply "not the same", and yet the results we see from "not being the same" are those that could be expected if we were indeed "less". This being the state of things, it means we are denied an equal opportunity to make contributions to society and pursue a better life solely on the basis of our having a social disability whose accommodations society is not only unwilling but also hostile towards the idea of their implementation.
Society has such a long way to go until this is fixed. First, society needs to be able to wrap its collective head around the concept of a disability that doesn't involve a wheelchair. To be fair, a social disability is something that has only recently been identified, and public awareness and education is lacking. However, those with power are all too enthusiastic to tell those without power that ignorance is no excuse, so why don't we let that work both ways? The ignorance in this case constitutes a crime against humanity. An entire group of people is being denied equal rights. Where is the outrage?
I find it shocking, but not surprising, that this is allowed to continue with the blessing of society at large. Historically, discrimination has been allowed to run rampant until the affected groups get mad, get organized, and get what's theirs. But honestly, I don't see that happening, so barring a sudden bucking of human nature allowing for a massive shift in social policy towards one that's more humanistic, I don't see things getting better any time soon. And that's a damn shame.
Hey, guess what's grinding my gears today? The issue of unemployment in the autism community, as well as the issue of employment in the autism community. Both are problematic, and as with most things it's an institutional problem.
The figure I hear is 90% unemployment among the autism community in the US. That's a pretty staggering number. It's apparent to me that only 10% of us are willing or able to contort ourselves into such a shape that we fit into the box society demands we fit in to carry the status of being "employable".
In the professional world, employers are nuts over the concept of a job being a "good fit" for someone; you'll hear that term a lot in the world of cubicles and despair. People are hired, fired, and retained on the basis of "fit". I always found the term to be an unfortunate sort of ironic, because no job has ever been a good "fit" for me; rather, I've gained and maintained employment by making myself into a good "fit" for the job. I've hidden my struggles, I've remained silent as my senses were assaulted and violated for 8 hours straight, and I've maintained a facade of professionalism while everything in me was screaming at me to bolt and go hide somewhere dark.
I know, boo-hoo, who cares? Well, logic would dictate that my experiences are shared by others like me. I don't really care about myself, but I don't like how others are excluded from the workforce and the implications thereof. Nothing empowers a person like the sense of purpose, necessity, and belonging that gainful employment has the potential to provide, and so many of us are denied that simply because we, the minority, are not the same as they, the majority. There's a word for that; it's called discrimination.
Discrimination takes on more subtle forms than the simple "Irish need not apply" type that might first come to mind when we hear the term "discrimination". The discrimination I'm talking about is institutional. We are not "less", we are simply "not the same", and yet the results we see from "not being the same" are those that could be expected if we were indeed "less". This being the state of things, it means we are denied an equal opportunity to make contributions to society and pursue a better life solely on the basis of our having a social disability whose accommodations society is not only unwilling but also hostile towards the idea of their implementation.
Society has such a long way to go until this is fixed. First, society needs to be able to wrap its collective head around the concept of a disability that doesn't involve a wheelchair. To be fair, a social disability is something that has only recently been identified, and public awareness and education is lacking. However, those with power are all too enthusiastic to tell those without power that ignorance is no excuse, so why don't we let that work both ways? The ignorance in this case constitutes a crime against humanity. An entire group of people is being denied equal rights. Where is the outrage?
I find it shocking, but not surprising, that this is allowed to continue with the blessing of society at large. Historically, discrimination has been allowed to run rampant until the affected groups get mad, get organized, and get what's theirs. But honestly, I don't see that happening, so barring a sudden bucking of human nature allowing for a massive shift in social policy towards one that's more humanistic, I don't see things getting better any time soon. And that's a damn shame.
