Workplace Discrimination: What the LGBT Movement Can Teach Autistics

By: Vanessa Blanchard

The autistic and LGBT communities have a lot of overlapping links to each other.  First, autistic people are more likely to belong to the LGBTQ+ community than other segments of the population.  Another important area of overlap involves employment discrimination.

At this point, most autistic advocacy is self-advocacy, but the LGBT movement has made some progress in organizing their movement enough to have made some real social and legislative progress.  For example, the Supreme Court recently ruled that the LGBTQIA community was included in the 1964 Civil Rights Act that bars individuals from being fired from a job for being gay or trans.

While arguably it took way too long for such a ruling to take place, the specification of the LGBT community’s inclusion in the Civil Rights Act is an important thing for autistic folks to take note of.

Because protections for autistic people in the workplace don’t seem to exist, even though there are laws in place that purport to protect us.

Autistic Discrimination in the Workplace

Employment among autistic adults is abysmally low.  Research shows that only 54% of autistic adults worked during their early adulthood (ages 18-25).  80% of those that did work during that time worked in part time, low wage jobs.

While some of this can be explained by delays in personal development, which is consistent with a developmental disorder, an even bigger obstacle to explore are the ways that workplace discrimination is allowed to run rampant.  Jobs for autistic adults are hard to come by.  Even if we can get through the interview process, keeping a job is often its own insurmountable task as many autistics report that discrimination is a daily reality for them in the workplace.

Even with the ADA here in America, there are many loopholes that leave room for companies to discriminate against their employees, including “At Will” laws that allow employers to lie about or refuse to disclose the reasons behind firing someone.

The thing is most accommodations will never be enough if they don’t address the social biases that greet autistic people in public spheres.

Lessons Autistic Advocates Can Learn from the LGBT Movement

So, organization is necessary.  Because when you ask autistics about workplace discrimination and bullying the same stories arise again and again towards our specific traits and disabilities.  The laws as they stand aren’t enough.  We need to take a page from the LGBT movement and find ways to shift the focus away from individual self-advocacy towards a more unified approach that targets the distinction of our specific community within the laws.

Here are a few lessons we can learn from the LGBT movement that might help us:

1) Create a long-term game plan – Change is too slow, and we will be more effective in our own movement if we remember that and adjust our expectations accordingly.

2) Focus on tangible goals – we need to work toward change that can be measured.  Tangible goals are easier to articulate and persuade others to help with than vague goals that won’t show any specific progress.  These goals can include:

• Gaining specific accommodations for interview processes and workplace environments. 

• Establishing a support network of peers, leaders, and advocates for your workplace.  (Examples: reaching out to HR or forming a union)

• Specific legislative changes you’d like to see occur (like specifying Autistic people as a specific segment of the population that the ADA applies to.)

3) Focus on direction action campaigning – Change comes from focused effort, not random outbursts.  This is part of why self-advocacy isn’t the most effective form of advocacy.  It places all the emphasis on independent bursts of activity rather than organized, focused efforts.

For example, the latest ruling of the Supreme Court to include the LGBTQ+ community in workplace protections was the result of three different lawsuits against companies that discriminated against their employees based on the defendants being gay or trans.  Each individual lawsuit was a direct action taken that was strengthened by creating a collective effort with intentional legal strategizing.

4) There doesn’t need to be a hierarchical structure in order for us to organize – As with other movements, like BLM, the LGBT movement has no central leader.  Rather, it has a unifying central ideal of achieving equality and diversity.  These ideals are something the autistic community already has, and we tend to be really good at thriving without hierarchies. 

Individual actions won’t always succeed but aren’t automatically failures, either. – In order for those three cases to get to the Supreme Court, they had to have failed in lower courts.  They appealed the decisions of those lower courts to work their way up the justice system hierarchy.  “Failed” action that generates support and awareness is not a failure.  Measure the success of your movement by the growth of both your community and the support that surrounds it.

For an autistic specific example, look at the debacle with Sia’s movie Music.  The outcry from within the community was very unified and pointed.  We had a clear message and many of us took the time to compose very thorough breakdowns of the conversations held around the problems with that movie.  Those carefully documented conversations have been published on multiple platforms and got a lot of attention.  Calls from within the community for external support were heard and answered with a fresh round of articles condemning the movie from neurotypical perspectives that acknowledged our pain.

Among the many complaints brought up was the lack of jobs for autistic people, specifically the non-speaking, in both the acting and writing industries. 

We couldn’t get Sia to stop her movie, but we could bring to light many autistic issues, including workplace discrimination.

5) Recruiting community leaders persuades groups faster – The LGBT movement showed us that starting at the top of an organization works far better than trying to change the minds of each person individually. 

If you’re focusing on autistic advocacy within the workplace, your advocacy strategies should include recruiting organizational leaders to your cause. Having a company’s owner or HR department on your side means that you’ll have protection from discrimination even if you haven’t changed any individual minds. 

Bullying in the workplace is a constant problem for autistic people and not having to rely on appealing to your bully’s better sense is simply a better approach to self-advocating. 

That being said, “coming out” to a group you are well established in can also have a powerful impact as people tend to be more accepting of people they know and respect.  This isn’t always an option for autistic folks as ostracization is one of the biggest social obstacles we face.  However, those who are in a position can leverage their social standings to help spread acceptance.

An example would be Anthony Hopkins announcing he’s autistic.  Immediately, he makes it easier for other entertainers to come out, he gives autistic people a sense of representation, and he normalizes a more accurate idea of autism to the general public.

6) Establish a group dynamic and use it to confront employment discrimination – Identify your allies and use them to build support networks.  With this network, approach HR or other leaders within the company or organization. 

This can be done on an individual and industry level.

Expect to be dismissed at first and don’t give up.  This is why you’ve gathered your support network.  It makes it so that you can persevere in the face of dismissal without having to carry the entire burden of autistic advocacy on your shoulders alone.

Use the group dynamic you’ve created to start an employee resource group.  These are organizations that offer mentorships, advocacy support, and utilize the group dynamic to offer legitimacy to your community.

Spectroomz is an example of an employee resource group that utilizes many of these advocacy strategies well.  There are career development and community resources for autistic people.  The business model creates a group dynamic that lends authority to our community, ensuring that companies will provide appropriate accommodations to autistic folk.  The platform is built to allow us to disclose and “come out” to our clients/employers without fear of repercussion. Our individual efforts combine to increase accurate representation and acceptance, which leads to more jobs for autistic people.

We must remember that while personal and professional development are important, they aren’t what will stop employment discrimination against autistic people.  Solving this issue will take time and organized effort between many autistic advocates.  The last few decades have seen significant progress for the LGBT community and we can learn a lot from their approaches to progressing social attitudes towards their community.

About the writer

I’m a writer, artist, and advocate who loves living in Maine among the trees and oceanside villages. I’m also autistic, ADHD, and PTSD. My education, both academic and personal, has centered around mental health and neurodevelopmental disabilities, as well as discrimination and the socioeconomic consequences of living disabled in America. I work to plant seeds and spread ideas through my writing and will be among the autistic adults helping you understand your autistic kids better on Spectroomz’ Ask An Autistic. You can find me on Twitter @ladysnessa.