With increasing diagnosis of autism and ADHD, psychologist says the best thing for employers to do is adopt a culture of ‘yes’ for accommodations
If you’ve been noticing a lot more people who say they’ve been diagnosed with autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), it’s not your imagination.
While the increased diagnosis has led to conspiracy theories around things like vaccines and 5G, it’s probably because we’ve gotten better at diagnosing, said Daniel Wendler, a clinical psychologist, author and “proudly autistic advocate for neurodiversity.”
An awkward child who had difficulty with social cues and making friends growing up in the 1990s, Wendler said he was diagnosed with Asperger’s as a teenager (he said this is now a “vintage” diagnosis, as it’s now just classified under autism).
He figures that these days, he probably would have been diagnosed earlier.
“There’s, I think, a lot more awareness of it,” said Wendler. “There’s a lot more acceptance. People are more willing to get a diagnosis for themselves or their kid, because there’s less stigma.”
With this increased diagnosis as the backdrop, the Austin, Texas resident was in Sudbury on Feb. 3 to give a talk on neurodiversity in the workplace at Cambrian College’s annual Career Fair Conference.
First, what is neurodiversity? Wendler said that’s a “little bit fuzzy,” but just about everyone would say that neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and ADHD would fall under the definition.
“It’s present with you for your entire life; it’s just baked into how you’re wired,” Wendler said.
There are some that say some mental illnesses would fall under that category, he said, but others would not, given you’re not trying to “cure” autism.
Wendler said he sits on the sidelines on that issue. “But a lot of the same concepts of, if we can create a more inclusive environment, it helps everybody also applies to mental illness,” he said.
As for the statistics, Wendler said those are “really fuzzy and not very good.”
“The numbers are higher than people assume, because it’s an invisible difference, right?” he said. “Like you would not necessarily know that I’m autistic without me telling you. There’s plenty of people who are autistic, ADHD, etc, that have struggles, have needs, and people don’t realize it. So when you are able to invest in neurodiversity, sometimes you can be really surprised by how many people it impacts and how many people it helps.”
If a workplace is looking to be more inclusive of neurodiverse employees, Wendler said the biggest single thing to do is “move towards a culture of ‘yes’, when it comes to offering support.
“So instead of a culture where if somebody asks for help, you’re like, ‘I’m going to judge you for that, or you have to file paperwork with HR, and it’s going to take you six months,’ try to have a culture where, if somebody is asking for something reasonable, then just give it to them.”
With this invisibility comes the question of whether or not it’s OK to ask your coworker or employee if they are neurodiverse. Wendler said that’s a tricky thing, because there can be legal issues surrounding asking people about their identity.
“What I typically recommend is to allow the other person to tell you if they want to, but usually you don’t bring it up and ask them,” he said.
That being said, it’s OK to offer support they might need, such as offering to write things down in an email instead of telling them verbally. “And then let them say, ‘Oh, yeah, that would really be beneficial for me’,” he said. “So focus on the needs, not the label.”
With pop culture portrayals of autism, such as “The Big Bang Theory”’s Dr.Sheldon Cooper, an autistic-coded character, sometimes those stereotypes can be damaging, as not every autistic person is a genius or comes off as blunt and unfriendly.
“I spoke with a Google engineer once, very successful guy, very brilliant guy, but at a previous employer, he did not get support, because he told his manager, ‘Oh, I’m autistic and I need this help’,” he said. “And the manager said, ‘Oh, you don’t look autistic, I don’t believe you.’ Because the manager had this idea in his mind from media of ‘Oh, you don’t dress like a nerd, and so you can’t be autistic’, right?”
In terms of neurodiverse individuals navigating the workplace, Wendler said that can sometimes be difficult. Take self-stimulatory behaviour or what’s known as “stimming”, for example, which is the repetition of movements, sounds, words, or other behaviours. While stimming is found to some degree in all people, it’s especially intense and frequent in neurodiverse individuals.
Wendler said in an ideal world, stimming would be more accepted in the workplace, but in many cases, it’s not.
He advocates a balanced approach. If it’s a disruptive stim, then it’s not something to necessarily do in front of people all the time. In that case, Wendler encourages people to stim more subtly, such as using a sensory toy.
But “is it disruptive because it’s legitimately distracting, or is it disruptive because of stigma, and somebody is like, ‘Oh, that’s weird’?” he asks.
While the duty to accommodate is clearly laid out in the Ontario Human Rights Code, Wendler said he’s obviously not an employment law expert, and, as an American, especially not Canadian law.
Regardless, he’d like to argue that employers also have a moral responsibility to be inclusive. “It’s not about, ‘Oh, this is a chore,’” he said. “This is an obligation. I think the more inclusive you are, the stronger your team will perform.”
Heidi Ulrichsen is Sudbury.com’s assistant editor.
