Me too, Nick Ransom (I’ve stopped saying I ‘have autism’ – for me, being autistic is brilliant, not a burden, 6 February)! I left school depressed, knowing that my results grossly underrepresented my potential. I too spent years unemployed or underemployed until someone gave me a chance.
Consequently, I am a graduate with a postgraduate teaching qualification. After that, someone else gave me a chance and, as a result, I retired last year from a great job in the civil service that I held for 29 years, with wonderful colleagues who respected my abilities.
What neurodiverse people need are opportunities to develop and people to have faith in them. And people who don’t feel threatened by us, with our intensity of concentration, our ability to see what others miss and our stubborn refusal to give up a challenge easily.
Read more at: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/feb/15/neurodiverse-people-just-need-to-be-given-a-chance
