How to create an autism profile
Create an autism profile for a better work experience. This concise document outlines your strengths, challenges, and productivity-enhancing factors, serving as a tool for disclosing your autism diagnosis. The profile aids in determining necessary workplace adjustments, reducing misunderstandings among colleagues, and simplifying communication with supporters, allowing you to authentically be yourself without repetitive explanations.
There are many benefits to having an autism profile at work:
- It helps you become more aware of your own autism – your strengths and areas of challenge, and what helps you remain productive and well.
- You can use your profile as a way of disclosing your autism diagnosis.
- You can use it to decide what reasonable adjustments and management strategies you may need in the workplace.
- It helps to reduce the possibility of workplace misunderstandings and miscommunications, because colleagues will understand much more about you and know what to do to make a difference.
- If you are having difficulty explaining your needs to someone who supports you – such as an advocate, employer, friend or family member – you can share your profile with them to help them understand you more. It means you don’t have to keep explaining the same things time and time again, and you can just be your authentic self.
Getting started
First, choose your profile format – there is an example below. Try to keep it to one side of A4 so employers can quickly access the information and discover the best way of working with you. Always make sure you share your strengths with your employer so they realise the benefits of working with you and the value you bring. Reflect on the attributes you think you have that may be important to an employer. These might include problem-solving skills, attention to detail, reliability and loyalty, high levels of concentration, technical ability, and honesty and directness. You might have detailed specialist knowledge of a topic, be a fast learner or be very creative. If you find it hard to identify your own strengths, ask a trusted friend or family member for their observations.
Next, give a description of your challenges at work. You could be guided by the list in the example shown here, and/or you could come up with your own. Again, ask a trusted relative, friend or professional for support if you need it. Then give a list of what helps with your challenges at work. Examples include a quiet place to work, headphones, frequent breaks, and written communication. Try to provide ways your manager/colleagues can support you. They won’t always understand or know what to do – if you have a meltdown, for example – unless you guide them, so tell them via your profile, and ask them not to judge or speak to you (looking for answers that you won’t, in that moment, be able to give), but instead let you have a quiet, safe place to recover.
Finally, add a date to your profile. Review it every six months or if anything changes at work – such as a new manager or office change. Because of the General Data Protection Regulations, your manager should be the person who keeps a copy of your profile. Anyone in your team wanting to look at it should do so via your manager with your permission.
Having an autism profile at work, or in your volunteering role, should help you be better understood and supported by your manager and team, so you can reduce the need to mask and can just be comfortable, be yourself, and produce your best work performance. This small document can have a massive impact for you in the workplace. We have a sample profile below, or you can download our template to amend yourself and share with an employer.
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Name: Sarah Morris
I am autistic, which means I have the following strengths and difficulties:
Strengths:
- Punctual and reliable
- Technical analysis
- Applying research, theory and legislation
- Remembering policies, procedures, codes of practice, data and information that has been read
- High productivity once a task is understood and in a suitable sensory environment
- Creative problem solving.
Challenges:
- Becoming exhausted from sustaining the expected social communication
- Learning new tasks takes longer
- Anxiety – specifically time and performance anxiety
- I can take longer to refocus on a task or switch between tasks if interrupted or distracted
- Noise sensitivity, specifically high tones, alarms, emergency vehicles, squeaks, tapping, cracking sounds
- Photosensitivity – strip/fluorescent and bright lighting is painful
- Tactile sensitivity.
I find the following helpful:
- Written communication wherever possible, with clear and direct language
- Frequent breaks during long meetings with fast-paced verbal conversations (more than an hour)
- Detailed instructions and visual information
- Not relying on my non-verbal body language and eye contact to gauge my interest or understanding
- More time, without interruption, to construct meaningful replies
- A quiet place to ‘reset’ if I become overwhelmed, and more personal space
- Headphones are helpful in cutting out background noise so that I can concentrate, as is natural daylight.