DECIDING TO DISCLOSE

In her column Jane Hatton, founder of Evenbreak, answers your employment questions

AThe first thing to say is that you are not obliged to tell the employer if you are disabled or not, and if you are, you are not obliged to take part in the guaranteed interview scheme – it is voluntary.

The second thing to say is that being autistic does mean you are disabled. We talk about the social model of disability. This means that there is nothing wrong with you (which you know), but you are disabled by a world that is designed by non-disabled people, for nondisabled people. For example, if the built environment was designed by people who use wheelchairs, there would be no stairs – just lifts, ramps, and wide doorways. And if blind people designed websites, they would all work with screen readers. And if recruitment processes were designed by autistic people, they would rely less on CVs and interviews. You aren’t disabled because you are autistic, but because the world generally isn’t geared up for autistic people – you face barriers that others don’t.

Back to the guaranteed interview. This scheme recognises that some disabled people’s talents may not be reflected in their CV, because of previous discrimination, and so bypasses the shortlisting stage for disabled people who have the skills required. If the employer is offering this, it’s likely that they are keen to employ disabled people (including neurodiverse people), and so it may be worth taking advantage of the scheme, especially if you are going to ask for any adjustments in the recruitment process. But it is entirely up to you - if you would rather not, and you have an impressive CV, that’s fine too.

Either way, I wish you the very best with your application!