Potential?
This post originally appeared on Reaching New Heights May 2013
• Only 15% of adults with autism in the UK are in full-time paid employment and only 9% are in part-time employment.
• 26% of graduates with autism are unemployed, by far the highest rate of any disability group.
• Of those who do not currently have a job, 59% do not believe or think they will ever be able to get one.
• According to the National Autistic Society, most of the 300,000-plus working-age adults with autism want to work but are held back by a lack of understanding of autism and a dearth of specialist employment services.
• Only 10% of adults with autism receive support in finding work but 53% would like it.
• 79% of adults with autism who receive out of work benefits say they would rather work.
• 37% of adults with autism have never had a paid job after the age of 16 and 41% of people over the age of 55 have spent a period of more than 10 years without a paid job.
• 51% of adults with autism in the UK have lived through a period in which they have had neither a job nor access to benefits. Of those, 10% have been in this position for a decade or more.
• Of those who have worked, about a third said that they had experienced bullying and felt that they had received unfair treatment or discrimination as a result of their disability.
These statistics are shocking as, even with the breadth of the spectrum, they are referring to some people with the highest IQs in our society. The issue seems to be that many employers simply don’t know how to manage people with autism.
Earlier this month Phil Jones came up to Morecambe and run a seminar on self-employment as an option for young people, motivated by the fact that entrepreneurship is not taught in schools and yet for some young people self-employment is absolutely the right option.
And this really got me thinking …
I have hearing and speech problems after a bodged tonsillectomy at the age 4, but it is the newly diagnosed dyspraxia that has given me more problems in my life. It was only going self-employed that I have understood that fully. Dyslexia tutor Kerry Pace is also dyspraxic and I noticed how she posts about looking after herself, so I decided to do a short series of blogs by me, Kerry and other people with disabilities who have chosen self-employment and how that has worked for us.
My Story
I only made the leap into full self employment two and a half years ago when I set up Jane’s Social Media, although I had been a part time self-employed trainer for some years before that.
The most striking thing that I have noticed is that I haven’t been really ill since. With Dyspraxia I get very tired and would catch flu, or some other virus, every winter. Being self-employed though I get to notice when I am too tired as I knock things over/ drop things/ crash into things much more. As an employee I would have to just carry on until I dropped, as a self-employed person I can listen to my body and I can then just sit for an hour, lie on the bed or go for a walk. I also don’t skip meals or eat as much fast junk as I used to and I ensure that exercise is time tabled into my week, including a monthly walk in the hills and a good old natter with my friend.
It has made parenting easier too as I am home most days when my daughter gets in from school, that means she gets attention, and the house is generally a calmer happier place.
Of course the really great thing is that self-employment allows me to use my creativity which boosts my self-esteem and as a friend said last week I have never been more comfortable in my own skin. I now know that my wiring really suits being an entrepreneur and I love how many ideas I have and that I can explore those without a ton of red tape!
Over the next couple of weeks I will post guest blogs by other people with disabilities that have chosen self-employment. If you would like to share your story please get in touch.
I would love your feedback, so please leave a comment below.
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