Reasonable Adjustments

Every year I have to go on a residential conference with work. And I always struggle to feel included.

For example, the main meeting room is laid out with large tables and not a lot of space between them and with allocated seating. We’re expected to socialise around tables. It doesn’t work for me at all – the noise from the other tables means I can’t follow any conversation on my table. My autism also reveals itself as something very like claustrophobia. I find the stress of being a long and difficult way from the exit almost overwhelming, and it exhausts me quickly.

Under the Equality Act, my employers are obliged to make “reasonable adjustments” for my autism. Every year that they asked for feedback, I fed back about the room. One year they asked about accommodations, and suggested putting me in a back corner, which was better. Otherwise they have done nothing, and I’ve put up with it because I default to doing what I’m told.

This year, they tried putting me in the middle near the front – pretty much the worst seat for me. But I’ve now got to the point where I understand myself well enough, and I understand enough of the law that they are ignoring that I finally feel empowered to make the reasonable adjustments for myself, and if they want to complain, then I’ll fight back, and I’m confident that I’ll win.

So I’ve got my own seat out and am sitting near the door and not on a big table.

And it’s helping me engage better with the conference, and feel more positive towards it.