I don't live in the UK - in fact I'm about as far away from it as possible, being a New Zealander - and until this morning I wasn't aware of this piece of legislation, its stated aims and enactment.
I chanced upon an article from the Guardian archives by googling the words "ASD Talent Bank" as I was looking to see if there was any organisation that promotes ASD employees to employers.
Although an Act is only a start, and implementation is where the real challenge occurs, before things change, I am interested in hearing about
-what this Act means to people on the spectrum
-whether any progress has been made
-whether the good intentions have translated into good outcomes
-what follow-up there has been, did the intended review take place
One of the most important things for me in reading the Act and the statement of intention papers based on it
was the recognition that ASD people are subject to economic discrimination under the status quo (as a group - yes I know there are individuals who will be tempted to respond how well they are doing. That's great, but it doesn't negate the overall issue of real barriers and real discrimination that apply to large numbers of people on the spectrum).
Here in New Zealand it is unfortunate that anyone, facing employment barriers and discrimination because of ASD or any other kind of difference, are further stereotyped as lazy dole bludgers who "don't want to work".
There is no government recognition nor willingness to recognise that certain groups of people face kinds of gatekeeping which discriminates against them in the workplace. There is a very free market government and agenda here which promotes individualism aggressively, effectively discriminating against ASD at a political level - the very opposite, it seems, of the intention of the UK legislation.
In a nutshell, reading the UK stuff made me realise that there is structural and political oppression of ASD people in New Zealand, that I hadn't realised because I had been thinking about my personal difficulties in finding work and in the work place in the past.
It also made me realise that there is a need for legislation like the Autism Act 2009 here. Thoughts?
01 Apr 2014, 5:35 pm
