Augmentative communication

Concluding the series on Neurodivergent entrepreneurship

Emily Elsworth is an autism trainer and advocate. Diagnosed at the age of 27, Emily is a small time business owner. She is passionate about accessibility. To quote her, 

We shouldn’t be having to justify our diagnosis all the time just to receive the right care and adjustments.

 Unfortunately, the narrative she was taught in school and college did not align with her experiences as an individual with autism. Not be weighed down by this, she founded Emily: Autism and Me.

Here is Emily Elsworth in an written interview. 

  1. As an ND entrepreneur, in the last two years, how have your experiences differed from being an employee? How important is it to have a mentor?

One of the main differences for me as entrepreneur, is that I have far more flexibility in terms of the hours I work, how I work and who I work for. This has meant that I have been able to find working patterns that work for me and been able to put the right adjustments in place in order for me to thrive at work rather than struggle. It has also meant that the number of responsibilities I have has increased which has meant that I have needed to find different ways of working and getting support in order to make sure that all the jobs I need to do are completed.

Having a mentor has been invaluable for me starting out as a ND entrepreneur. This has meant that I have had someone to talk through my ideas and concerns with as well as someone to support with areas of running a business that I haven’t known how to approach. It has also been really helpful to have someone to reflect on progress with. It can be easy when things get stressful to forget the positives, but having a mentor to reflect with has helped. 

2. Capability and capacity are at variance, more often than not. And, one of the reasons for underperformance. How can one work on bolstering the capacity requirements in a workplace?

Capacity requirements are not often based on neurodivergent people and as such we are being put into environments that looks like we are underperforming. In order to bolster capacity requirements, there needs to be a greater understand of how a neurodivergent persons capacity can vary from day to day and hour to hour. The right adjustments need to be put in place to support all employees so that achieving capacity requirements is more realistic rather than setting unachievable requirements that will lead to the perception of underachievement.   

3. NDs are pigeon holed into jobs perceived as a perfect fit. Is there a better approach in resolving this conflict of interests? How do we build productive relationships? 

I often feel uncomfortable when I see jobs aimed specifically at neurodivergent people as the roles chosen usually play into every stereotype. A better way to approach this would be to see the skills that neurodivergent people can bring to any organisation and see us as individuals with individual skill sets rather than people with a very limited and stereotypical set of skills. Having a stronger focus on the accessibility of the role and the adjustments that can be made can help to resolve this conflict of interests.

By raising more awareness of neurodiversity this can build productive relationships where companies can see that they don’t have to pigeon hole us into specific roles but instead create environments where we can thrive in any role.

4. Accelerating neuro inclusion in schools is something you have undertaken. What are some ways to do it? 

There are many ways to accelerate neuro inclusion in schools. This can be done through teaching children from a young age about neurodiversity in terms of difference so that children see that different people need different tools to help them in life. Starting these conversations at an early age means that they grow up being more accepting of differences. Creating safe environments for conversations around neurodiversity throughout the school year, not just during Neurodiversity Celebration Week, Autism Acceptance Week etc, is also vital to accelerating neuro inclusion. 

5.This is something we face when organisations come to hire because they have an DEI initiative. They ask for low maintenance workers. Or after hiring they find it difficult to accept the ND quirks, and patience runs thin. The top management has a vision but does not necessarily permeate to the lower rungs of the organisations. A call is taken after a brief time to terminate the service of the employee. How would you, as an autism advocate and trainer, put forth your views to an organisation that is not firm in its resolve? How would you put up a strong case for employing NDs? 

As, an autism advocate and trainer, it is vital for me to work with employers to understand the full picture of what it means to be neurodivergent. This would mean that they would need to embrace everything that being neurodivergent means, whether that it is positive or not. Highlighting that being neurodivergent isn’t a deficit is really important in changing the narrative within employment for us.

I would approach this work from the angle that in order to make workplaces neuro-inclusive is not a difficult, time consuming or expensive thing to do. It is actually more time consuming and expensive to not be neuro-inclusive because you will need to spend more time and money on recruiting over and over again rather than retaining staff. The changes that will make an organisation better for neurodivergent people are really simple to do and the benefits if they are in place are huge for employers. 

6. "Health inequalities is one of the biggest barriers I have faced outside of running my business". I read this in one of your posts. Can you please expand on this. 

As an autistic person I am often misunderstood by medical professionals. This means that I, and many other neurodivergent people, face health care that isn’t equal.

This means that every appointment I have, whether this is the dentist, doctors or hospital, involves a battle to be understood. I have to explain my needs every time because my adjustments are very rarely put in place or I am told that they are too difficult to be used. This means that I am unable to access most of the appointments I need to attend.

I am also often not believed by medical professionals, which has led to long delays in getting a diagnosis for both my autism and fibromyalgia. It shouldn’t be that we have to wait longer the others for a diagnosis just because our experiences are not understood by others.