So, for context, I am attending a small college for retail job training for autistic students/students with disabilities. Part of the program includes money management and personal hygiene. Tell me why we are handed worksheets intended for elementary school students and being told to watch videos that are obviously for kids? Everyone here is over the age of 18 myself included. It just feels very infantilizing. They hand these to us every week. What do I do about this?

My 16yo daughter has autism 1 with sensory processing disorder (sensory avoidant). She is top of her class, has hyperlexia, and is a voracious reader.

With the advent of artificially intelligent writing programs, they put all student work through detectors now. And my daughter’s writing keeps getting flagged as generated by artificial intelligence . High percentage. Even when she writes it by hand and then I type it in to avoid any speculation.

As individuals with autism, from your perspective, how do I best address this with the school? My daughter jokingly says that most artificial intelligence was created by people on the spectrum, so it makes sense that the writing of people on the spectrum will look/sound artificial because all the development and approval was done through the lens of the ‘tism. But I don’t think the school will accept that.

He typically yells instead of speaking, and it hurts my ears and overstimulates me. Im unsure of if it is rude or not. I am in a small highschool with only ~15 kids in a classroom at a time, so theres no need for him to yell.

I’m a 29 year old woman, diagnosed at 28. I quit my 40+ hr/wk job in January because of burnout and not being able to get out of bed. I’m eating through my savings, and am in a constant state of panic about employment. I also quit drinking at the same time I quit my job, so I’ve been having to see a bunch of medical professionals. The first thing they all talk about is me needing to find another job. Started seeing a therapist and she said the same thing. I wish people could be disabled and not constantly be reminded that they’re only seen as valuable to society if they have a job. Still, I do want a job, both for structure and money, but it is impossible to find a place where I feel comfortable. I dropped out of college because I was undiagnosed, struggling, and had no support, so I have no degree. I’ve only gotten jobs through people I know, and I end up getting so burnt out at every one that I quit and blow up my life every few years. My special interests are not things that I can turn into a career and my résumée sucks. My social anxiety has gotten so bad that even thinking about doing an interview or walking into a new work environment sends me spiraling and unable to leave the house. I desperately wish there was some roadmap for me to follow because at this point it feels like I’m so far behind I’m just meant to disappear.

I am applying for a internship as a student nurse and the application asks if I have a disability. It says its optional but it also says they are a federal contractor. Curious what yall would do?

It is often said that autistic people have difficulty finding employment (I once read that 70-80% of autistic people are unemployed), but on the internet I mostly come across autistic people who do have jobs. So I would be interested to know how things are for you – whether you have a job or are unemployed. You can also describe your situation in the comments, e.g., why you have trouble finding a job.

Been working a new job at postal logistics, sorting parcels by routing /area. The tower is not perfect, sorry, there is gaps I know , but I have to work with what's there and the dimensions are obviously random.

Everything has a place and order and that helps a lot , the coworkers are surprisingly friendly .

The pay is better than my previous vibe coding job for a business intelligence startup 💀 might even consider driving the delivery trucks part time simply because I love driving in a car and blasting music loud with noone else in my safe space.

It's so exhausting I'm not good at writing or other task that involve my hands school was so so hard for me and it's still hard for me now in college I hate it

I'm recently diagnosed and pretty new to the autistic subs. Older guy who has had a 30 year career in IT, but filled with problems due to interpersonal relationships with coworkers and bosses.

As I've been reading this sub in particular I've developed the impression that hardly anyone with ASD works. Especially younger people.

Is my current view on this skewed? Do most of the working people with ASD just not post here?

Wish I could create a poll but I'm using a desktop computer so that option isn't available.

Quick summary:

There is one girl at our school (she is one grade below me) who has, I believe, Level 2 Autism. She is supposed to be in my class for this week.

Right before she got to the classroom, my teacher said: "She‘ll be in this class for a week.. She has Autism.. When someone cries, we can see that but people with Autism can’t-" and then the girl came into the classroom and I think the teacher was too embarrassed to talk about what Autism is in front of someone who she knows is autistic.

The teacher is 60-70 so she probably learned that info over the years and never thought to fact check it in recent years.

How can you be a biology teacher and teach blatant misinformation regarding the human body?!

I'm required to do an academic internship every year as part of my grad program. I was working at a clinic. One day I meet this guy in the break room and chat with him during my break. The next week I get called on for a meeting by my boss, who tells me that guy was actually a medication solicitor who was there to sell his product to the doctors that work there (to convince them to prescribe it) and that he had filed a complaint against me because me talking to him prevented him from selling his product to the doctors. They said since this was my first issue I'd just be on probation for a month and then I wouldn't have to worry about it anymore. I said that I was sorry, and that perhaps I had missed some kind of signal that he didn't want to talk anymore because I was autistic.

Well, the very next week, I show up, and they say that I was terminated and that I'm now trespassing and they have to escort me out. (They didn't try to contact me at all before this to tell me. I still have never received any kind of letter of termination.) I tried to ask why I was fired, and they said it was no longer their responsibility to tell me that.

Now I'm not stupid. There's only one reason I can see why a one-month probation would suddenly turn into a termination, and that's because they didn't know I was autistic until then.

This has set my academic career back by a whole year. I might not graduate because of this. And there's absolutely nothing I can do about it.

I feel pathetic for not having a job at 22. It's just so hard to handle, I can barely handle life as it is. Is anyone else also unemployed as an adult because of their autism getting in the way?

I'm autistic and I don't meet requirements for any of the jobs I actually want to do, so I have never bothered applying for them. But I just learned allistics all know they can just lie and get jobs they're not qualified for - they're going to be trained for the job anyway so why not apply?

My partner who is allistic but another kind of neirodivergent is currently interviewing for a corporate job he isn't remotely qualified for and I think he's going to get it. It's a Zoom interview and I can hear the questions he's being asked and how he's answering them. He's almost certainly going to get the job.

I always kind of thought the requirements were shown as a courtesy to let you know that if you don't meet them you shouldn't waste your time applying. But apparently that's not how it works! It's apparently one of those gray areas that allistics naturally see through, and I, as an autistic, rule-following, black and white thinker, have never realized you are able to break through.

So like, should I be applying for the jobs I really want even though I don't meet the qualifications?

Edit: HE GOT THE JOB

I was diagnosed Autistic last year, in my mid 40s.

My manger has been exceptionally kind and supportive. She encouraged me to open up about it, so colleagues can understand why my behaviours can appear ‘odd’ to them.

But this Teams interaction today is exactly why I can’t - my employer is running sessions on building a neurodivergent workplace.

A colleague - who I consider a friend - sent me detail of it as a joke. He has no idea I’m neurodivergent and sees it as a joke.

And that’s why, I’ll never be able to open up about my diagnosis. Because some neurotypicals won’t ever believe and will treat Autism as a joke 🤨

(I’ve blanked out names and avatars)

Hi!

(if this is in the wrong flair please let me know… i don’t post on reddit very often…)

I work as a teachers aide and deal with many students that have autism and I also am looking into process of getting diagnosed myself.

One of the ladies I work with has suggested that we wear these shirts (photos attached) on Autism Awareness Day.

I don’t know to much but I do remember that some people are offended by the puzzle piece? I wanted some feedback on what you guys think because I would never want to wear something that is offensive many members of the autistic community and my lovely students!

I hope I have made sense!

Thank you!!!

I just entered this teachers class about less then a week ago so she doesnt know me. She legit accused me of using AI on worksheet because “It sounds like AI”. She said it was wrong cause its AI. I told her I didnt use AI and she said that if I put a “ chatgpt answer “ on the exam I could get a 0 for cheating.

How IN THE WORLD, would I know if its an okay answer or a “chatgpt” anwser if I DONT USE IT. I asked her what is an okay anwser and what is a wrong anwser and all she said was aslong as it doesn’t sound like chatpt.

Like ma’am. I dont understand.
If you look at my other exams before chatgpt was a thing, you acan tell thatsjust how I write.

I cant believe I got accused of using AI because It makes me feel like people dont think Im smart enough ti write my own answers? How else am I supposed to answer?

The dystopian realization that I used to get really good grades on exams because I have a college level writing skill but now Im going to get a 0 because I write SO WELL THEY THINK ITS AI.

I am so confused, what is an allowed answer and whats a not allowed answer. What is a “Chatgpt” answer how do I know if it is or not.

EDIT: I talked to the resource lady at my school and shes going to talk to my teacher TYSM for all ur support!!

in my first post i asked for advice after receiving an email from my english professor that an essay (that i 100% wrote) was flagged as 64% ai. she had told me that i needed to revise all areas that were flagged (more than half of a 1750 word essay).

here’s the update on that.

—

i reached back out to her and defended my essay, offering to sit down and explain my full draft/revision process, share the edit history of the google doc it was written on, and write a new essay with a pen and paper in front of her to prove that that’s just how i write. i explained that i’m autistic and that my writing style tends to have rigid sentence structure with focus on logic/facts over emotional/personal input. i explained that i read a lot, so i like using em dashes and descriptive words that ai tends to like as well.

she replied today.

she thanked me for reaching out respectfully and acknowledged that the ai detection system is fallible — and then doubled down and told me i still need to rewrite my essay due to “course policy”. she attached the ai detection report, which showed several paragraphs of MY WORK being falsely flagged as “directly ai generated”. i’m appalled, furious, and frankly? i’m incredibly disappointed in this professor. i thought she was smarter than this.

i have no choice, i have to rewrite it or she won’t grade it and i’ll be dropped from the class with $300 down the drain. it’s going to hurt my grade because i’m going to have to intentionally dumb down my work. i’ll be attaching a strongly worded comment with the resubmission, and in the future i will be using a camera to video record myself writing all future essays.

this whole thing has been incredibly disheartening and extremely upsetting. i’m now realizing that this is most likely going to become a repeat occurrence throughout the rest of my enrollment, until i get my degree.

sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, FUCK ai. i’m so upset right now that i don’t even know what to do with myself.

Edit: WHOA I did not expect this post to take off like it has, thank you for all of your input!! I will try to read/respond to everyone’s comments as soon as I can!

Personally, I don’t like AI. I have never used it, and don’t plan on it. There’s quite a few things about the current AI sphere that make me deeply uncomfortable.

It seems to be pretty openly accepted in the NT community, so I’m wondering what my fellow autistic folks think/feel about the use of AI.

I just got fired from my job at a public library. I was at the end of a six-month probationary period after getting promoted from part-time to full-time, and they told me my performance was "unacceptable." Even if I wasn't a model employee, I still tried my best. My supervisor reprimanded me a few times, but I always listened to their criticism and worked hard to correct my behavior.

This is so devastating because I liked that job. I thought my life was finally getting better. I was going to go back to school for a Library Science degree. I was finally going to move out of my parents' house. I was unemployed for a whole year before the library hired me and got so depressed I had to check into a psych ward. It's like life gave me a second chance and I blew it. I don't know how I'm going to move on from this.

There is nothing I understand less than how people manage to do a job without being miserable 24/7. I am miserable at every single job I work. Every single job. Regardless of hours or tasks. Every single one.

I have been doing this job training, not even a real job, for less than half a year and I still wish I could get hospitalised or something to get out of it, every single day. It's only like 25 hours a week (+9 hours of school but I am fine with that) and I still can't fucking handle it. I usually take like 45 minutes of toilet breaks a day, just because it's the most socially acceptable way to take a break, cause I cannot stand working this much.

I doubt I'll finish it successfully, but even if, this is a job training designed specifically for autistic/disabled people, how the fuck am I supposed to last on the job market if I can't fucking even handle this.

I don't see how the fuck I'm supposed to ever be happy. Am I just supposed to be fucking miserable 95% of my life and the 5% of distracted from misery is supposed to make it worth it? How the fuck do people live like this.

I don't know how I'm going to be able to survive if this is how it's supposed to go.

I was diagnosed as autistic later in life. For a long time, I lacked the vocabulary to understand why certain things felt harder, louder or simply different.

Growing up, I think something like this would have helped me a lot. Not to “explain” everything, but just to feel seen in a way that isn’t clinical or pathologizing.

I am currently working on a small narrative game that explores everyday situations from the perspective of an undiagnosed autistic girl. It focuses more on experience than explanation, on how things feel rather than what they're 'supposed' to mean.

It's not intended to represent every autistic experience, but rather to offer one perspective shaped by particular sensitivities, routines and ways of processing the world.

I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts

Edit: Because I was asked: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4348770/Canvas_of_Thoughts/

Edit2: if you wanna stay updated please join our Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/BandaloopGames/

I've heard this sentiment echoed throughout pop culture and life, of people hating working in retail and hating having to deal with customers, but when I worked retail I mostly didn't mind it. The customers were always polite, UNDERSTANDING and easy to deal with. It was the other employees that I couldn't stand. The customer will be out of your life in roughly 20 minutes and be polite, the asshole you work with will still there be there tomorrow and still be an asshole.

I'm autistic and a nurse. Despite nursing being a special interest of mine, work is difficult. It's difficult because of navigating other people mostly, the work itself and looking after people I love. I work for the NHS and I posted on reddit about how autistic people are more likely to get sick for a variety of reasons and that it might be a good idea to have more allowances in the workplace for this (something I am going to discuss with my employer). Particularly in the winter, I am susceptible to illness. The response I got from another member was along the lines of "well we'd just have to make allowances for everyone then".

Why are neurotypicals so obsessed with equality? Why don't they realise that even if you levelled the playing field somewhat by giving us extra sick days, that it really wouldn't be anywhere near equal? Because existing as an autistic person in itself is hard enough. I am generally pretty secure in being autistic and I don't shy away from it, but this has really pissed me off.

Am I being sensitive or do yall get it?