Written by

Síofra Heraty for Thriving Autistic (www.thrivingautistic.org)

<aside> <img src="/icons/info-alternate_blue.svg" alt="/icons/info-alternate_blue.svg" width="40px" /> ABOUT DOCUMENTATION

Documentation relating to reasonable accommodations: Reasonable accommodations can be requested in a variety of situations. Most typically, they can be considered for a workplace; a learning environment, such as university, college, etc.; and accessing healthcare, for example, attending GP appointments, hospital appointments, etc. Formal documentation outlining the accommodations a person requires in each of these settings is still often required. Most people are unsure about what accommodations are possible. Below is a list of examples that you can review and consider before recommendations are developed and documented.

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Identify aspects of your working environment that interfere with your well-being / functionality considerably. There are a couple of ways to do this. Some useful questions to ask yourself could be:

• What times of day or tasks evoke negative feelings in me? Why?
• Were there any one-off incidents at work that had a negative effect on me? What about these incidents caused this distress?
• What types of invisible labor am I required to perform as part of my job? (Invisible labor in this case means engaging in activities which are normative for your workplace and its culture, but which require a disproportionate amount of energy for you, e.g., being required to attend phone meetings despite having difficulties with auditory processing, or being required to work in an open-plan office conducive to sensory overload.)
• What are my limits (or spoons, if you prefer this terminology) for each type of labor I am being asked to perform?
• Mind map what possible changes could be put in place to mitigate the effect of each experience so that it doesn’t affect you so negatively. Remember to consider all aspects of the work day/environment, for example:
• Sensory (How can I address issues with noise, light, texture, smells?)
• Routine (Do I work best with a fixed routine, a partially fixed routine with some flexibility, or a relatively open-plan day?)
• Social (How much social interaction can I manage in a day? How can I achieve this?)
• Cognitive load (How do I like to give, and receive, information? How much information can I process in one day? Is this different depending on the type of information?)
• Recovery time (Consider situations where there is high load of invisible labor required. Would it be helpful to schedule in some recovery time?)
• Compile a list of the people/processes that will be affected in some way by your accommodations, so that your supervisor can understand the impact of what you are requesting and what they need to do to make it happen.
• Remember that you may not need to actually tell each of these people personally. You may just need to tell your supervisor and then they will do the rest.
• Can the objectives of your role still be met with the chosen accommodations in place?
• Will your accommodations require other people to change their behaviors?
• If you need a designated workspace, is this currently a space regularly used by others?

Consider how you would like your accommodation needs to be communicated. Points to consider here: