Do you remember the time that you had a struggling project? Lots of lines of code and things weren’t working as expected or needed – admittedly sometimes these are the same thing, but sometimes these are different things!

Eventually you call in a colleague. Especially if you are actually reviewing some code and the original person who wrote the code is no longer available. In fact you don’t just call in any colleague, but one who is known as being highly effective.

This doesn’t mean that they are easy to deal with, but they get things done.

Your colleague comes in. They have a deep thirst for specific items, a passion for getting into the knitty-gritty innards of something, otherwise known as intense and highly focused interests. Incredible attention to detail, which equally makes them a pain in team meetings where that is not always felt to be appropriate by others. In fact they love sharing their knowledge but hate being interrupted when they are focused, so it’s really hard to tell when it is a good time to ask them questions. A couple of time periods later, the code has been inspected, the change rolled out and everyone is happy. You know that no one could have done it quicker.

Great. Apart from the fact that, for the reasons stated above, this person doesn’t quite “fit in” into the office environment. There’s a couple of very good reasons for this – autism and social conventions – as we explore in this piece.

What is autism?

From a dictionary point of view, autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder marked by restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviour and deficits in reciprocal social communication. Sometimes it is known as “autism spectrum disorder”, with the spectrum part highlighting that it is possible for someone to have some characteristics but not others; and for some of those characteristics to very strongly define someone, and for other characteristics to matter much less.

However, dictionary definitions only take us so far, which is why we started with the example of our coder friend. We particularly dislike the work “disorder” for instance – that’s because “order” is defined as what the majority do. In fact, we – your volunteer authors for this piece – prefer to regard it simply as a difference.

1 in 100 people are thought to have autism, but there’s a number of factors which means that the likelihood of working with someone on the autistic spectrum is going to be far higher in the IT sector. Like quiet work that requires an intense focus and understanding of what you’re doing – many autists in IT have an intense interest in an aspect of technology or want to make the world a better place. But equally autistic people can be found in a wide range of industries from philatelists (stamp collectors) to musicians. It’s not only IT where hobbies and work can overlap!

Terminology note: We’ve highlighted a few different phrases in italics as there is a variation in the terms people use to describe themselves. In the UK, the majority prefer regarding itself as helping define their intrinsic character (e.g. “I am autistic”), but there is a significant minority who don’t (e.g. “I have autism”). We’ve decided to aim for variety with this article to help articulate the different options that someone might use.

Credit: @Autism__sketches on Instagram

Other Common Traits

As mentioned, someone with autism is likely to have some really beneficial qualities that you appreciate, but also some that you may find challenging. They are different sides of the same coin in that you don’t get one without the other.

Here’s some other examples:

Giving you exactly what you ask for – taking things very literally
Calm under pressure which can equally be appearing to be insensitive
Delivering a large task quickly and thoroughly; again this can appear as being single minded, or not switching between small tasks easily
Seeking out time alone when overloaded by other people or being overstimulated by the wider environment such as noisy venues
Not seeking comfort from other people – which shows itself as being great at working alone
Calling out issues and problems in a way that may be thought to be socially inappropriate

Reasonable Accommodations

The world is designed around the needs of the majority, because if there is ever a meeting to decide who gets what and more than half of those present raise their hands, this is what happens. That’s not the basis for a healthy society though, so in many countries around the world there are laws to protect minorities – such as those who have autism – against discrimination.

In fact the best outcomes are achieved when everything is equitable:

Credit: “Interaction Institute for Social Change | Artist: Angus Maguire”

Examples of reasonable accommodation include:

Detailed instructions and/or prior examples – perhaps in written format – so the recipient knows exactly what you’re looking for to prevent misunderstandings
Needing extra time to process information or answer questions
Making people aware of appropriate times to ask questions, or having option to leave questions in the chat during online meetings
Options to have meetings and calls online, rather than face-to-face. This includes leaving the camera off
Evaluating people on the quality of their work rather than perhaps number of social interactions or other less-relevant criteria
Low stimulation environments such as working from home, or providing noise cancelling earphones
Explaining when is something socially inappropriate to enable understanding and to explore workarounds
Communicating changes ahead of the change happening
Understand that someone may simply not be able to read social cues; it could be a skill which requires too much mental effort in comparison to what is reasonable

Our only question is: who wouldn’t benefit from these accommodations? Or to put it another way, they can help everyone.

Autism and ADHD

We recently explored ADHD. ADHD and Autism are both part of a group of conditions called “neurodivergency”. Others include Gifted/High IQ, dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia and Tourettes. Often when someone has one neurodivergency they have more than one. Buy one get (at least) one free, so to speak! So, ADHD and Autism can overlap in the same person.

Sometimes you can get characteristics from ADHD and Autism which cancel or mask each other, and on other occasions – for the same individual – you can get characteristics which reinforce each other. The basic message is twofold: that everyone is different, but equally not to be surprised if you meet someone who has multiple neurodivergencies simultaneously.

Next Steps

Thank you for reading this far! What we want you to take away from this article is again twofold. Hopefully we have explained how, and perhaps why, people can be different. The truth is, on a fundamental level it doesn’t matter. Everyone will need certain accommodations. A neurodivergent person – such as someone with ADHD or Autism – may require more than the “standard”, but equally this can help them, and you, thrive.

Ultimately it doesn’t matter what they have, or who they identify as, so there is no need to ask for their medical status or history. If you support people as individuals, listening to and supporting them in their needs, then everyone wins.