Our charity has a simple and vital focus: to support autistic people to obtain and maintain work, and to give work providers the knowledge and confidence to employ them successfully. One talk attendee said:

"I firstly want to thank you, today was so insightful and a great experience. For someone who has recently been diagnosed (at 35), it is so great to hear that there are advocates and some incredible support out there as well as companies really wanting to learn and understand neurodiversity."

According to the Office for National Statistics, autistic people have one of the lowest rates of employment of any disability group, and at 29%, is significantly lower than that of non-disabled people, which is over 81%. This impacts not only the health and well-being of autistic people themselves, but more widely, their families and society.

We know from the feedback we have received that we are fulfilling an essential service. In less than 2 years since our launch, we have, amongst other activities:

• Given numerous talks to employers, enterprise advisers and recruiters
• Spoken at conferences in the UK and in Europe
• Participated in round table discussions and Q&A events
• Employed autistic people to contribute their blogs and case studies of lived workplace experience
• Run our first free to attend conference: Identifying and removing barriers
• Given personalised responses to each of hundreds of autistic people, their supporters and employers who have contacted us direct with questions and concerns.

Sadly, our services are desperately needed, and we want to increase them. In development are:

• A CPD accredited course for mentors supporting autistic people in the workplace
• Peer to peer, sector specific support groups by and for autistic people
• Corporate relationships, to deepen employer commitment to diversity and inclusion
• Improvements to our website to further enrich the content

Please support us in our work. Most of our services are free to use and access, and we want to keep it this way. 

A heartfelt thank you, from the Employment Autism team.