Kemi Badenoch has drawn criticism for her assertions in her leadership campaign materials, which seem to insinuate that being Autistic is an advantage. She describes additional supports as “economic privileges and protections.” She goes on to say that a diagnosis has moved from meaning that “people should work on themselves as individuals” to “something that society, schools, and employers have to adapt around”. Yes, Ms Badenoch. That is correct. It’s actually the law of the land. This is exactly what is stipulated in the Equality Act 2010, in which organizations are legally obliged to make “reasonable adjustments” for disabled people, and consider “inclusive design” for built environments to accommodate people who have physical, mental or developmental differences which affect their everyday abilities.
That Ms Badenoch, who was in fact the Minister of State for Women and Equalities for nearly two years, does not understand the basic premise of the Equality Act is alarming, to say the least. In her 36-page essay, titled Conservatism in Crisis, Badenoch argues that making adjustments to include disabled people in civic life limits to economic growth, which also shows her limited understanding of employment markets and disability inclusion. The disability employment statistics in the UK are dire, with a nearly 30 percentage point difference between those who are non-disabled and working versus those who are disabled working. For Autism specifically, which she has singled out for no reasons best known to herself, The gap is over 50%. Yes, you read that right. Only 30% of Autistic people are in work, compared to over 80% of non-Autistic people. Imagine the economic benefits of improving the Autism employment rate! And how might we do that? Well, making workplaces more accessible would be a good start.
Autistic people who aren’t in work are not lazy, or demotivated. They don’t need to “work on themselves” to become less Autistic, any more than a wheelchair user needs to “work on themselves” to walk or a Deaf person needs to “work on themselves” to hear. Personal development and growth is useful for all of us, sure. But that isn’t what’s keeping Autistic people out of the job market. What’s keeping Autistic people out of the job market is pejorative stereotypes about their “attitude”, a lack of basic empathy and a rigid adherence to social conventions that belong in the industrial age, not the technological age, like presenteeism.
The adjustments that work for neurodivergent people are typically free or cheap, as shown in the research from Birkbeck College and the Neurodiversity in Business Charity in 2023.Researchers found that in a survey with over a 1000 Autistic and neurodivergent adults and 130 managers, the most popular reported adjustments were flexible hours and ability to work remotely. Interestingly, adjustments which will become easier to access even without disclosure thanks to the Labour government’s employee rights legislation. These costs can easily be exchanged for labor force participation to improve economic output and reduce the economic burden of exclusion.
Discrimination regarding invisible disability is not new. The tendency to explain away neurobiological differences we cannot understand has been a constant theme for the neuroinclusion movement. We cannot see Autistic sensory sensitivity, so we don’t accommodate the need for quiet or decompression. We cannot see the reduced working memory capacity of an ADHDer or a Dyspraxia, so we assumed they are not trying. We cannot see the sound processing issues of a dyslexic, so we assumed they are badly educated. But the legal systems sees all these things. A tribunal recently awarded an ADHDer £4.6 million in damages for unfair dismissal after failing to make reasonable adjustments. Badenoch’s comments are misguided, showing a fundamental misunderstanding of neurodevelopmental disability, economic levers and the law which she was once paid tax payer’s money to uphold. How very disappointing.