OARacle Newsletter

I was diagnosed simultaneously with autism spectrum disorder and ADHD in April 2022 at the age of 23. Several years later, I was diagnosed with other mental disabilities. Throughout my adult life, I have been looking for resources and support from others to show me how to go about being an autistic woman with mental disabilities in workplaces and educational institutions. Over time, I learned that building a framework had to start with me. I had to start from the ground up to direct my path toward my goal.

You know those moments when something considered negative or out of the norm by society, or even your family, applies to you? You hear people talking about it negatively, and there’s not much you can do or say unless you want to make the situation awkward, tense, or even stressful, for yourself most of all.

That was my situation. What made it even more awkward was that I worked in healthcare (I still do), so I thought they would be a bit more tolerant or even accepting of those with autism and mental disabilities. I would often hear outdated opinions about neurodiverse people, but since it wasn’t related to work, I wouldn’t and couldn’t say much unless I put myself in a weird work situation I didn’t want to be in.

These are three goals that you, if you are an autistic person reading this, and I might have in common in relation to work:

1. Being able to support yourself and/or your family
2. Being able to go through life, especially your work life, without being attacked in ways that can’t be controlled
3. Being independent in the work that you do

In August 2022, I left my job as a medical receptionist to work remotely for a health insurance company for its call center. Besides managers, there were six of us in my department. I didn’t speak to customers usually, but I did speak to a lot of people every day. I was responsible for helping insurance brokers selling in my state to get Medicare and Medicaid information to help their current or potential members get on the appropriate insurance plans. I trained brokers on how to use self-service tools and fill out applications. I was also responsible for conducting background checks and processing certifications for insurance agents to ensure they were ready to sell our plans.

At first, I didn’t mention wanting accommodations as I thought I would lose the job or would be treated differently than my coworkers. Over time, however, it got to the point where I had to mention it to management as I was having issues performing some duties of the job. For example, I couldn’t handle insurance agents when they were showing high levels of emotion, like anger, sadness, or even excitement. Ever since I was young, I have had problems figuring out how to interpret the emotions of others, which sometimes made the situation worse and/or awkward. There were times where some agents were able to tell I didn’t like confrontation and take advantage of that.

Since it was a call center and the department was small, there wasn’t much that could have been done in terms of accommodations, but I was allowed to have small breaks here and there in case I got overwhelmed. Occasionally, I would have one-on-one meetings, with management, my supervisor or the person in charge of checking call quality, related to my concerns about my performance, which I sometimes thought was related to my autism and ADHD. I also participated in meetings my team would have with management to talk about the job and our professional goals.

This will lead some of you reading this to ask if I wish my managers had done more. I think they did most of what they could have done considering the type of job I was doing and the environment in which I was doing it. Since I worked from home, where I live with my family, we were responsible for my work environment. Also, I like being able to “self-accommodate” because it helps me become more independent and self-sufficient.

Around this time, I was also volunteering for a UK-based organization called Neurodiversity in Business (NiB). Some of NiB’s goals are to bring awareness to neurodivergent professionals and help businesses support those neurodivergent professionals who work for them.

Through that volunteer work, I met other professionals who were in similar situations to mine or were in my situation at some point in the past. As a working woman with autism, seeing early-career professionals like me and professionals who have been in their fields for years and sometimes even decades trying and succeeding motivates me professionally.

I left NiB at the beginning of 2023 due to time issues, including time zone differences and the time I needed for other obligations. At the end of that year, I left my call center job for an operations job for another health insurance company, where I am still working today.

My main job responsibilities are to help health insurance brokers get licensed in the states my company operates in, assist members, and get them contracted with the company. Most of my work is primarily through emails, so I don’t have to talk on the phone. That in itself is an accommodation as I don’t have to speak to a lot of people. Management, just like in the previous job, has been supportive of me in general. I have had some doubts about my performance since I can’t see how my coworkers are doing in order to better understand how am I doing. I haven’t mentioned anything about being an autistic woman, mainly because it never really came up. I do know that they would be okay with it based on conversations I have had with them. So far, my autism is not affecting my work. When it gets to the point where it does, then I will discuss it as I think my manager will try his best to accommodate me.

When I think I am doing a bad job, I usually schedule one-on-one talks with my manager, and we discuss my concerns and progress. They were accommodating in adjusting my schedule for a month since I am currently dealing with health issues.

I understand that many autistic jobseekers and working professionals might not be in the same situation as me. I used to be in the place where my “neurodivergence” was used against me in the workplace, and it’s slowly but surely getting better. It might take longer than you would want, but you will get there.

Ebony Beckford is an operations specialist specializing in health insurance. With a background in healthcare, she has three years of experience in healthcare operations and administration. Currently, she is studying at the University of Liverpool for a Master of Science in Healthcare Leadership. Outside of work, she is interested in self-improvement and travel planning.