Affirmative Action

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I am currently applying for a very high-level job at a university. On one of the application pages there was the typical optional questionnaire for affirmative action quotas asking about race gender and disability. Interestingly, for the first time I saw a check box on this form for "Autsim Spectrum Disorder."

My gut reaction is that I don't want to draw attention away from my work and education strengths on my resume. However... for the first time it is occurring to me that ASD people are considered by the government to be underrepresented minorities in the workplace. Is there any possible way it could actually BENEFIT me? Would I actually be more likely to be hired? My gut says no. It feels like a trick somehow. I thought I'd ask around about everyone else's experiences with this.

Edit: I should mention this is a job in the USA

VIRTUALLY EVERY potential employer nowadays asks applicants to disclose whether they are "disabled" or not. Even for jobs in retail.

This is a high-level university position. If I were you, I wouldn't disclose, since most candidates for the position probably will not have a disability, or at least not disclose that they have one. You would "stand out," so to speak.

If you know they are actually seeking autistic people, then by all means disclose---but you really have to know FOR SURE.

Once hired, you could seek the requisite accommodations. There is the tendency for universities to be more willing to accommodate people with disabilities than people outside of universities.

Good to know. Yeah, that was what I suspected.

AspieUtah is a smart guy, and has access to certain things which I might not have access to.

Perhaps he knows something I do not. And I think he has a point.

It is true that being hired, despite having a disability, in small numbers, will exponentially increase that number, especially if the disabled people turn out to be at least as good as non-disabled people at doing the same or similar job. In layman's terms, this is called "putting your foot in the door while having status as a disabled person." Disabled people have to prove that they can do the job. The only way this could happen is if people are hired as openly disabled people.

But, in the process of this political gain, there will be others who are not so fortunate, and who are not hired because of their disabled status. Not being hired could be economically disastrous.

In the vast majority of cases, I would still not take a chance on disclosing at this point, all things considered.

Perhaps, in the future, with more people "taking the sacrifice," people with disabled status will make inroads, and destroy the innate prejudices of those without disabilities.

I do think it is a university-wide form that I was filling out, not department-specific. I see both of your points of view. It seems there isn't one clear answer for all cases, but that I'll have to weigh costs and benefits.

It worked for me but that was when they were recruiting specifically for affirmative action. They were upfront about it.

So did you get the job?

I study working autistic adults, not really right now because of some health problems, but I was actively looking at this within the past few months.

In real life (as a manager years ago) and in my research, I have seen autistic adults discriminate against other autistic adults based on autism disclosures or autistic mannerisms AND I have seen people on and off the spectrum hire autistics BECAUSE OF their disclosure or mannerisms. Before I knew about autism, I hired an autistic type myself because I had two chatty employees and I didn't want a third chatty employee.

I say go with your gut either way. If it seems like a secret handshake, disclose. If it feels like a trick, don't.

I would not check that box.

Why would you not check the box.

It may be different in the UK but my partner would not be in the job he is in now and he earns easily over £35,000 a year in fact he doubles my salary and part of how he got the job was because he ticked the disability box including for ASD and epilepsy.

It's maybe different here because if you have a disability as long as you meet the required criteria you are given an interview and in my partners job interview they were prepared for his brunt and direct approach and they even said if they were now aware he had Asperger they would have declined him simply on his social skills.