How much accommodation have you received at your workplace?

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How much accommodation or reasonable adjustment has been made for you at your workplace?
Did you feel you could only ask for so much?
Were there issues that you kept to yourself because you felt they would think your were exaggerating your disability needs or wouldn't believe was really related to your autism?

I received my diagnosis not long before I lost my last job, so I have not been in the position of communicating my triggers and needs to an employer yet. If I ever get another job, this is something I am worried about. I don't know how much to ask for.

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For my personal example, I have a huge issue with a radio playing in the workplace, especially the repetitive, commercial ones, as I can't remotely tune it out. I have had many arguments and upsetting encounters with work colleagues over the radio at both jobs I've had. The first one I actually rage quit on the spot after a huge 'showdown' with the rest of the staff over the radio. Most people don't end up crying because they're forced to listen to the radio.

In a new job, I don't know how I would feel asking a department used to having a radio playing all day to suddenly work in silence just because of me. I also fear they won't believe a complete intolerance to a radio is an autistic sensory issue that should be accommodated for because it's so weird and unusual. I don't feel anyone can believe just how upsetting it can be for me.

Personally I wouldn't even bring up the fact you have AS. I told a few of my co-workers about my diagnosis and every little thing I now do is attributed to having AS. If I ever get angry, its because I have AS; anything I do at all is attributed to AS. I continually wear earplugs at work; as I don't like sudden, loud noises either. I don't mind people playing the radio but it really plucks me if they play it extremely loud. so I know where you are coming from about that.
Also, all people might not be accepting of your diagnosis. Some still think that having any type of autism means you are just a smart ret*d and all you are capable of is to sit in a corner and make grunting noises.
The main purpose of business is to make money and if they think you would somehow impede that with your attitudes to work or your co-worker or they might have to spend money on accomodations, they will find some "convienent" reason not to hire you.
If I had to do it over again, I would tell nobody about my diagnosis.

Sadly, I have to agree with Aspinator. The only time I disclosed in the workplace was immediately after I was diagnosed and was actually in a state sponsored reeducation program to assist the disabled in starting new careers.

The instructors at the job/school that I attended were advised of my disability (they were getting money specifically to take on a disabled student), I had several conversations with them about AS and autism and how it affected me and was repeatedly dismissed with assurances that I was only "shy" (I was 49 at the time), and that they could "cure "me of that.

The "school" did nothing to accommodate me whatsoever and eventually discriminated against me because of my disability, the head instructor screaming at me for not being a more aggressive salesman for his business, until I left, believing he might physically assault me. In spite of the fact that the instructors themselves had documented my satisfactory completion of the entire curriculum, they refused to schedule my final test, thereby preventing me from obtaining a license to work in my home state, at a job that I was already previously licensed to perform in another state.

On top of that, I spent four years pursuing the matter with every agency in the state supposedly tasked with protecting the rights of the disabled and got nothing but empty rhetoric and buck-passing. If I had been a paraplegic in a wheelchair, they could have filed all the documents and lawsuits to get me a ramp built, but they had no idea how to accommodate the needs of an autistic adult and no inclination to do so.

The only time disclosure has helped me was in filing a complaint with Housing and Urban Development online to stop the company that owns my apartment complex from changing my living space against my will. The only reason that helped was that while the Government does an inspection to verify a complaint, all Federal funding comes to a halt until a determination is made. The company that owned the complex wasn't about to let the subsidy money stop flowing, even for a week, so they knuckled under out of greed.

The downside to that is now the people in the office where I pay my rent treat me like I might become dangerously unhinged at any moment, because the media has convinced so many in the US that people with Asperger Syndrome are likely to become violent. Their ignorance is at once both amusing and depressingly humiliating.

OTOH, I don't think your problem with the radio is unusual at all. I used to work in radio, and while I loved my job and the noise didn't bother me at all while I was alone in a closed studio, it would drive me crazy in a quiet office, if I were trying to concentrate. The presence of other people would in itself have me in a state of anxiety and the extraneous noise on top of that would become a form of sensory torture. It might be different if I had control of both the volume AND the programming, so I could pick the music, but commercial radio has become so generic and repetitive it's maddening. Most radio stations today repeat their entire music library every 36 hours. Even a great classic song gets old after you've heard it every day for three months. Modern Pop stations are even worse, they play the same songs every 90 minutes. It's like they're trying to drive people insane.

None.

My coworker and immediate boss know and are very helpful, but that's only because my coworker's nephew is Autistic, and my immediate boss has had a few episodes of mental illness himself. We're a tight department so we keep it between ourselves. I work in an industrial plant which is running 24/7 and no matter where you are, the plant hums and whirs and grinds. Alarms go off all the time too about different things and except for one alarm which scares me and I block my ears when it comes over, I love the hum of the plant

When I worked in another depot in the mine itself, my ex-boss used to like listening to CDs while we were working and one day it took me all day to do one thing because i couldn't concentrate. That only happened once, and when I told her I found it distracting she laughed at me but turned it off. Everyone at my workplace thinks I'm a bit odd anyway...just read my post about my crazy job in this forum...

No accommodation in my last job. Discussion with my boss lead to stalling. Discussing it directly with HR got me managed out.

One time when I was young I got in trouble and had to do community service at a recycling plant. I never even thought about it or realized it until recently but they actually tried to accommodate me some, like when we did metals which was really loud and I can't wear the earplugs that stick in your ear they sent me to clean up the break room and bathrooms.

None. The only accomodations I could imagine asking for would be related to Tourette syndrome, such as chewing gum to relax myself. Even then, I haven't asked for that. It's not severe enough to warrant it.

the only accomodations i ask for is extra, non-scheduled, break time to cool down if i have to.
if i agree to not disappear on busy times, usually this is no problem with whoever manages the time, especially since (in my experience) at least 2/3s of the personell take regular smoke breaks which i dont, that makes the negotiation position a lot easier, i only really have to play the aspie card to convince them of the non-scheduled part

To be honest, there isn't much more that I could ask for. My job already precludes me from having to interact face to face with too many people on a daily basis. It is mostly email and phone. And for the people that regularly contact me, they know to email me.

I am a graphic designer and also a system admin. for a small college in a distance learning program. So 99% of the students and faculty that I interact with are off-site.

But my boss has allowed me to purchase furniture that prevents people from staying in my office for too long - she let me get a desk that raises and lowers, so that when people come in my office, I can raise the desk and meet with people standing up. People don't tend to stick around for long when you make them stand up. I also took all the chairs out of my office, and replaced them with two small rolling file cabinets with cushions on top.

Everyone in my office knows that I don't like people in my office, even though they tease me about it - but I would rather be teased a little bit than have people constantly coming in and out.

And the really nice thing is that my house is only a five minute walk from my office - so if I ever get really stressed out, I just let our front desk know that I am running across campus, and I can just head home for a few minutes to regroup.

Here is a picture of my office - which is nice, because it does have a door which I can close periodically. Sorry - it is a panoramic shot, and looked all weird when I put it in the post.

And yes, I do work in the basement...of the library. But it is nice - because there is a mechanical closet right next to my office, which has a pleasant hum to it all day long.

But, I haven't disclosed my diagnosis with anyone at work - I am very newly diagnosed - but I suppose I am just lucky that my co-workers are willing to accept me as a quirky-computer-nerd-germ-a-phobe.

Here is a 2008 story about experiences with Aspergers in the technology industry e.g., workplace accommodations; how much has changed in the last few years regarding how the TECH. industry treats their employees?

Aspergers and IT [Information Technology]: Dark Secret or Open Secret?
Aspergers Syndrome has been a part of IT for as long as there's IT. So Why Aren't we doing better by the Aspies among us?

AUTHOR: Tracy Mayor; who has written many TECH. industry-related stories including women in the TECH. industries.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/ ... en_secret_

None, my employer knows nothing about my personal life and I'm going to keep it that way. Plus aspergers in no way prevents me from doing my job.