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Callista
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22 May 2010, 3:06 pm

Both. Most of those people wouldn't be prejudiced if they had the chance to think about it; but they take for granted that disabled people don't work, and if nobody ever challenges it, they persist in that belief.


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22 May 2010, 3:26 pm

I don't see why Asperger's would qualify you for that sort of thing? Most of us are perfectly fine on our own.
I certainly don't receive anything of the sort



Callista
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22 May 2010, 5:07 pm

Being unable to live on your own and take care of yourself qualifies you pretty much immediately; that's true of a significant section of people with AS, especially the younger ones. After that, there are the social skills required to deal with customers, co-workers, and bosses, which some of us don't have. Then there are the people who have disorders in addition to AS that prevent work, such as severe anxiety disorders and depression. Others have problems with meltdowns, executive dysfunction, problems with unexpected events, problems with sensory overload, and problems with pacing (i.e., they do things much slower than others). Most such people could work if they had specialized environments; but many employers don't know how easy it is to set these up, many Aspies don't know that these things exist and that they can ask for them, and many schools don't teach the skills needed for self-advocacy and job-seeking that are needed for a disabled person to look for work successfully.


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22 May 2010, 7:06 pm

TheDoctor82 wrote:
Callista wrote:
CaptainTrips222 wrote:
Danielismyname wrote:
It's actually the opposite:

Most individuals with AS can't work. Well, that's what all of the outcome studies say. This would come under objective measurements, rather than subjective experiences via online forums. This doesn't mean that they're on disability though.

The highest I've found was a 30% employment rate, which was amongst the highest functioning individuals (some book I was reading on Google Books about outcome and AS/HFA, and it listed most of the studies done).


Are you serious? This scares me. I'm not diagnosed, but I show some of the traits, and it's no coincidence I relate so well with people here. I've also been terminated before due to conflict with coworkers. The jobs I hold best and longest are menial labor, even though I'm quite intelligent. There's no shame being on disability, but I don't want that to be my future. :cry:
I have been talking with a lot of people with various disabilities at my school, and talking to the people at the disability services office (some of whom are disabled themselves), and the consensus seems to be that the low employment rates among disabled people, including autistic people, don't have very much to do with intrinsic inability to work. They have a lot more to do with cultural problems, with prejudices held by employers, parents, schools, and the disabled individuals themselves. The low employment rate for disabled people probably has many of the same causes as lower employment rates for racial minorities. As time passes, disabled people are starting to learn that they can work; employers are learning that the disabled are as likely to be good employees as anyone else; and the employment numbers are slowly rising. With those numbers, yeah, it makes sense to be apprehensive; but drop the idea that there's something wrong with YOU that means you can't work. Most likely, the problem is with the system itself, and the system can be changed.

There are some autistic people who really can't work, naturally; but they are far fewer than the 70%, or however many, who aren't working. And even for them, things should get better, because we're starting to realize that treating disabled people like second class citizens is not, in fact, okay.


So basically it's not the system itself, but those within the system who hold the prejudices then.

It's like a saying I've come up with recently: don't hate the game, hate the players.


I think the employers are afraid of the Disabilities Act. The employers are worried that the disabled mite need special accommodations or he/she may not be able to do the job & they will have to keep the person on or they would risk legal & PR problems for firing a disabled. I have some disabilities besides AS & I was forced to quit one job because management kept nagging me; the department disappeared after I quit. Management kept giving me mixed orders(like one would tell me to do something & ignore all pages & higher manager got mad cuz I was not fallowing pages ect). I would of had problems working in another department & they could of faced a discrimination lawsuit for firing me sio it was easier & better for em to force me to quit


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22 May 2010, 10:29 pm

nick007 wrote:
TheDoctor82 wrote:
Callista wrote:
CaptainTrips222 wrote:
Danielismyname wrote:
It's actually the opposite:

Most individuals with AS can't work. Well, that's what all of the outcome studies say. This would come under objective measurements, rather than subjective experiences via online forums. This doesn't mean that they're on disability though.

The highest I've found was a 30% employment rate, which was amongst the highest functioning individuals (some book I was reading on Google Books about outcome and AS/HFA, and it listed most of the studies done).


Are you serious? This scares me. I'm not diagnosed, but I show some of the traits, and it's no coincidence I relate so well with people here. I've also been terminated before due to conflict with coworkers. The jobs I hold best and longest are menial labor, even though I'm quite intelligent. There's no shame being on disability, but I don't want that to be my future. :cry:
I have been talking with a lot of people with various disabilities at my school, and talking to the people at the disability services office (some of whom are disabled themselves), and the consensus seems to be that the low employment rates among disabled people, including autistic people, don't have very much to do with intrinsic inability to work. They have a lot more to do with cultural problems, with prejudices held by employers, parents, schools, and the disabled individuals themselves. The low employment rate for disabled people probably has many of the same causes as lower employment rates for racial minorities. As time passes, disabled people are starting to learn that they can work; employers are learning that the disabled are as likely to be good employees as anyone else; and the employment numbers are slowly rising. With those numbers, yeah, it makes sense to be apprehensive; but drop the idea that there's something wrong with YOU that means you can't work. Most likely, the problem is with the system itself, and the system can be changed.

There are some autistic people who really can't work, naturally; but they are far fewer than the 70%, or however many, who aren't working. And even for them, things should get better, because we're starting to realize that treating disabled people like second class citizens is not, in fact, okay.


So basically it's not the system itself, but those within the system who hold the prejudices then.

It's like a saying I've come up with recently: don't hate the game, hate the players.


I think the employers are afraid of the Disabilities Act. The employers are worried that the disabled mite need special accommodations or he/she may not be able to do the job & they will have to keep the person on or they would risk legal & PR problems for firing a disabled. I have some disabilities besides AS & I was forced to quit one job because management kept nagging me; the department disappeared after I quit. Management kept giving me mixed orders(like one would tell me to do something & ignore all pages & higher manager got mad cuz I was not fallowing pages ect). I would of had problems working in another department & they could of faced a discrimination lawsuit for firing me sio it was easier & better for em to force me to quit


If you're getting mixed orders, that doesn't sound like you did anything wrong; it sounds like they don't know their own asses from a hole in the ground. Like I said, don't hate the game, hate the players.



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23 May 2010, 5:18 am

Aw now I feel nervous. I haven't worked for a few years because I stayed home to raise my kids. I'm hoping to go back to work when the kids are older, though. Now I wonder if I should have ever given up my cushy government job to stay at home. The pay wasn't great and it was rather boring, but it's a job and very secure. If it's that hard for Aspies to get long term employment I'm probably doomed. I have a pair of good, steady hands that can do very nice detailed works and repair all sorts of things. I'd feel like I betrayed them if I can't use them to make some money.



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23 May 2010, 5:24 am

y-pod wrote:
Aw now I feel nervous. I haven't worked for a few years because I stayed home to raise my kids. I'm hoping to go back to work when the kids are older, though. Now I wonder if I should have ever given up my cushy government job to stay at home. The pay wasn't great and it was rather boring, but it's a job and very secure. If it's that hard for Aspies to get long term employment I'm probably doomed. I have a pair of good, steady hands that can do very nice detailed works and repair all sorts of things. I'd feel like I betrayed them if I can't use them to make some money.


Um....no job is secure; never has been, never will be. The only way you can ever have job security is by owning your own business, and seeing damn well to it that it succeeds.



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23 May 2010, 4:33 pm

I'm going to try and get SSI on my therapist's request, but not solely because of Asperger's. I also have other health problems like fibromyalgia and the money could help out a LOT.



WestBender84
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15 Jul 2013, 7:55 pm

I haven't because my folks said I could no longer live with them if I took a "government handout," failing to see the folly in their own reasoning. I guess they want to be my only benefit donors, but they pay taxes anyway for that stuff and other services, so why not use them? They told me to wait until I'm promoted to assistant manager at Pizza Hut.

That was five years ago, and I'm still the same line cook as I was when hired. I'm getting sick of the career stagnation and am applying for SSI anyway because I've saved enough where I can try renting again. It will have to be a studio because every roommate I've had left after a few months, leaving me stuck with the lease.

I'm glad I don't work for tips because so many customers are @$$h0l3s to anyone who they suspect as having AS. Getting my entitlement will bring a modicum of justice to the situation.


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Last edited by WestBender84 on 16 Jul 2013, 10:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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15 Jul 2013, 10:20 pm

Not high functioning and I don't get SSI (same as SSD? my friend uses that). But I know that some people do. Not sure of the percentage but afaik it's a minority of people.

I do get special accommodations at work. For one, I accept a lower wage in exchange for not having to travel and whatnot. It is about proving one's competence, then slowly disclosing bit by bit, from my experience. It is a strained process but look it's the same as being a woman, black or gay back in the '50s - you have to work twice as hard to get half as far.

Many people do not know that that is an option. Like Callista said people are afraid to speak up.

Yeah, responding to the poster above me, my relatives have the same attitude toward welfare usage within the family.



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15 Jul 2013, 10:56 pm

I don't know if that is true or not. I have aspergers and have appealed a denial of SSI so I am still working on trying to get it, but its not just because of the AS, I almost think if all I had was AS I might not need it. But yeah on top of the AS and some of the issues that causes I also have PTSD, generalized anxiety which probably helped make me vulnerable to the PTSD and ongoing severe depression.

I am also trying to get on medicaid, but yeah it seems like they don't give a damn if you need it or not, it takes forever and they deny most people at first.


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AinsleyHarte
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15 Jul 2013, 11:24 pm

I'm on SSI, but I didn't even have my AS diagnosis when I applied/was approved. I also have severe anxiety/agoraphobia, depression, non-epileptic seizures, PTSD, and minor OCD. I had to leave my last job almost two years ago due to seizing at work over the stress it caused, and have been unemployed and living off $197 a month since then (until this month.) So after my initial denial letter, they seemed to get the picture.

I'm really hoping to develop my skills, learn how to control my anxiety/seizures/etc and eventually get a job, but it definitely helps to have the means to semi-support myself in the process.


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15 Jul 2013, 11:30 pm

Sweetleaf wrote:
I don't know if that is true or not. I have aspergers and have appealed a denial of SSI so I am still working on trying to get it, but its not just because of the AS, I almost think if all I had was AS I might not need it. But yeah on top of the AS and some of the issues that causes I also have PTSD, generalized anxiety which probably helped make me vulnerable to the PTSD and ongoing severe depression.

I am also trying to get on medicaid, but yeah it seems like they don't give a damn if you need it or not, it takes forever and they deny most people at first.
If you could get on SSI you'd automatically get Medicaid too least that's how it is in Louisiana when I got SSI. None of the docs in my area would accept Medicaid so it was usueless for me except for perscriptions but that's another topic. But yeah the system sux. You need medical evidence that you need finachial or medical help due to a medical/mental thing but you cant afford to see docs & get the medical documentation unless you already have medical insrance or finachial assistance. Another catch22.

Like others in this thead on SSI my parents didn't want me to get on it either because they wanted me to be get a job & be self-suffiant instead of depending on a system they felt I didn't need to be on. After trying to get a job for a couple years with no luck & getting no suuport from Voc rehab excpet for getting toldI need to keep trying & asserting myself; my parents approved of me getting on it because they didn't want to have to keep paying for all my expenses. I got on SSDI after I lost my 3rd jjob which was my last. My parents wished I would of been working ever sense I got on it but I moved accorss the country to be with my girlfriend so it doesn't matter how my parents feel about me being on SSDI instead of working. I do plan to look for a job here after after afew more things get taken care of. It's kind of boring staying home alot, working would help me grow more & I know I am worth more than the $837 a month I get; I just need a chance to prove it but I always had a hard time getting that.


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15 Jul 2013, 11:39 pm

nick007 wrote:
If you could get on SSI you'd automatically get Medicaid too least that's how it is in Louisiana when I got SSI. None of the docs in my area would accept Medicaid so it was usueless for me except for perscriptions but that's another topic. But yeah the system sux. You need medical evidence that you need finachial or medical help due to a medical/mental thing but you cant afford to see docs & get the medical documentation unless you already have medical insrance or finachial assistance. Another catch22.

Like others in this thead on SSI my parents didn't want me to get on it either because they wanted me to be get a job & be self-suffiant instead of depending on a system they felt I didn't need to be on. After trying to get a job for a couple years with no luck & getting no suuport from Voc rehab excpet for getting toldI need to keep trying & asserting myself; my parents approved of me getting on it because they didn't want to have to keep paying for all my expenses. I got on SSDI after I lost my 3rd jjob which was my last. My parents wished I would of been working ever sense I got on it but I moved accorss the country to be with my girlfriend so it doesn't matter how my parents feel about me being on SSDI instead of working. I do plan to look for a job here after after afew more things get taken care of. It's kind of boring staying home alot, working would help me grow more & I know I am worth more than the $837 a month I get; I just need a chance to prove it but I always had a hard time getting that.



Yeah I think SSI would qualify me for medicaid, but apparently I might be getting on Medicaid before I get that as I am on a waiting list for it. I have quite a lot of documentation now, I went from just having some records from therapy about my condition to being in the hosptial twice and seeing a neuropsychologist since I've applied...I have also tried more medications and such so I have quite a lot of evidence in my favor. The way its going I'll end up in the psych ward again before I get SSI due to all the unrelenting stress, anxiety and depression not to mention the financial stress of hospital/ER bills I can't pay until I get on medicaid.

Luckily neither of my parents are pushing getting a job or any of the things I can't do because of my condition and aren't oppose to me applying. It will be a long time before I am even going to consider looking for work...first I need some kind of improvement which medicaid and SSI would help greatly with. I would be grateful for $500 a month or less because at least it would be something.


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nick007
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15 Jul 2013, 11:57 pm

Sweetleaf wrote:
nick007 wrote:
If you could get on SSI you'd automatically get Medicaid too least that's how it is in Louisiana when I got SSI. None of the docs in my area would accept Medicaid so it was usueless for me except for perscriptions but that's another topic. But yeah the system sux. You need medical evidence that you need finachial or medical help due to a medical/mental thing but you cant afford to see docs & get the medical documentation unless you already have medical insrance or finachial assistance. Another catch22.

Like others in this thead on SSI my parents didn't want me to get on it either because they wanted me to be get a job & be self-suffiant instead of depending on a system they felt I didn't need to be on. After trying to get a job for a couple years with no luck & getting no suuport from Voc rehab excpet for getting toldI need to keep trying & asserting myself; my parents approved of me getting on it because they didn't want to have to keep paying for all my expenses. I got on SSDI after I lost my 3rd jjob which was my last. My parents wished I would of been working ever sense I got on it but I moved accorss the country to be with my girlfriend so it doesn't matter how my parents feel about me being on SSDI instead of working. I do plan to look for a job here after after afew more things get taken care of. It's kind of boring staying home alot, working would help me grow more & I know I am worth more than the $837 a month I get; I just need a chance to prove it but I always had a hard time getting that.



Yeah I think SSI would qualify me for medicaid, but apparently I might be getting on Medicaid before I get that as I am on a waiting list for it. I have quite a lot of documentation now, I went from just having some records from therapy about my condition to being in the hosptial twice and seeing a neuropsychologist since I've applied...I have also tried more medications and such so I have quite a lot of evidence in my favor. The way its going I'll end up in the psych ward again before I get SSI due to all the unrelenting stress, anxiety and depression not to mention the financial stress of hospital/ER bills I can't pay until I get on medicaid.

Luckily neither of my parents are pushing getting a job or any of the things I can't do because of my condition and aren't oppose to me applying. It will be a long time before I am even going to consider looking for work...first I need some kind of improvement which medicaid and SSI would help greatly with. I would be grateful for $500 a month or less because at least it would be something.
Yeah all that stuff is very stressful. At times there's not much you can do except wait around & the waiting caused me to worry. Try to take things one step at a time & find things to do while waiting around to enjoy or at least keep you from dwelling on everything. I hope you can get on Medicaid soon & wish you the best with all that


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16 Jul 2013, 12:51 am

No SSI for me, but I am going to have to do something about finding a job soonish.

I have 4 years until the baby goes to school, then I have to be doing something or risk madness.

I am very, very, very afraid of looking for a job. I'm reasonably high-functioning. I need to be told what to do for longer than most new hires before I catch on. I stress out a little too easily. Mostly I don't make small talk, and there's something "off" that no one can put their finger on.

That was enough to make me the target of harassment in my last job (waitressing, 12 years ago now).

I'm terrified that I won't be able to get, much less keep, a job...

...but I will think of something. Somehow. I want nothing to do with SSI unless my choices are to get it or watch my kids starve.

Even then, I think there's a good chance that I'd find an alternative, or kiss the kids goodbye, put them in foster care, and go live in a hollow tree somewhere.

I want absolutely nothing to do with their goddamn system. I have already been labeled, belittled, and beaten down enough, thank you.


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