My answer would be a definite no. If you do disclose that, you run the risk of everything you do/think/teach/mark/say/write and so on been seen through that lens by others and only through that lens - which some of them may use to pursue their advantage to your detriment. You may find doors close suddenly and subtle discriminations of various kinds begin - though some may not be subtle at all.
If we lived in a culture that really understood the nature of neurodifference and was accepting of it as an equal status, then my answer to your question would be an unequivocal yes. However that is decades away (at the current rate of progress) and may never happen at all.
Two HFAs in my extended family have taught successfully at university level. One is a professor/HOD in an engineering faculty. Neither have disclosed their HFA status nor would we.
If you have managed accommodations to get you this far without disclosing, then that best predicts your future
ability to do your job well in a non-disclosure setting.
Even in academia, there are clever well-read people who are really very ignorant about ASDs, they know the stigmatising stuff because the populist press pushes it so much and so often, and they read newspapers; unless they have a personal interest in ASDs, they tend to accept the stigmatising articles and (sadly) propaganda as being factual.
I know that we often feel a pressure to be fully honest about things. However our private information belongs to us, and unless there are pressing reasons to disclose, it's just too risky for attracting prejudice.
13 Sep 2015, 9:16 pm
