Why so much hostility toward reasonable adjustments for autistic/ADHD students/workers?

[KeenTaupeDog]

I keep seeing backlash whenever someone with autism/ADHD asks for reasonable adjustments. Things like:
• being accused of cheating or getting “special treatment”
• people assuming you're lying or gaming the system
• resentment for accommodations that simply level the playing field

Why do so many people react this way?
Is it ignorance about what these conditions actually mean?
Envy?
Fear that fairness is “zero-sum”?
Or something deeper around stigma toward invisible disabilities?

Would be interested in honest perspectives — especially from those who’ve witnessed or experienced this dynamic.

If you dont think adhders etc. should be employed if they cant stay in work due to their adhd, then are you happy with them sitting at home and claiming benefits? Or dying of hunger?

Not looking to fight — just trying to understand where this reaction comes from.
Am a apsergers sufferer and people at uni accused me of cheating when they found out i had remote exams

But an apprenticeship can't be split in half.

Apprenticeships it seems also cannot be done part time, which is a shame for people with reduced stamina.

I think everyone's working experience will be very different in 5 years due to AI.

Accomodations to help ND people navigate a (supposedly, according to ND people anyway) NT world may become totally irrelevant if your interactions are mainly with AI agents.

Which raises a very interesting question - do ND people have the same anxiety challenges communicating with LLM AIs as they do with other humans?

Nobody said anyone hated the colleague.

Only reasonable if all other candidates received the questions. Boggles my mind it would ever even occur to anyone to ask for questions before an interview.

We were asked to do this for a role lately and refused. The role profile requires the ability to think on your feet and respond in real time, in person, to fast moving situations. If you couldn’t cope with the uncertainty of an interview, you weren’t going to be able to manage the role.

Basically because lots of the adjustments for people with autism/ ADHD would benefit neurotypical people too.

Id love extra breaks, to have a flexible start time, to have longer to do tasks etc.

Whereas other disabilities accommodations I have no use for eg software for blind people.

so it creates that jealousy that another people have a benefit and you dont.

That is clearly not the right role for her. The apprenticeship is teaching management fundamentals for running zoos, petting farms etc and engaging with customers, not just looking after the animals. Could she do an animal care course at college or something like that?

finally someone admits its envy

because those things could benefit them too.

You only read the words that you think support you. You have shown to be wrong over and over and over again on this thread.

Are you envious of NT people? Do you begrudge them the "advantages" you think they have?

Most people are not envious. Most people don't want extra work load. ND workers can be just work shy and deceptive as NT workers.

But lots of things like extra time for exams, a work coach, assistive software, headphones etc. don't affect others so why do they care?

Yes, ofc. they don't have processing time problems or repetitive behaviours

Yes but my point is that those NDers need them more than you
for example, everyone would benefit from more exam time in an english exam but someone with dyslexia might need it more to level the playing field

And what if the jobs suited to her are unavailable? Would you rather she sit at home and claim benefits or join another job with RA ?

Why is a level playing field relevant to work? It's not school. Your employer isn't marking your homework. Your employer is competing for business. The market doesn't give prizes for effort.

Most people don't care that ND or disabled people have these accommodations. They are happy for things to be levelled up. It is unrealistic or unreasonable accommodation's that create extra work or unreasonably restricts others that they object to.

Search for the thread AIBU to say that not everything can be inclusive all the time?

Not ND but it illustrates how reasonable can easily tip into unrealistic and unreasonable.

there are lots of jobs that NDs can still do, just with assistive tech and RA
e.g. a dyslexic can still write emails, but only with Grammarly
e.g. an autistic person can still work in a shop, but has to do more back office work to make up for not doing as much customer facing stuff

You can't jump from one apprenticeship being unsuitable to sitting at home on benefits. You're being ridiculous. There will be other things she can try.

Don't they?

I have 3 timers on my desk to try to manage my time. I still start a task I think will take 10 minutes at 4.50 and be "just a couple more minutes to finish"ing at 5.30pm, 6pm, 7pm, 8pm...

Well yes, I think that would be better than her applying for a job she is completely unsuitable for, like a zookeeper, then demanding they change half the role. Would she then still expect the same level of pay for doing only the manual parts of the role, but none of the management, strategy or customer service work?

She could claim benefits whilst waiting for a suitable role to become available relevent to her qualifications.

Your rigid black and white thinking is only factoring in one perspective, that of the ND person. You need to consider the employer's objectives and motivations

Consider:

If the tech makes the ND person as productive as an NT person but makes an NT person more productive, it makes better commercial sense to give it to NT people.

If the ND person is accomodated by dividing a job up and cherry picking the less stressful parts for the ND person, the employer now has to fill a less attractive role on the other side. So they may have to offer more money to fill it.

Furthermore, if a role that was done equally by two people is now split into two different roles, the employer has gone from no key person risk to two key person risks.

This is not to say that ND people are always a worse bet than NT. Not at all. But the deal has to be that the ND person brings value beyond just doing the same job at a higher cost.

Or the government has to subsidise the extra cost because the overall good of having more ND people in work is worth paying for.

(The parallels with maternity leave are not lost on me BTW).

This thread is pissing me off

It's exactly like the school threads. One system for all and computer says no mentality. People are so bloody selfish. (Not the autistic or adhd people btw)

Until ND people are as understood and given rights as those in wheelchairs have been over the last few decades then there is no equality in schools or the workplace. And dont get me wrong. There is still plenty wrong there too.

Also, back office work is customer facing, it's just that the customers are internal.