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

I would have thought there are loads of jobs, especially office jobs, where the time taken to do a task is hugely relevant.

Erm, thats exactly the case in my workplace. We are a support team, we support otherss during the working day say between 8.30 and 4.30.

If someone came in 2 hours early or late, they would just sit there with nothing to do.

I’m also autistic. Diagnosed as an adult. But my work do not know. They do not need to know. I can cope perfectly fine in my job. However. It is becoming harder to cope in my job because of the amount of adjustments other people are getting. It is putting more of the type of work I struggle with on to me. So whereas I was coping fine at work and not having to go home and shutdown, it is now starting to happen again. After having years of no issues. And I imagine there are many people out there who are not diagnosed (or may not quite meet the threshold for getting diagnosed) but DO have a ND condition who thought they were getting along fine until they have more and more “bad” work put their way. So I think this is one of the issues. What do you do when an entire department either needs more breaks or can’t answer the phone? Someone has to do it. But everyone needs the adjustment that they don’t have to. It will likely all fall to the person who complains the least. Which is usually me as I’m excellent at masking. Quite frankly I could be dying and I’d tell you I was fine. But I’m not fine.

On the exam point, maybe the change required is to how one gets their grade. So, you have an oral exam where you get to show your knowledge of the subject, as well as written.

perhaps because it is new
feels like people are jumping on the band wagon
they hear through colleagues that they can get certain equipment and low and behold, they apply and dont necessarily stay in the job anyway!

But these are not the same type of tasks that are measured in most exams.

I need - and get - extra time in exams.

I don’t need extra time to write an email. Actually now I have speech to text software it takes me less time than most of my colleagues.

I'm terms of students, I think that all courses should use a diverse range of teaching methods and examination/ assessment methods (formal exams, SBA, OSCEs, viva voce, essays, projects etc), so that different strengths are assessed and everyone has an equal chance, but i think that regardless of disability, they should all be assessed the same so that the end results and qualifications are comparable going forwards, so no additional time allowances or other differences in assessments.

Workers - wfh and flexible working should be encouraged for everyone as it can massively help many people ND, disabled, older people, parents continue working, and i think the government should incentives employers to embrace it and penalise those that don't. However, once established in a job, performance and behaviour should be assessed equally for all employees.

I've never had a job where the time taken wasn't relevant.

I think a lot of the time these adjustments have a negative impact on there colleagues

which is why resentment builds

Yes, but presumably then it wouldn’t be a reasonable adjustment for someone to come in early.

So it’s a management issue, not an issue that the employee is causing.

No, but i've had a trainee.Enter the legal profession with having issues taking phone calls. He threatened us with disability discrimination because of this.When it's an essential part of the job.

Would you want a lawyer representing you?That can't answer the phone?

I suggest you steer your daughter towards jobs that do not involve the use of phones in any way shape or form because you can't enter jobs and expect somebody else to do it for you or to not be able to do it.

Interestingly enough, when HR looked at this trainee's form when he applied for the job, he left the section on disability blank, so he didn't declare it. Then we ended up stuck with his complaints that were totally unreasonable.But he didn't see it that way.

I agree with this. A lot of the adjustments seem to be things we would all like to benefit from.

Also, a lot of people are self-diagnosed and the things they believe they suffer from are things that most people suffer from to some extent. I work with someone who, in the space of a year, has self diagnosed as having OCD, ADHD, PTSD and anxiety. He refused to speak to our occupational health team for many months whilst making continued requests for reasonable adjustments (mostly working from home and not doing parts of the job that he doesn’t like). When he eventually spoke to OH they felt there was nothing clinically wrong with him.

So all your jobs have been about regurgitating facts in a fixed, short, time period? Unusual, but if it works for you…

Agreed. Some exams are deliberately very highly time-limited, as ability to score marks at speed is an important aspect of what is being tested, or being used as a key discriminator.

A practical example might be driving tests - both in the theory element of hazard detection , and in the practical element of moving off / manoeuvring, a rapid response is of the essence and a really key thing to assess.

Other exams are time-limited mostly for practical reasons (both for students and markers) and what is being tested is the knowledge.

Unless speed is genuinely part of what the employer needs - in which case a specific test of speed at interview would be reasonable in selection - then adjustments that allow a disabled student to display their knowledge on an equal footing to non-disabled students (through time, technology, breaks etc) are reasonable.

Oh don't be ridiculous, all jobs are about assimilating information and completing tasks within the expected timescale.

Which is generally not within an exam environment. Performance in coursework would be a much better indicator rather than “can you answer 10 questions in 2 hours without adjustments”

‘Expected timescale’ in a work environment is VERY different from ‘in 90 minutes in an exam hall’.

Well yes i'm a solicitor. Unless you think it's acceptable, I'll leave my clients waiting five years to get a letter back.

I ve never been in a job that doesn't have very strict time restrictions for when i'm able to do things by. Caught deadlines client care limitation dates.

Would you like to see a doctor and go for an appointment?And have them tell you, actually, I can't give you advice about your condition right now.You ll need to go away while I think about it because I can't do it right now because of my disabilities..

There are so many jobs that involve fast advice and fast responses and very strict deadlines.

Project management can't complete a project on time.Because of your issues, do you want to explain that to your employer?

What a weird thing for you to say, of course, jobs have a great number of deadlines. Perhaps yours haven't.

As a teacher, my job has an infinite number of (often unreasonable and competing) deadlines.

Absolutely none are equivalent to ‘write 5 essays in 2.5 hours, by hand and without reference materials’!

Not the poster you replied to but if my colleague can answer the phone without going mute and feeling like they are choking then they absolutely should do that part of the job which I cannot. It doesn't mean I can't do the rest of the work that is available to be done.

Maybe the key then isn’t to make reasonable adjustments within a job that’s wrong for that person, but rather find the right job.

Well that's you though. I once had to draft a bail application in a court corridor when I was a trainee solicitor because the client asked for it at the last minute and I had no reference materials, and I d never done it before for real.

I had to go and make a number of phone calls to the client's family about sureties, go and visit the client in the cell.Take details from him, complete the form and take it back upstairs to the barrister to present in court.

There are jobs that require you to do things.On the back foot without any reference materials. That isn't your job, but I d expect more lateral thinking from a teacher just because you don't do.It doesn't mean other people don't.

Edit, there was also a very strict time limit.Because the hearing was taking place at a particular time and the judge was not going to wait for me.

What a weird thing for you to say, of course, jobs have a great number of deadlines. Perhaps yours haven't.

Of course they have, but not comparable to exam conditions.

My DD is a teacher and it is a real struggle to balance-some children need a break or other appropriate adjustments and then parents see some children are getting something their own child isn't and they want it.

A tightrope to walk to meet needs of some when others cry "no fair"

The British psyche is about fairness. If reasonable adjustments cause extra workloads on colleagues, that is unfair.

People with recorded disabilities requiring adjustment should not expect others the carry the burden of allowing them to fit into the workplace.
The person with the disability should lessen their hours and commensurate pay / find more suitable work that fits in with their needs.
Fairness above all or the system fails.

This is what’s troubling many about the illegal migration/ the positive discrimination above the indiginant population / the DEI. It all works against the interests of the majority.

There is a tipping point and we have reached it!

As have many workplaces as more and more people take advantage of neuro diagnoses.