ASD son struggling with phone calls

[Storm4star]

My son is an adult now, he had speech therapy when he was young as he was very late talking. He's fine holding a conversation (although it sometimes takes him a while to get some words out) but struggles a lot on the phone. He ums and ahs a lot and gets his words muddled up. This wasn't really an issue until it's now come time for looking for a job. He's applied for loads, they call him and he then gets all stuttery and stumbles over his words on the phone and that's it then, they don't offer him interviews. Its tricky too as he's sensitive over stuff like that and if I raise it with him I know he'll be upset. I don't know how to help him or even how he can help himself? The jobs he's going for are ones he could do. Not all of them include using the phone in the job description but it's clearly putting people off anyway. I don't know what to do.

The diagnostic criteria for ASD would make you think that employers should have at least an inkling.
From the NAS "Autism is a lifelong, developmental disability that affects how a person communicates with and relates to other people, and how they experience the world around them."

I'd say put on the application form that due to his disability, using the phone is a very last resort for him but then tell them which ways he can use to communicate in a work environment and that he's really good at, email, text, whatever.

I think that's a good idea as he can communicate well in the other ways you mentioned. He just gets nervous on the phone which then affects his speech.

Would it help him to practise at all? DS2 has ASD and needs lots of prep to cope with new situations especially if they're stressful.
Could you ring him up once a day and talk to him as though you were a prospective employer, so he gets used to it?.

Employers have to make reasonable adjustments for all employees and potential employees at every stage of the application process. Include on his cv that reasonable adjustments are required and ask them to communicate in the first instance via email.

This may sound like an odd suggestion for a job for asd but my daughter got herself a job at McDonald's full time and thrived, offered promotion! You apply online, she was up front at the interview and wrote down a letter about autism in case she clammed up, but it was her 5th or 6th interview and did fine. They put her in a role she didn't have to have contact with customers initially but has since learned to cope with till. As branches are franchises it's worth trying a few.