Myth Busters: An employment Equity Project
The purpose of the Myth Busters Project is to gain deeper insight into the experiences, challenges, and needs of neurodiverse individuals in the workplace. Additionally, this project aims to debunk commonly held myths about neurodiverse individuals in the working world, and use the knowledge youth share to improve employment practices. We hope that this project will increase awareness about neurodiversity and the working world. 
Interviewer: So do you live in the lower mainland?
Participant 1: Yes I do? 
Interviewer: How do you like living in the lower mainland?
Participant 1: IÕm very grateful. for a home and to be near some of my siblings, but itÕs extremely unaffordable. 
Interviewer: How is it finding work in the Lower Mainland? 
Participant 2: To be honest, itÕs hard to find work, especially as a person with a disability in terms of like diversity.  There are various needs as a person with a disability and yeah, in general also, I find like people around me fin d a lot harder to find a job. However, yes, race ethnicity has a lot to do with it.
Interviewer: Can you share what the term neurodiversity means to you and why it might be significant in the context of employment? 
Participant 3: Neurodiversity means that you donÕt work similarly to other people. I donÕt mean like your personality is different. I mean like the physical hardware that you have with your brain itÕs no configured the same as other people. IÕs not that itÕs less or more. ItÕs just that itÕs literally is wired differently. ItÕs a different kind of machine. 
Participant 4: Being neurodiverse, it means that there are like certain social standards and practices that include like being in the workplace that might not make sense to me or I might not like know intuitively. 
Interviewer: Can you share your personal journey towards finding employment? What were some of the major hurdles you encountered? 
Participant 1: When I moved to Vancouver I got a job at a preschool. They did the criminal record check and they found that I had an assault on my record. But that assault was self-defence from an abusive relationship that I was escaping. And with that I had to not only face that trauma again but also try to explain to my employers that I wasnÕt at fault. So you can see that working with children and having a record doesnÕt quite mix. So um, I had to wait for that to be expunged. So during that time, my mental health was awful. I wasnÕt getting help. I didnÕt have a doctor or nurse practitioner yet. It took a lot of advocating. I had to take that strength from somewhere and advocate that IÕm a good person, so you can either fire me or you could wait. Ultimately, that job didnÕt work out. 
Interviewer: Do you feel that your racial or ethnic background has influenced your experiences as a neurodiverse individual in the workplace? If so, how? 
Participant 4: ItÕs not really as expected for like, for like an Asian person to disclose that theyÕre neurodiverse, because sometimes in our culture itÕs not really talked about. 
Participant 3: If I didnÕt have the right people around me, I definitely would have been exploited in a way that, especially coming from my ethnic background, coming from a country where youÕre not really paid that much. Like the idea of paying someone 20 bucks to clean your lawn is like what you do for 2o cents back at home. 
Participant 1: ItÕs made me feel like I canÕt speak to my superiors or IÕm not seen as a team member. You know, I have to work so much harder to be seen and then my job is always on the line and then IÕm dealing with a lot of mental health issues on top of physical as well. 
Interviewer: What are some common myths or misconceptions about neurodiverse individuals you have faced when seeking employment? How have these impacted your professional life? 
Participant 4: Neurodivergent people are not lazy. We do want to do our best. WeÕre not lazy and we are trying our best. But some things just donÕt work well for us that they might do for other people. 
Participant 2: Honestly, like understanding that one, not everybody is the same and you expect various results, you know. 
Interviewer: How do you approach the decision to disclose your neurodiverse status in your workplace? what factors do you consider? 
Participant 4: I did not really feel comfortable disclosing my neurodiversity. I fely like if I did that I would be automatically considered less for the job. 
Participant 1: ItÕs unfortunate that I donÕt feel comfortable goig into an interview and being like, Ōhey, this is who I am.Ķ Neurodivergent. These are my strengths and his is what IÕm working on.
Interviewer: Can you describe your experiences with job interviews? 
Participant 2: I was applying for a job and as soon as they saw me, they were not like, you can see from their expression that they didnÕt already like, I didnÕt have a chance. Because I think it has to do with appearance too. Being a black person and like even being a person with a disability adds to it. And It kind of, you kind of get to the point of like whatÕs the point of replying, right? 
Interviewer: What aspects of traditional interviewing do you think could be adapted to better accommodate neurodiverse individuals? 
Participant 2: The number one thing is like hear the skills that they have. I feel like the purpose od applying for a job or like hiring someone is like that person brings up every skills that thy are required to. As long as they do that, I donÕt think other aspects of their lives matters the most. 
Participant 5: Cuz you have to give like people a chance even if they just beginners, but they could have like a lot of experience. YouÕll never know. 
Interviewer: From your experiences, what characteristics or policies contribute to making a workplace inclusive for neurodiverse individuals?  
Participant 6: One thing I do really enjoy is being able to work with other professionals and getting insight because sometimes like what um a neurotypical individual might think is best for a neurodivergent individual may no align. But they could still have some sense of like truth and some genuine un intent. So I think just being able to bounce ideas off other individuals. 
Participant 2: Yeah. I feel like mostly like when it comes to disabilities the number one thing it requires is like some of the equipment. Like foe example a recording pan because some people canÕt hear. And also like wider table, you are able to put your chair comfortably in work. 
Interviewer: What kinds of support or accommodations have you found most beneficial in your workplace? Are there supports you wish were more readily available? 
Participant 1: I see that most breaks arenÕt event taken. Most morning breaks arenÕt even taken. That break is so important to me because I donÕt eat breakfast. ThatÕs when IÕll have some food to get my blood sugar up. Employers need to focus on working people with neurodiversity. Working with people with different ethnicities, different sexual orientations, ages, abilities. ItÕs like a printout email; that no one reads. How can we get to a better place if weÕre not doing that thing. And what is that thing? Education. This should be everywhere. 
Participant 4: For my term of work employment, I had a job that could be work from home and um I personally felt a lot more comfortable working from home. 
Interviewer: Have you had opportunities for professional development and career advancement? What barriers, if any, have you faced in this area? 
Participant 1: Finding a job isnÕt that hard. ItÕs about keeping it. When IÕve started a job in the past, doing great, IÕm showing up on time, IÕm doing the most. opps. Metal health crisis. KhadijaÕs inconsistent, sheÕs lete, she seems withdrawn
Participant 5: I did a lot of networking, So, so I got myself a business where I can shoot music videos for people. 
Interviewer: Okay nice, and how did you find that? 
Participant 5: ItÕs pretty fun actually. It took me 3 years to get to where I was. Yeah. Working towards that and expanding how I wanted to. 
Interviewer: Based on your experiences, what advice would you give to employers to foster more inclusive environments for neurodiverse employees? 
Participant 1: Check-ins. Ask us how weÕre doing. WeÕll tell you. Most of the time IÕll tell you. I like. Ôoh, just locked myself out of my apartment, you know, I could use five minutes to make a hot cup of tea.Õ You might be led into, Ôokay. I see that IÕm schedules for this next three weeks IÕm probably going to need these days off to see a specialist or a doctor.Ķ But thereÕs and animosity that that happens. ThereÕs that fear that happens, at least for me, that disclosing and asking for help, I couldnÕt because I feel like I cold be fired, because I need money to survive because living costs in Vancouver is ridiculous. If I donÕt see a hand reaching out and trying because IÕve had my hand slapped away so many times that IÕve learned to hold it in. To mask it. 
Interviewer: How do you feel neurodiverse youth can best prepare themselves to enter into the working world? 
Participant 7: I think real word practice is really lacking when it comes to any type of like job training, um work experience. So yeah. Um, and then maybe following that with some of like what YAIJÕs programs are, like having like maybe an opportunity with like a partner organization to like some of those learned skills for a period of time. Could be a week, could be a day, could be a few months. So whatever opportunities there are to sort of use those skills sort of immediately after learning them or getting you know, sort of touching on the and getting your feet wet so to speak. 
Interviewer: Is there any final thought or comments?
Participant 1: It pisses ne off that we have to teach people how to treat people. You know, if you want your employee to be optimal, yeah, maybe you should try to understand them. ThatÕs the first step. 
Participant 5: Give the people who donÕt have that much experience a chance. They might do good, you never know. 
Participant 4: I would just like to encourage employers to treat their employees like human beings first and foremost. And understand them and know that like neurodiverse people are not like trying to get out of doing more work or making excuses, WeÕre just trying our best to do our job and make money and like do it how we can. 
Participant 6: Have empathy, have patience, and be kind.