I've been doing IT related work for 20 years and all the really sticky problems are always inter-personal issues, and ones where BOTH sides are completely wrong. One side will get offended, takes the victim mentality, starts blaming the other side, and off to the races they go. The first step in solving a problem is to stop the blame-game.

I think your sentence with "where at least one or more people" needs a 'not' in it. Cheers!

It's ironic to complain about unconscious bias being not statistically derived, when the rest of your post is about your personal, anecdotal experience. For what it's worth, my anecdotal experience is that places that take in interest in the issue of unconscious bias have had overall better cultures, and also been more friendly to my minority group.

If you believe you are a victim, you will interpret every action taken against you from that perspective needs to be said frequently and loudly. As a member of a group that's been persecuted for > 5000 years (go ahead, look up the history of the Jews), getting past the "victim" mentality and making the best of the situation you've got is the only way to go.

This is a terrible answer as it literally does not answer the question. This was clearly only upvoted because people like the politically charged views being preached. OP asked "How do I bring this very reasonable and normal question up with the hiring team" and your answer was "don't, the libs are poisoning your mind". This is a "just quit your job" level answer.

@JackGifford While I don't disagree that this does not answer the question, I think this there is an element of an XY problem here. The op has never had a corporate job before and l think their question hints at some bad assumptions in how the corporate workplace functions. Especially in software engineering.

@Chuu, I’d like to agree with you, but the unemployment rate for American autistic people with college degrees is 85%. So there is some basis for my assumptions.

@moonman239 without wanting to take a side here, is there any statistic saying that any of the measures you're looking for changes that number?

If you can do your job and pull your weight, no one is going to care about your issues unless you are really rocking the boat. Making everyone take diversity training is trying to solve a problem before it exists. Most of us devs are huddled behind our keyboards with headphones on ignoring our surroundings anyway. Unless your disability includes slamming your desk and muttering insults under your breath while you are doing code reviews, it will be ok. I've seen a dev with tourettes make it all the way to management.

@moonman239: that figure of 85% of college-educated people with autism being unemployed is likely inflated, see this thread at Skeptics.SE. Yes, googling gives a lot of hits - but none seem well sourced. I find it extremely hard to believe that someone who manages to graduate from college is quite so unemployable. Do you have a source for this?

@StephanKolassa it’s not just graduating from college, it’s getting through the interviews - something that is difficult with a social disability like autism.

@moonman239 If we're talking about the study at Skeptics.SE which appears to be the source of the 85% number, their definition of autism is narrow enough that they state that 70% of people diagnosed with Autism cannot live independently. To be clear I am not saying their definition is invalid, but that is a significantly narrower definition than most people colloquially use which needs to be factored into interpreting the 85% statistic.

Does it even matter if statistics back it up? OP said it's non-negotiable. That's about the strongest terminology you can use. Treat it no differently than if they said that having free coffee was non-negotiable - you wouldn't be trying to convince them that they're an addict and need to quit coffee.

@Chuu: the ONS data from 2021, gives the employment rate of people with autism in the UK at just 29%, see ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/‌​…

@moonman239 As a fellow autist in software engineering, please hear me out. This guy is telling the truth. I'm as kooky as a box of frogs, but I get on well with my colleagues and find my character to be accepted and celebrated within the field. Trying to formally define this stuff, or force people through training, doesn't help. It makes you "that guy who made us all waste two days on that dumb seminar", and everyone will be scared of offending you. Trust me. The places you actually want to work at don't care about your autism, they care about your skill level and dedication.

I am not sure this is a good answer. OP told us that XYZ is non-negotiable. Isn't it prudent to assume that OP has a good idea of what they need?

@Chuu be that as it may, there is other data suggesting possible ableism in the workplace.

For example, statistia.com says the employment rate for people with disabilities (including autism) is 30%.

@moonman239 1. how do they define "autism"? 2. grouping all disabilities without regard for whether the numbers are similar for each is not very helpful 3. the software development/engineering field is different in that many, many people in it are neurodiverse

Looks like I missed all the fun discussions.

@JackGifford Frame challenges are perfectly acceptable on SE. The OP is asking for something which does not exist, in an area they have literally no knowledge about, for reasons which are not based on reality. You don't get a clearer reason for a frame challenge.

@AgnishomChattopadhyay The OP has told us they have never worked before, so there is no way they could say what they need in the workplace.

@Clumsycat - It's a fair challenge that I'm critical of unconscious bias, but I give an Anecdotal answer. The difference is that I'm not advocating an entire industry based on my personal experience. To answer your second point - I personally find Companies that seriously take things like unconscious bias to heart to be toxic - whereas most will pay it lipservice and ignore it.

@JackGifford - I've given a number of, shall we say, anti-woke answers in WPSE - most get heavily downvoted - I can assure you WPSE politically does not lean to the right. Now - as others have pointed out, this answer is in the form of a Frame Challenge - I reject some of the premises that the question rests on. There is information which I believe the OP has not considered (prevalence of Neurodiversity in Tech fields) because the OP does not know/doesn't have the experience Part 1.

@JackGifford Part two That invalidates their concern. If the OP was say joining a Marketing team or a Sales team or another team where high levels of interpersonal skills were required - I might be a little more softer - although not by much, I still hold that believing yourself to be a victim is the quickest way to make yourself a victim.

@moonman239 - So, you are worried about Interviews. Have you considered that at least one person on the Interview team (especially the technical interview) is likely to also be on one spectrum or another? If you want Interview advise - more than happy to help there.

@Esther 1) I don't know. 2) True, but I'm just assuming that anyone who's disabled with a Bachelor's is probably shooting for a desk job. 3) yes. but howmuch harder is it for someone who is neurodivergent to get a job offer than for a neurotypical person to get that same job?

@moonman239 - I'm going to answer question 3: 'It depends' - For Tech jobs by a significant margin the most important factor is your skills. You can be the weirdest oddball you can be, but if your skills are there, you're more likely to get an offer than not. And I've seen it firsthand. I've hired people who I didn't personally like over people I did - on the basis of their skillset alone.

@TheDemonLord: hard skills or soft skills?

@moonman239 - Now, don't get me wrong - there are things you can do to help here - for example Interview prep - there's some common questions 'What is your biggest weakness' or 'Tell me about a time when you did something wrong' - where if you've not thought about your answer ahead of time, can catch you out - but by researching and preparing, you can come up with a good answer.

@moonman239 - Hard skills. Techs don't care about how nice you are. We care about can you do the job. We care about whether or not you are going to make a mistake that is going to cost us hours of our time to rectify. If you are an AH that knows their stuff, that is more valuable to me than someone nice who is going to cause an outage through incompetence.

@TheDemonLord techs don't, but recruiters probably do.

@moonman239 - not really. Because Tech is specialized and you need a certain baseline of understanding to sort the BS artists from the legit people, Tech Recruiters often just do Tech stuff - and ultimately it's the Techs who make the call. Unless the Manager is incompetent or a former Tech themselves - they will often defer to the opinion of their lead tech on the Go/No-Go decision.

I guess another concern is that I don't have a lot of concrete data to work with here, so I can only make a judgment call based on the data that I do have.

And to clarify - an Incompetent Manager you don't want to work for and a Former Tech Manager is great and they will (again) put an emphasis on Skill. You need to understand that Skill is the difference between a 1 hour outage with minimal impact and 24 hours of downtime costing the company thousand or even millions of dollars.

@moonman239 - I appreciate that, as I outlined in my answer - in my personal view, I think alot of the data you are working with is... about the value of a Gnats Fart. I would start by practicing interviews if you are worried about that - Most Job seeker/centre places or even Recruitment agencies can assist in this - Especially if you tell them 'I'm worried about interviewing well as a Candidate, can you help?' - afterall, they want to place you in a job, so you refer business to them..

@TheDemonLord Yeah, that data is potentially flawed.

I just wish I had more reliable data to work with.

@moonman239 - Practice your speaking with confidence, know your stuff inside and out, as uncomfortable as it may be, keep your head up, look them in the eye, Smile and then talk about why you are the best candidate for the job. Look at their Website, look at what they do, link your answers back to what you can do for them. Worst case scenario - you interview and it doesn't go well - you just keep going until you land an offer.

Last time I went job hunting, I sent out my CV to about 30-40 opportunities, I got about 15 or so phone interviews, which translated into about 8 proper interviews and then I had 2-3 job offers at the end. And don't be afraid to make the first move - call the company, ask to speak to the Hiring Manager - be proactive :) You'll do great.

I have to disagree with those saying that what the OP is asking for doesn't exist or is necessarily counter productive. I work at a large tech company and we have both mandatory unconscious bias training and a support group for individuals with disabilities or neurodivergency. I found the training to by helpful and grounded in reality, and I have seen lots of people benefit from the support group. I have also not seen any negative consequences from having the training or support group.

I agree that OP shouldn't expect companies to implement such initiatives just for them, but there are definitely corporations that already have what the OP wants, and I don't think it's always as toxic as this answer suggests it is.