Amanda is a Customer Service Representative at Peckham Inc., a nonprofit community vocational rehabilitation organization dedicated to providing a variety of opportunities to help individuals achieve independence and self-sufficiency. She has been a long-time volunteer and advocate for autism awareness.
What’s one way autism has shaped your perspective or approach to life?
A way that autism has changed my approach to life is that it helped me to realize that I always have a plan in place, especially when there is a big change. I need to have a plan for support in place. A recent example was mid-July of last year, when I went to work building closer to my house, and I was nervous about coming to the building.
I did know, though, that one of the managers who knows me well would be there to help. She knew from past years of working with me how to help me best with changes and what has worked in the past. With her support and love, she helped in the ways that worked best for me. I still do have my hard days when I realize that the staff don’t know me like she does yet. But with the hard work of her helping through the change, and the plan that we set for my first week here, we were successful together. The other staff have helped me with the change a lot, too! It has been eight months, and not only have I done better with the change than some staff at the other building thought I would, but I have also grown.
What does autism awareness and acceptance month mean to you?
Autism awareness means to me that by people knowing what autism is and being aware of the many sensory struggles that can happen with autism, coworkers can understand that they are not upset or having a meltdown because of the co-worker they are near, or a meeting at work with the team, etc. It could be more that the person with autism is having sensory overwhelm from the work environment, or it could be that there are too many people, the temperature, or the noises that cause sensory issues.
If there is someone in the environment that the person that has autism knows well, is close to, and they can talk to, they may be able to help that person with autism find somewhere to try to feel better.
Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month means to me that everyone should understand autism, and during April, people can be made more aware of what autism is and how it affects us!
What have you discovered about yourself through your journey with autism?
One thing I have learned this past year about my journey with autism is that with the right support at work from the staff that support me, I can do more than I think I can, and I am stronger than I think I am when it comes to changes. A lot of people who have autism struggle with changes, including me. An example of that is from mid-July 2024, I went to a new work building closer to my house.
I was not sure how I would do and was nervous about a new building and new faces because I ended up leaving a lot of people I knew well.
I struggled the first week. I met with the manager who knows me well, two of the job coaches, and my supervisor at work. After the meeting, I started to get where I wanted. My supervisor and job coach helped a lot. When things became overwhelming, I wanted to have both around me if I was upset with a new face or something I was adjusting to something such like a new face or neighbor or a new desk.
Also, what helped was keeping my morning schedule after I came to the new building. The morning supervisor helped me with adjusting and still does help me when there are changes since I tend to go to her for support even more than the others.
How can others promote awareness and acceptance of autism throughout the year, beyond April?
They can spread awareness at the workplace, with family members, or in the community or, if they know, especially here in Arizona of someone that they are related to or have worked with that has autism. An example from July 2024 was that I transferred to a building closer to my house and before I transferred, I got support from the managers and one of the job coaches. Before I even came to the building, I didn’t tell many people that I had autism, but they did help staff to understand me, even before I arrived.
They told staff that I am shy until I feel like I am ready to talk to someone, and it will happen in my own time. Me talking to staff here is not forced. When I was ready, so were the staff. I started on my own time, getting to know them. Some took a few weeks, some months for me to be ok talking to them. I did tell some of the staff eventually that I have autism and found out through talking to some of the staff who have family or friends that have autism, and I was able to let them know about SARRC
The other example was in mid-October. Another manager who came from the building I came from was able to let the staff he works with know that I am shy, and in time, I will also talk to them.
