Disclose your AS: Yay or nay?

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HELLLLLL NOOOO!! ! SEEms thatll just screw ya over in the long run. My parents did all they could to help, and somet things worked, and some didnt. I got my original DX in a different state and at a different time (mid-late 1980's) and tho things may be different for kids growing up these days or whatever, I know from when I was growing up disclosin such a thing feels it would be a weakness both to myself and my family from what the outside world 'if u will' had to know. I dont disclose and probably never would especally because back when I was growing up I always kinda felt like it was a detriment, somethin to hold you back in life, or so my parents would kinda lead me to beleive. Different times I gues....

I never have, and until recently most of my colleagues didn't know that I was Aspie. The reason they do now is that we have a girl who comes into the library who's blatantly autistic and has several issues relating to it. And she had a major, major emotional episode whilst there which freaked out other staff, so I dealt with it because I understood where she was coming from. At that point I told them the truth so that they felt that if they needed my input, I'd give it. Since then I've had several conversations with that girl and she's calmed down a lot - so I feel it's been a positive to disclose it. It also means that colleagues understand things about me that they didn't before, although none of them had even remotely guessed that I was Aspie in any way.

My objection to it on job apps is the fact that the council where I work guarantees interviews to people who have disabilities if they meet the other criteria. They don't do the same for people who meet criteria but aren't disabled. I don't want an interview on those terms. Either they employ me as me, not as my disability, or they don't employ me at all. Simple as that, really :S

Apple

I applied to one job where a requirement was to have a disability, because you'd be working with other disabled people and they wanted you to be a role model for them. I think a job like this would be the best bet for me...

I'm newly diagnosed, so I haven't had an opportunity to make this decision yet...but I see no reason to disclose since I am not asking for any special accomodations.

I wouldn't. I found that when I told interviewers about my rheumatism, they would make assumptions about me ability to do the job; it would probably be just as bad or worse with AS. I would try not to apply for something where my AS would get in the way of performing the job (receptionist is right out ).

The best response I've found for "Do you have any questions?" is to ask them what they like best about working there. It catches them off guard, they'll remember you later, and you might just learn something about the position/company you wouldn't have otherwise. Plus, it takes the pressure right off you and puts it on the other person.

This is also why I don't disclose.

However, the main reasons are:

1. I don't consider it a disability (for every NT sentence I don't comprehend, they don't comprehend a sentence of mine, so we're even)
2. Many women to be more "managerial," "people-oriented," and generally motherly. Of course, I just want to write/read/program all day and once in a while ecstatically joke about something obscure with a coworker.
3. I want to be taken seriously. Unfortunately (see above), most people, if they've even heard of AS, don't understand it, and will automatically think you're a liability.

I love reviving dead topics lol.

I apologize to the OP for my hijacking of their thread, but I didn't want to start a new thread which was virtually the same.

Whilst I completely agree with someone not disclosing their AS, what if it's so blatantly obvious that you have a 'condition' of sorts that by not disclosing it you would be seen as insincere, or whatever? This would of course equally be the cause for failing an interview.

My problem is that I seem damned if I do and damned if I don't; whenever I've disclosed my AS in an application form or resume/CV - hundreds over the last 8 years that I've been actively seeking work - I don't get the interview at all. Yet, when I haven't disclosed it and have managed to obtain an interview - only 10, ever - I fail the interview due to the fact that there is something so obviously 'odd/wrong/different' about me that the interviewers are disconcerted enough to not give me the job. For the record, I do all my research about the job in question, plan meticulously what I'm going to say in the interview, and have been on several courses for people with AS to improve their interview (and work) skills, so I'm pretty sure it's not interview skills inadequacy. I'm also pretty sure that if I was offered the interview then my credentials must have at least been equal to the other applicants.

Needless to say, I'm severely worried about this.