Ms Noreen Murphy:

It is a growing area. From our experience, when we looked at the number of individuals who, many years ago, graduated and immediately fell into long-term unemployment, we realised that the issue was happening much earlier than was being tackled. That is why we started to work with third level institutions and individuals in third year before they seek placements in order to help them build their confidence in recognising their own skills, because that is often a challenge, recognising the value they can bring to a company, and working with them on being able to confidently communicate during an interview. In addition, on the other side of this, where an employer is willing to engage with us, we work with the employer to help it become more open and welcoming in its interview processes. We help employers to provide an autism- or disability-friendly interview.

From our perspective, there can be a tendency to paint everyone with the same brush, for example, if people are autistic they are this and if they are dyslexic they are this, whereas, from our perspective, every single individual is entirely unique. The whole process needs to start with open communication, where an individual's needs are addressed so that person can perform to the best of his or her ability. That also applies to individuals who received a late diagnosis. By keeping the lines of communication open and checking in regularly, we can figure out what the person needs. That also allows a certain amount of respect for the fact that reasonable accommodations change over the course of life and time, with so many factors. The communication element is a very important factor for us.