Euan

‘I’m not going to lie, it feels pretty good to [think about] the person at school who said I would be horrible in a business job. It feels so damn good to be good at accounting. I look back at this not with anger or hatred, which I did for a long time. It’s just satisfaction that I have proven [them] wrong.’

Euan is in his 30s and autistic.

‘I’ll probably start with school because that’s kind of where, like, physically and mentally, it was at its worst,’ Euan told the Royal Commission. ‘Being the weird kid … I got bullied pretty regularly.’

The other kids taunted Euan to get a reaction.

‘Even when I try to find somewhere quiet to read a book or play my Gameboy or whatever, people come up, turn my Gameboy off, throw my book in the bin, tear pages out, and then what would happen is I’d react. Because I was the one always reacting, I was always the one getting in trouble.’

Euan loves history, but his school wouldn’t let him study it.

‘The other students said, “We don’t want to study history with [Euan] … Either he doesn’t study history or we don’t study history.” And so they booted me from history.’

Euan studied history at university, but struggled because he’d missed so much at school.

‘Having to learn how to study history while studying history means that my marks were never really good enough to seriously consider academia as a career. And then I just couldn’t find a job.’

When he did get a food service job he was never promoted.

‘They couldn’t tell me why the other people interviewed better, which I just read as, “He’s autistic. He’s not like everyone who got promoted.”’

Euan returned to university to do a postgraduate degree in accountancy. He struggled to complete the degree without funding.

‘At no point … did [the university] take my autism into consideration … so my degree took me three years instead of two.’

When Euan graduated he applied for a job at a large accounting firm.

‘I didn’t get the job and was gutted … I thought my autism was going to be the reason I never get a job and I’m kind of stuck in shitty, dead-end jobs for the rest of my life.’

However, the firm called back and invited him to another interview. Euan asked a disability employment service to help him prepare for the interview. He got the job.

‘I’ve finally managed to find something that I’m good at that I’ve turned into a career … I didn’t know what I’d need, what support I’d need here when I started, and it took a bit of time for us to realise what I need.’

Euan said the firm has a policy of inclusion and trains its staff to understand neurodiversity.

‘It’s funny, there’s a partner here who I reckon he’s probably autistic, and the amount of people that walked out [of a training session] and said, “I reckon [so and so] is autistic, what do you think?” I’m like, “Probably.” But that’s the thing, it’s like they’re embracing my autism and it doesn’t feel like I need to explain I’m autistic.’

Euan said he now feels comfortable asking for reasonable adjustments for deadlines and special equipment.

‘I’ve always had this kind of really slow start to jobs and then, once everything clicks, I shoot up and then all of a sudden I’m one of the best staff members there when given that opportunity.’

His managers meet Euan regularly to discuss his progress, so he knows exactly what’s going on. His colleagues include him in social events.

‘I’ve joined their quiz team with a whole bunch of people that I don’t really socialise with that much,’ Euan told the Royal Commission. ‘I’m a mine of useless information. Anything about Lichtenstein or history, I’m your man.’

‘It feels like I’m not the weird kid eating lunch on my own. I’ve never felt as included in anything be it work, school, social stuff. Like, I’ve always felt with social stuff lots of people just suffer my presence, whereas I don’t really feel that here.’