After 40 years as an autistic person in the workplace, I realised it was OK to ask for changes

Sandra Thom-Jones says her autism diagnosis ‘made me realise my colleagues did not experience the workplace in the way that I did’. Photograph: Namthip Muanthongthae/Getty Images

Although I started my first full-time job when I was 15, it was more than three decades before I asked for an accommodation at work. This was not because I didn’t want or need changes in my workplace.

I had struggled with aspects of the workplace since my first job at the age of 15. I knew that the bright lights in my office and in meeting rooms made it difficult to concentrate and gave me severe migraines. I knew that the artificial air blowing through the air conditioning vents caused my skin to itch and made me feel ill. I knew that I struggled to shut out the background noise and focus on important conversations. But the idea that it didn’t have to be that way – or that it wasn’t that way for everyone else – was beyond my imagination.