Lucy Hilary

This week Barbour ABI have I just wanted to personally say thank you to all those who have followed my vlogs and videos over autism acceptance week. I especially wanted to thank the marketing team at Barbour including Kate Perrin and Stuart Edmonson for allowing me to use the team to raise acceptance and awareness. … Read more

After being offered a position, a candidate who may not have disclosed in the interview, may disclose during the onboarding process. This process should give a new employee with a disability to chance to explain to their employer what their disability is and the reasonable accommodations they require. It would then be helpful to arrange … Read more

When I was looking a new job, I saw a lot of companies use phrases in their job adverts such as ‘disability confident’ or ‘we are an inclusive employer and do not discriminate against race, age, gender or disability’. When I applied for these jobs some would respond asking if I needed any accommodations at … Read more

Today I want to talk about the Equality Act of 2010. Autism is classed as a disability. Personally for me there are moments where I am literally disabled by my autism. I can become so stressed I can’t speak. Literally can’t speak or get my words out in a coherent way to be understood. My … Read more

My name is Lucy Hilary and I have been a member of the research team at Barbour ABI for the past 2.5 years, recently promoted to Senior Researcher and I have been the top performing researcher for just over 1 year. I am 35 years old this year however, at 31 I was diagnosed as … Read more

Reasonable adjustments are not favouritism or perks to my work day. Reasonable adjustments are something your employer might have to make to help you do your job as well as someone without a disability. The Equality Act 2010 calls these ‘reasonable adjustments’. They can be changes to policies, working practices or physical layouts, or providing … Read more

Sensory overload happens when something around us overstimulates one or more of our senses. That could be a loud TV, crowded room or smelly food halls. There is suddenly too much information coming in through our senses for our brain to process. Autistic people have a different wiring to their brains so that senses are … Read more

Some people hear the word autism and are immediately scared by the word. However, when I was diagnosed autistic, I was nothing but relieved because I finally had answers to all of the questions I was constantly asking of myself. To be honest I had decided if I was found not to be autistic then … Read more

You may or may not have heard the term ‘high functioning’ when it comes to Autism Spectrum Disorder as well as low functioning or mild/severe autism. There is no such thing because these labels describe a linear version of autism which most people who do not understand the condition often refer to it as. However, … Read more

When you think about autism what are the things that come to mind? Is it maths? Is it boys? Is it somebody rocking or flapping? How about an inability to communicate? Or T.V programmes like ATypical, The Good Doctor or The A Word (All of which the main character is played by a male)? There … Read more