How can the Fair4All Card help autistic people and people with learning disabilities and mental health conditions?

How can the Fair4All Card help me? This week we talked to autistic people and people with learning disabilities and mental health conditions.

How can the Fair4All Card help autistic people and people with learning disabilities and mental health conditions?

Since we launched the Fair4All Card Scheme, our application form has had a few big updates to it.

In this series of weekly posts, we will be discussing the different sections of the application and how the different categories of reasonable adjustments can help different people.

This week we talked to autistic people and people with learning disabilities and mental health conditions. If you are interested in what you are reading here, you can apply for a card for yourself or someone you care for by visiting our website at https://fair4all.org.uk/apply-for-a-card/

How can the Fair4All Card help me? This week we talked to autistic people and people with learning disabilities and mental health conditions about how the Fair4All Card helps them.
Need quick access to a quiet space so I can calm down. "I can feel overwhelmed in busy spaces and a quiet place for 'time out' would enable me to cope and stay longer rather than go home."
Need others to be understanding and accepting of my behaviour. "I need others to understand that I am not being deliberately difficult or rude, but my mind works differently and is overwhelmed at these times. I can feel embarrassed afterwards."
Need clear explanations and instructions. "I find it hard to understand unclear instructions, and asking people to clarify them makes me very anxious and flustered. My card helps me explain what I need."
Need easy-read materials. "I like easy read because it breaks things down into small chunks and uses words and pictures I find easier to understand. My card means I don't have to say this out loud to people."
Have difficulty with changes to familiar places or routines. "When things change from what I expect, it takes me longer than others to process the change. I need time to adjust my thinking. People giving me time to process it helps me a lot."
May experience 'meltdowns' or 'shutdowns' where I behave differently from others. "I can sometimes get really overwhelmed, and sometimes I stop responding to people until I've calmed down a bit. Knowing that my card explains this for me is really reassuring."
Thank you to everyone who helped with making this post. Please note that these adjustments can apply to other people, and that not all people with these disabilities or conditions will need any or all of these adjustments.