How do we make interviews accessible for autistic candidates?

Start with one question

Ask every candidate what adjustments they need, then act on it: share questions in advance, allow extra time, offer a remote option. For disabled applicants these adjustments are a legal duty under the Equality Act 2010. The single most effective move is to put one line in every interview invite, to every candidate, not only the ones who have disclosed: “Do you need any adjustments for the interview? Tell us and we’ll sort it.” Make it routine and you take the burden off the candidate to raise it cold.

The adjustments that consistently help

Most autism-friendly adjustments cost nothing and improve the interview for everyone. The ones autistic candidates ask for most often, drawn from autism-employment practice Employment Autism:

• Send the questions or topics ahead of time, ideally a few days before, so the candidate can prepare rather than perform on the spot.
• Ask plain, literal questions about real past experience instead of hypothetical or abstract ones (“tell us about a time you…”, not “imagine you…”).
• Allow extra time, and avoid surprise tasks on the day.
• Offer a quieter room or a remote interview, and a clear timetable so the candidate knows what happens and when.
• Name the interviewers in advance, with photos and roles, and make clear that eye contact and handshakes are optional.

The legal frame you may be missing

These are reasonable adjustments, and an employer must make them for a disabled applicant where a process puts that person at a substantial disadvantage Equality Act 2010, s.20. The candidate is never charged for them; the cost falls to you. The Act’s test for disability does not require a formal autism diagnosis, so do not gatekeep adjustments behind a diagnosis letter.

Here is the point that resolves most hiring managers’ real worry. You may believe you cannot raise health or disability before a job offer, and broadly that is right. But the Act expressly lets you ask about adjustment needs so a disabled person can take part in recruitment s.60. Asking “do you need any adjustments for the interview?” is lawful and encouraged. GOV.UK confirms you can ask candidates what they need or wait to be told GOV.UK — asking is the safer choice, because the duty bites once you know, or could reasonably be expected to know, that a candidate is disabled.

This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.