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Old May 23rd 16, 06:53 PM posted to uk.railway,uk.transport.london
Charles Ellson[_2_] Charles Ellson[_2_] is offline
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First recorded activity at LondonBanter: Sep 2012
Posts: 498
Default Railways and Autism

On Mon, 23 May 2016 06:15:03 -0000 (UTC), Recliner
wrote:

Charles Ellson wrote:
On Sun, 22 May 2016 20:05:42 -0000 (UTC), Recliner
wrote:

Schnuzelbug (Chris Date) wrote:
I was diagnosed officially as having Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) by
my psychiatrist earlier this year, I'm now classed as having a mental
impairment under the Equality Act 2010.

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Autisti...roduction.aspx

I spoke with a member of LOROL staff about a week ago about the subject
and apparently there are autistic members of staff who are eligible to
work on London Overground.

Is it possible for me to apply for employment on the railway and what
sectors? My autism covers lack of social interaction skills but I have no
outstanding learning difficulties (my IQ is higher than average) so I'd
be no good at a customer facing role but I'm component enough to work in
operational or engineering rules.


Didn't you recently say you had a Freedom Pass? I'd assumed that meant you
were over 60. Wouldn't that be a bit old to seek your first railway job?
That might be a bigger barrier than ASD.

"Disability" WRT to Freedom Passes covers rather more than those which
are immediately visible :-
http://www.londoncouncils.gov.uk/ser...ss/eligibility
No.7 (ineligible for a driving licence) by itself possibly covers a
lot more people than realise that they qualify.


Yes, I wasn't aware of the wide range of conditions that qualifies for a
Freedom Pass. It's a wonder that many people pay at all, once you also take
into account Zip cards.

Payers still seem to be very much in the majority, at least on the
trains. The Zip cards include a lot of kids who would have had free
bus passes anyway in the days of card and paper had they trekked as
far as some schoolchildren seem to do now. The current disability
rules for free travel seem to make more allowance for people with
miscellaneous conditions which didn't fit into convenient broad
classifications and didn't entitle them to benefits but still
significantly hindered their ability to travel other than by public
transport.