What do you think?
Rate this book
What Works for Autistic Adults
'This book has the power to change lives' Chris Packham
Imagine a world where an autistic person is included, engaged and cherished for how they are; a world which changes for autistic people, rather than changing the person.
What Works for Autistic Adults brings the conversation about inclusivity into the forefront and turns it on its head. Instead of modifying the autistic individual and making exceptions or special circumstances, Luke shows how the world can, should and must change to accommodate your needs or those of the autistic person you love, live or work with.
He identifies the aspects that impact on life most - partners, friends, work or college, and environment - and outlines the steps that can and should be taken by everyone involved to create an autism-friendly landscape and improve outcomes all round. Covering every setting, from social situations to office or other professional environments, and in all circumstances, Luke's book shows how no-one should have to struggle to exist within the parameters of a world they don't understand. What Works for Autistic Adults will give you the dialogue, tools and starting points to involve every loved one, family member or colleague as advocates for a world where you, or any other autistic adult, can truly flourish.
Imagine a world where an autistic person is included, engaged and cherished for how they are; a world which changes for autistic people, rather than changing the person.
What Works for Autistic Adults brings the conversation about inclusivity into the forefront and turns it on its head. Instead of modifying the autistic individual and making exceptions or special circumstances, Luke shows how the world can, should and must change to accommodate your needs or those of the autistic person you love, live or work with.
He identifies the aspects that impact on life most - partners, friends, work or college, and environment - and outlines the steps that can and should be taken by everyone involved to create an autism-friendly landscape and improve outcomes all round. Covering every setting, from social situations to office or other professional environments, and in all circumstances, Luke's book shows how no-one should have to struggle to exist within the parameters of a world they don't understand. What Works for Autistic Adults will give you the dialogue, tools and starting points to involve every loved one, family member or colleague as advocates for a world where you, or any other autistic adult, can truly flourish.
156 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 7, 2023
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 9, 2026
This is the 2nd book of Dr Luke Beardon’s I have read. Consistent with my first read, this is highly effective as a succinct and accessible insight into his take on how the environment should accommodate autistic adults. In addition to his golden equation that threads this short book together, I found his use of the term ‘predominant neurotype’ very interesting. This complemented the environment focus, through avoiding the use of a deficit take on neurodivergence. Very simple case study scenarios are also used to good effect. A specific eye-opener for me was the notion of a skills profile being much spikier for an autistic person, compared with that of the PNT… yet another straightforward model, but one that certainly resonated and gives a lot of food for thought with regards to employment obstacles and challenges experienced by autistic adults.
July 16, 2024
A decent starting resource for those with the power to make change in their environments/companies, but not quite as directly applicable to the autistic person or those who interact with them, at least as far as specific strategies. A short, quick read, but also very validating. More than anything else, the thing I took away from this book is a new confidence that I am not the problem. Autism is framed as a disorder, something bad to have, when really it’s only that way because we inconvenience the PNT people. If the world accepted our different brains better, there would be none of the infantilizing or judgement currently going on around autism, and perhaps people would be more willing to learn and accept that the stereotypes they think autism is is not remotely close to the reality, and that autism is a very fluid condition in regards to symptoms between people and within a person day-to-day.
It’s a good book for the autistic person to help gain the ability to self-advocate where accommodations are concerned, and validates the autistic experience more than any other book I’ve read, except perhaps for the book about autistic anxiety by this author.
It’s a good book for the autistic person to help gain the ability to self-advocate where accommodations are concerned, and validates the autistic experience more than any other book I’ve read, except perhaps for the book about autistic anxiety by this author.
April 18, 2024
time to get myself a referral 👍👍👍👍
June 11, 2025
Well-structured, direct, with extremely clear explanations throughout. I massively appreciated the brevity and clear approach. I've read "Autistic Masking" by Pearson and Rose, which is denser, longer, and more academic, and am currently reading "Unmasking Autism" by Devon Price, which is long and quite readable, but the variety of anecdotes in it can actually feel somewhat more alienating than they are inclusive (ie. I don't relate to this experience, does that mean I'm not?)
Beardon has created an excellent condensed primer for understanding one's own needs and what an autism identification/diagnosis might mean. Thorough and pragmatic about possible prejudices, but without being dramatic about things like the cost of masking. It's taxing and horrible, but it isn't a death sentence. It's a navigable challenge, and I needed to read that.
He's also the first person I've read who says that following an autism discovery after being high masking, you might feel like an imposter. His compassion for people who feel like that reached me. Really, really needed to read that. I love his advice of just "trying it on" - just assume you definitely are, and see how it feels. I think I needed the permission.
Excellent short volume, I don't think there's a single question I had which isn't in here with a proper answer.
Beardon has created an excellent condensed primer for understanding one's own needs and what an autism identification/diagnosis might mean. Thorough and pragmatic about possible prejudices, but without being dramatic about things like the cost of masking. It's taxing and horrible, but it isn't a death sentence. It's a navigable challenge, and I needed to read that.
He's also the first person I've read who says that following an autism discovery after being high masking, you might feel like an imposter. His compassion for people who feel like that reached me. Really, really needed to read that. I love his advice of just "trying it on" - just assume you definitely are, and see how it feels. I think I needed the permission.
Excellent short volume, I don't think there's a single question I had which isn't in here with a proper answer.
Did Not Finish
August 19, 2026No star rating because I didn't read this one cover to cover. What I did read was interesting and validating, but maybe at a bit too abstract or high level to match my expectations from the title.
I will remember this book for 'the golden equation' Autism + environment = outcome as well as the abbreviation PNT for predominant neurotype. It's shorter for note taking and has a pleasing symmetry with ASD. There's a part of me that gets a kick out of saying to the nypicals in effect, "There, we've lumped all of you together too with a label that sounds diagnostic rather than normative. No need to say normal, typical, ordinary or neurotypical anymore."
I like the concept of autopia, mythical autism-friendly land of the future. This author uses the word 'fear' more than I relate to. I do have a high level of guarding against sensory pain in my day to day life but I think I would call my feeling anxiety because 'fear' leads to '-phobic' labels. To use a simple example. I'm not afraid of the environment in a new restaurant, I'm anxious about the near-certainty that aspects of dining out will be overstimulating and physically hurt. Amplified music is almost always painful for me but I'm not music-phobic. Part of the mixed blessing of greater autism awareness is the expectation that autistic people bring their accomodations with them. They might 'get it' if I wear earplugs and a wide-brimmed hat indoors, but long term are unlikely to fix the horrible florescent lightning or turn the volume down by default. The upside to adulthood is I can pay and leave if need be. I'm not fully trapped in mismatched environments like my sons are at school.
I'm on a trip where I've decided to practice unmasking by wearing a sunflower lanyard everywhere, not just the airport. It has my husband's contact info at the end which is tucked into my bra. If I have a medical emergency they will reach him faster, which I find reassuring. I consider myself fairly high masking. My mother was a teacher and demanded it since her perception of her reputation is very tied up with her children's behavior and achievement. I also did ten years of children's theater during which a patient mentor taught me how to connect feelings expressed with words, faces, body language, etc. Mostly I just need five extra minutes of patience or grace when a new system (train travel, etc.) isn't immediately intuitive to me and I get stressed out. But it has made a big difference to how I'm treated. Other autistic people who aren't visibly unmasked sit with me on the train and I've had some good chats after they say, 'me too.' On the flip side I had a Tesco cashier rob me when I held out a handful with all my change thinking it would make his line go faster if he managed pounds and pence instead of me. (I'm American and have spent the last third of my life using euros). He believed I was incapable of doing it, not just trying to save everyone's time, and was willing to cheat me on camera. He took all of my high value coins and even returned me four pence instead of twenty pence. I said, "You must really need it" let him and walked away, but I worry when I think about helping my kids unmask and cope. M is honest to the point of being gullible. A's variable focus is going to be a lifelong employment challenge. Work isn't even central to living a good life, that's an ableist, capitalist construct, but I think about a time when they have each other for support and maybe no one else. Will unmasking reveal the folks who know the way and guide you along or the ones with a hand in your pocket? All of the framings are valuable in encouraging us to be self advocates and less apologetic about our needs, but it's not without tradeoffs.
I think the author had a goal to make the book speak to invalidation trauma without being filled with accounts of major trauma, to quietly focus on making education and work environments more hospitable. That's okay. Honestly for me I want to shout to the rooftops about the big trauma. I want the gaslighting section to include the doctor who said, "It's normal after a cesarian" "All multiple births are complicated" "This isn't a hotel" then released me from the hospital with surgical complications that nearly resulted in my death at home. The NTP-ASD communication gap includes power differentials that matter, that go beyond misunderstanding, (that result in PTSD!).
The idea of arranging jobs without rounds of terrible interviewing sounds fantastic but we'd miss out on the chance to assess the suitability from our end, too. If I submit a video presentation or a writing sample and have a video call I won't know whether my nearest officemate will have intolerable BO or my direct report wears too much perfume. I won't know whether the company culture proudly touts lunch at the desk without real breaks or demands that I bring potluck food on my own dime so I can be stuck staying late every Friday to have drinks with coworkers (even though I don't drink and want to go home!). That round of excruciating interviews often tips the company's hand about how stingy or boundary-less they are, how they break employment law or railroad employees within the legal limits but playing every underlegislated angle. (Yes, I'm talking Amazon.) It just becomes a matter of whether you can afford to keep looking or move on.
Cheers to this author for his desire to be helpful and his uncynical optimism. The world needs people like him. There's more to it though. Sometimes I get the most from a book of cautionary tales told emotionally because if I'm not great at perspective taking I walk into life's traps. Tell me just how bad the wrong therapy and medication is, that they will downplay how habit-forming the SSRI is based on their uninvested calculation of my need for it. Warn me that I will love my children but hate the role of motherhood. Tell me that I will compromise too much in marriage, but still not enough, and we'll both wind up resentful. Where's the guide to taking a hiatus from real life when in the depths of autistic burnout? I actually do want life hacks and a map to where the quicksand lies. Is there a system or do I have to invent and reinvent it all? That's what I wanted from a book with this title.
(Swansea Library)
I will remember this book for 'the golden equation' Autism + environment = outcome as well as the abbreviation PNT for predominant neurotype. It's shorter for note taking and has a pleasing symmetry with ASD. There's a part of me that gets a kick out of saying to the nypicals in effect, "There, we've lumped all of you together too with a label that sounds diagnostic rather than normative. No need to say normal, typical, ordinary or neurotypical anymore."
I like the concept of autopia, mythical autism-friendly land of the future. This author uses the word 'fear' more than I relate to. I do have a high level of guarding against sensory pain in my day to day life but I think I would call my feeling anxiety because 'fear' leads to '-phobic' labels. To use a simple example. I'm not afraid of the environment in a new restaurant, I'm anxious about the near-certainty that aspects of dining out will be overstimulating and physically hurt. Amplified music is almost always painful for me but I'm not music-phobic. Part of the mixed blessing of greater autism awareness is the expectation that autistic people bring their accomodations with them. They might 'get it' if I wear earplugs and a wide-brimmed hat indoors, but long term are unlikely to fix the horrible florescent lightning or turn the volume down by default. The upside to adulthood is I can pay and leave if need be. I'm not fully trapped in mismatched environments like my sons are at school.
I'm on a trip where I've decided to practice unmasking by wearing a sunflower lanyard everywhere, not just the airport. It has my husband's contact info at the end which is tucked into my bra. If I have a medical emergency they will reach him faster, which I find reassuring. I consider myself fairly high masking. My mother was a teacher and demanded it since her perception of her reputation is very tied up with her children's behavior and achievement. I also did ten years of children's theater during which a patient mentor taught me how to connect feelings expressed with words, faces, body language, etc. Mostly I just need five extra minutes of patience or grace when a new system (train travel, etc.) isn't immediately intuitive to me and I get stressed out. But it has made a big difference to how I'm treated. Other autistic people who aren't visibly unmasked sit with me on the train and I've had some good chats after they say, 'me too.' On the flip side I had a Tesco cashier rob me when I held out a handful with all my change thinking it would make his line go faster if he managed pounds and pence instead of me. (I'm American and have spent the last third of my life using euros). He believed I was incapable of doing it, not just trying to save everyone's time, and was willing to cheat me on camera. He took all of my high value coins and even returned me four pence instead of twenty pence. I said, "You must really need it" let him and walked away, but I worry when I think about helping my kids unmask and cope. M is honest to the point of being gullible. A's variable focus is going to be a lifelong employment challenge. Work isn't even central to living a good life, that's an ableist, capitalist construct, but I think about a time when they have each other for support and maybe no one else. Will unmasking reveal the folks who know the way and guide you along or the ones with a hand in your pocket? All of the framings are valuable in encouraging us to be self advocates and less apologetic about our needs, but it's not without tradeoffs.
I think the author had a goal to make the book speak to invalidation trauma without being filled with accounts of major trauma, to quietly focus on making education and work environments more hospitable. That's okay. Honestly for me I want to shout to the rooftops about the big trauma. I want the gaslighting section to include the doctor who said, "It's normal after a cesarian" "All multiple births are complicated" "This isn't a hotel" then released me from the hospital with surgical complications that nearly resulted in my death at home. The NTP-ASD communication gap includes power differentials that matter, that go beyond misunderstanding, (that result in PTSD!).
The idea of arranging jobs without rounds of terrible interviewing sounds fantastic but we'd miss out on the chance to assess the suitability from our end, too. If I submit a video presentation or a writing sample and have a video call I won't know whether my nearest officemate will have intolerable BO or my direct report wears too much perfume. I won't know whether the company culture proudly touts lunch at the desk without real breaks or demands that I bring potluck food on my own dime so I can be stuck staying late every Friday to have drinks with coworkers (even though I don't drink and want to go home!). That round of excruciating interviews often tips the company's hand about how stingy or boundary-less they are, how they break employment law or railroad employees within the legal limits but playing every underlegislated angle. (Yes, I'm talking Amazon.) It just becomes a matter of whether you can afford to keep looking or move on.
Cheers to this author for his desire to be helpful and his uncynical optimism. The world needs people like him. There's more to it though. Sometimes I get the most from a book of cautionary tales told emotionally because if I'm not great at perspective taking I walk into life's traps. Tell me just how bad the wrong therapy and medication is, that they will downplay how habit-forming the SSRI is based on their uninvested calculation of my need for it. Warn me that I will love my children but hate the role of motherhood. Tell me that I will compromise too much in marriage, but still not enough, and we'll both wind up resentful. Where's the guide to taking a hiatus from real life when in the depths of autistic burnout? I actually do want life hacks and a map to where the quicksand lies. Is there a system or do I have to invent and reinvent it all? That's what I wanted from a book with this title.
(Swansea Library)
January 17, 2025
I enjoyed this book, and found it to be affirming and positive whilst offering a very accessible introduction to the specfics of the neurotype. The title suggested a range of strategies and tips, which were not forthcoming. The book would also have beneiftted from directing the reader to legal protections and rights.
Nevertheless, this was illuminating and I am attempting to introduce some of the principles into daily practice.
Nevertheless, this was illuminating and I am attempting to introduce some of the principles into daily practice.
February 12, 2024
I liked this book.
The insights are super accessible.
Kindly communicated.
The insights are super accessible.
Kindly communicated.
August 14, 2025
This book has put into words so many difficulties that I could feel but I couldn’t explain before. It made me feel so much better. Thank you so much for this book.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews