🫱 Hold My Hand

I didn’t want to build this website.
I wanted support, I wanted help, I wanted to move forward.
What I got was silence, shutdowns, and systems that punished me for asking to be treated like a human being.

Who I Am

My name is Kieron. I’m autistic. I live with colitis. I have a conviction for selling cannabis.
I’ve also got intelligence, dignity, and the right to be heard.
What I’ve lived through, and what so many others have, is not just personal, it’s structural.

I’ve spent years being told I was “difficult,” “noncompliant,” or “too intense.”
But what I really was, and still am, is someone who can’t unsee what’s wrong.

What Happened

Autistic Unemployment, Barriers to Work, and Systemic Failure

Summary: A personal account of disability discrimination in employment support, highlighting the systemic barriers faced by autistic adults in the UK job market.

In 2025, I was referred to a charity called The Recruitment Junction.
I disclosed my disabilities, I asked to use my own CV, the one I built myself.
Within twenty minutes, they removed me from the service.
They blocked my email addresses.
They ignored my Subject Access Request.
They never gave me a chance to be heard.

This pattern is all too familiar for people on the autism spectrum, because most of us want to work but are shot down by systems that should support us.

According to the National Autistic Society, just 29% of autistic adults in the UK are in employment, the lowest of any disability group.
Only 36% of autistic graduates secure full-time work within 15 months of graduating.
Four in ten autistic adults on out-of-work benefits say they want to work, but are held back by inaccessible recruitment, a lack of understanding, and a refusal to provide reasonable adjustments.

I was diagnosed as autistic in 2013, after spending the best part of a decade in and out of the special educational needs system. I’ve spent my life being assessed, managed, labelled, and misunderstood.

I’ve learned how to navigate institutions that repeatedly pass the buck rather than offer real support. Many vulnerable people spend years being shuffled from pillar to post, myself included. That cycle of deflection and dismissal wears people down.

I created this website to provide much-needed support to an otherwise forgotten cohort of society. I am not a professional by any means, but my lived experience gives me the one thing systems lack, perspective from the sharp end.

If You’re Reading This

If you’ve been discriminated against, ignored, or failed, especially if you’re disabled or have a conviction, this space is for you too.

You are not alone.
I will hold the door open.
I will hold the record.
And yes, I’ll hold your hand if no one else will.