Last updated on January 15, 2026
As many of you will already know from my mission page, The Reasonable Adjustment was not dreamed up in a boardroom. It came directly from my own lived experience. I have spent years navigating systems that are supposed to support people but instead feel like obstacle courses.
I spent almost my entire education inside the SEND system. Leaving that environment, I believed the hardest part was behind me. I was wrong.
College: Hope Meets Reality
When I left school, I enrolled on a BTEC in ICT at college. I loved the subject and performed well academically, but my attendance was shaky. That was not because I did not care. It was because of money. My mother, who had me at 18, had just given birth to my brother 17 years later. She would give me £7 in pound coins every day. Around £3–4 went on a Metro ticket. I tried jumping the Metro at first to save money for food and drink, but it was not sustainable, especially after I got a fine. Watching her stretch finances to keep me in education filled me with guilt.
By January, only a few months into my course, I started applying for work. My first attempt was McDonald’s. I showed up to the interview as smartly dressed as I could manage, but not in the prescribed white shirt, black trousers, and non-slip shoes. Unsurprisingly, I did not get the job.
Apprenticeships and Another Setback
I decided apprenticeships might suit me better. They offered a Level 3 qualification while I was only studying Level 2, and my girlfriend at the time had found success with them. After several knock-backs I eventually landed an ICT apprenticeship at a marketing consultancy in February.
Seventeen months later, with just one month left on my 18 month programme, my training provider went into liquidation. When my employer returned from holiday, the first thing Monday morning was to take me into a meeting and tell me I was redundant. Just like that, the bottom fell out again.
Post-Conviction: Trying to Rebuild
Fast forward to after my conviction. Trying to get back into work felt like swimming against a tide. I was referred to The Recruitment Junction by the Probation Service in October 2024, but I “un-referred” myself. I did not feel ready, and their approach to neurodivergence did not inspire confidence. I was passed between staff I had never met, phone appointments were pushed despite my communication needs, and there was no real understanding that written communication would be faster and easier for me.
By May 2025 my probation rehabilitation activity was ending. I knew it was time to push myself out of my comfort zone again. I researched SSRIs that other autistic people had found helpful. That was not easy because these medications work differently for everyone, especially for people on the spectrum. I began applying for roles. Employers showed interest in my CV, but once I disclosed my conviction the phone went quiet.
So I asked to go back to The Recruitment Junction. I fought through barriers that would usually have made me quit. I kept going because I wanted to change my life. And that is when the saga began.
Why The Reasonable Adjustment Exists
The Reasonable Adjustment exists because I was tired of being ignored, tired of being treated like I had no value in society. It exists because I have seen first hand how systems designed to support can instead punish, confuse, and exclude, especially if you are disabled, neurodivergent, or carrying a criminal record.
Even at my lowest point I stuck to my morals. When I was arrested, the police themselves remarked that they were dealing with “an ethical drug dealer.” That should tell you something about how society channels people into crime and then acts shocked when they end up there.
This platform is my refusal to be silent. It is for everyone who has been written off, passed around, and told to wait quietly in line. It is about accountability, transparency, and building a world where reasonable adjustments are not a privilege. They are a baseline.
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