Special Episode: The Woman Behind the Microphone

wearing many hats, so to speak.

Yes.

And Susan, just one question about the legal system and jury duty as autistics.

Being autistic does not get you out of jury duty, and I personally don't believe it should, right? I believe that I need to help create the sort of society that I want to live in, and I want to do my duty.

But being on a jury or even being considered can add some additional burdens to autistic people.

Do you have any advice for autistics who get called for jury duty, what they should do in

order to get through it? Well, you have excellent advice in your book.

A whole chapter is devoted to this, so I think everyone should check with that first.

But yes, I think a person should...

Let the judge know.

However, that's easier said than done because some are not as accepting, nor do they even think it's an issue.

They also have some will have biases about what autism means.

And I'm afraid some judges would just assume that means you're not capable of being on a jury, which would be unfortunate.

And I say that because I've tried to bring up the subject of neurodiversity with judges and mostly get a negative reaction because of, I think, the

biases about what autism really means.

Yeah, I would say if you can and get accommodations, at the very least, if you need help like hearing, because I know I have problems with auditory processing where it can take me maybe a few more seconds to understand a question someone said.

You know, it'd be so nice if people understood that, that I'm not just standing there and not reacting.

I really haven't heard and processed what's been said.

And I think especially in a jury trial, that would be important for a judge to know.

Good advice.