Ask most managers about workplace adjustments for autistic staff and they will think about money. Ask autistic employees and they will describe things that cost nothing at all.
An agenda circulated before the meeting rather than after it. A written confirmation of what was agreed verbally. Being told what the feedback is about before the conversation starts. Permission to have the camera off. A named person to ask small questions of, so that each one does not require a decision about who to bother.
Most of these require little or no direct expenditure, though some involve staff time. Most improve the working conditions of everyone in the team. All of them are routinely refused, not because of cost but because they are read as special treatment.
The word adjustment implies the standard arrangement is neutral and someone is asking to deviate from it. The standard arrangement is not neutral. It was designed around a set of assumptions about how people process information, tolerate ambiguity and perform in real time under observation.
A meeting with no agenda is not a neutral meeting. It is a meeting optimised for people who think fastest out loud. That is a design choice, and it was made without most of the workforce in the room.
The most effective question we have found for managers is not "what adjustments does this person need". It is "what does this process assume, and is that assumption necessary".
A recruitment process that assumes eye contact signals honesty is testing something other than competence. An assessment that gives candidates a scenario cold is measuring improvisation, not the job. A performance conversation delivered without warning is measuring composure under surprise.
Once a process is described in terms of what it assumes, the adjustment stops being a favour and becomes a correction.
Understanding alone is not inclusion. For people who want to work, belonging has to include fair access to meaningful employment, career pathways and economic participation. That access is decided in the small design decisions, not in the diversity statement.