Thinking Differently: Autism Finds Space in the Workplace

Thinking Differently: Autism Finds Space in the Workplace

Some call it neurological diversity, others see it as autism's fight back. People diagnosed as "on the spectrum" are suddenly in demand by employers seeking a competitive advantage from autistic workers more used to being considered disabled than special.

Expressing a belief that "innovation comes from the edges", German computer software giant SAP last month launched a recruitment drive to attract people with autism to join it as software testers.

A week later, U.S. home financing firm Freddie Mac advertised a second round of paid internships aimed specifically at autistic students or new graduates.

The multinationals both say they hope to harness the unique talents of autistic people as well as giving people previously marginalized in the workforce a chance to flourish in a job.

"Only by employing people who think differently and spark innovation will SAP be prepared to handle the challenges of the 21st Century," SAP's board member for human resources, Luisa Delgado, said as she announced the plan.

For Ari Ne'eman, president of the Washington DC-based Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) and a member of the U.S. National Council on Disability, the moves are welcome and well overdue. It's high time autism fought back, he told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"We need to see neurological diversity in much the same way as we've seen workplace diversity efforts in the past on the basis of race, gender and sexual orientation," he said. "We're now seeing a growing level of interest in this."

Autistic spectrum disorders, including Asperger's syndrome or high-functioning autism, are thought to affect around 1 percent of the population worldwide.

The disorders are caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors and can range from severe mental retardation with a profound inability to communicate, to relatively mild symptoms combined with some high levels of function such as those seen in people with Asperger's.

Among the core features of autism are poor communication skills and social difficulties. In high-functioning autism, features such as intense or obsessive focus and unwavering attention to detail are also common.

These latter qualities, experts say, as well an ability to approach an issue in a different way - often a creative or counterintuitive one - make autistic people potentially attractive as employees in large corporations.

"Historically, there seemed to be a certain perception of this population as being incapable of performing corporate level work," Freddie' Mac's diversity manager Stephanie Roemer told Reuters. "In reality people on the spectrum offer so much to an organization ... willing to think outside of the box and view this cadre of talent as a 'value add'."

OBSESSION AND SUCCESS

Joshua Kendall, author of "America's Obsessives", which argues that some of history's greatest American business and political leaders became successful partly because of obsessive personality traits, says the firms that get in first on this trend are likely to reap rewards.

"These big companies aren't doing it out of the kindness of their heart; they are doing it because they now realize they've been missing something," he said in a telephone interview.

He said the crucial question if such recruitment drives are to prove successful and sustainable is how much society will seek to accommodate people who think differently, or how much it would seek to "cure" them of their disorder.

"These are people who have traditionally been labeled as disabled. So do we want to treat them, or do we want to allow them to be as they are and adapt to them?"

SAP says its global autism recruitment drive, which aims to employ 650 autistic people - around 1 percent of its workforce - by 2020, comes after successful pilot projects in India and Ireland. It is a collaborative project with Specialisterne, a Danish consultancy that gets people with autism into jobs where they can shine.

Ne'eman says so far most of the firms expressing interest in autistic workers tend to be in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. In future, he says he hopes their success will encourage others to take notice.

"Many of us can and do succeed in a wide variety of professions," he said. "I, for instance, am an autistic person working in politics and public policy, which is certainly not a stereotypical field."

In Britain, only 15 percent of adults with autism are in full-time employment, says Carol Povey, a director at the UK's National Autistic Society - a fraction, she adds, of those who could contribute to the world of work.

In the United States, according to Ne'eman, studies of the working lives of autistic people have not been done, so no comparable data is available.

"It's great to see organizations not just doing from corporate social responsibility, but actually recognizing there is a good business case behind having more people with autism in the workforce," Povey said. "These people will contribute to the effectiveness and growth of the business."

Yet autism campaigners, and the firms seeking to recruit people on the spectrum, know there will be problems, too. Povey notes that "the social aspects of being in a workplace or office may pose particular challenges" for autistic recruits.

"They may be great at doing the task in hand, but really struggle when it comes to 'water cooler moments' or lunchtime.

"In fact they may even make other colleagues feel inadequate or awkward. They are unlikely to get involved in the banter of the workplace, and more likely to just get on with the job."

Source: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/thinking-differently-autism-finds-space-in-the-workplace/1125323

Susan Boyle’s powerful, graceful Asperger’s statement

Susan Boyle’s powerful, graceful Asperger’s statement

The singer reveals her diagnosis -- and the "relief" of it

By MARY ELIZABETH WILLIAMS

If you received a diagnosis for a disorder that’s often stigmatized and misunderstood, a condition that’s perpetually challenging and isolating, how would you feel? What would be your response, learning you have Asperger’s? For Susan Boyle, the answer is, “relieved and relaxed.”

The 52-year-old Scottish singer, who set the bar for the term “overnight success” in 2009 with a riveting performance of “I Dreamed a Dream” on “Britain’s Got Talent,” has spent the past four and a half years enjoying a level of success that few talent competition runners-up ever dream of. She’s sold millions of albums, been nominated for two Grammy Awards, written an autobiography and become the subject of a hit musical. But she’s also very publicly grappled with the pressures of instant stardom — there has been a hospitalization for “exhaustion,” a few painful televised bouts of stage fright, and the toll of seemingly endless commentary on her “frumpy” and “slow” demeanor. When you factor in all that a small-town woman whose prior show business history consisted of singing in the church choir has experienced in the past four and a half years, maybe then it’s easier to understand why Boyle took her diagnosis with such apparent grace.

In an interview in the Observer this weekend, Boyle, who’s currently promoting her fourth album, acknowledges that “Some articles have said I have brain damage,” and says, “I have always known that I have had an unfair label put upon me.” After seeing a Scottish specialist a year ago, Boyle learned that her IQ is in fact above average, and that “I have Asperger’s. It is a relief.”

People with Asperger’s — a condition on the autism spectrum – are generally characterized by having difficulty with social interaction and communication. As Boyle’s interviewer Catherine Deveney describes her, the singer possesses “warmth, kindness and empathy” but also displays “delayed eye contact … visible anxiety until the stranger in her presence settles into at least superficial familiarity … slightly offbeat laughter in the middle of conversation … [and] sudden and obvious emotional withdrawal if she feels uncomfortable with a particular subject.”

The interpersonal challenges people with Asperger’s often face can make it easy for them to become the targets of bullies and critics – and Boyle has spoken and written much of her struggles in that arena, stretching back to the time she was a child. But in recent years, thanks to increasing awareness and more refined diagnoses, much ground has been gained in understanding both the condition and the people who have it. In 2007, John Elder Robison’s memoir of his life with Asperger’s, “Look Me in the Eye,” became a New York Times bestseller. Two years ago, actor Paddy Considine said he was feeling “more comfortable and confident and in control” since learning of his Asperger’s, and Dan Harmon revealed how he realized that he’s on the spectrum when he began researching the character of Abed for “Community.”

Recognizing that there’s a reason for one’s behaviors, rather than some kind of personal failing because they’re not like everybody else’s, has got to be pretty validating — especially after more than five long undiagnosed decades of living. For a smart woman once mocked as “Susie Simple,” one who has also battled depression and “got laughed at because people didn’t think I’d do well … It’s a condition that I have to live with and work through, but I feel more relaxed about myself.” Boyle says she hopes that now “People will have a greater understanding of who I am and why I do the things I do.”

The world can be a cruel place even when people do understand what you’re dealing with. But with her candor, Boyle – one of the most successful musical performers in the world right now (take that, Miley) — has offered herself up as a role model of what is possible when you dream a dream. She’s opening up the possibility of more compassion and understanding for misunderstood and teased people with Asperger’s all over the world. “I am here for a reason,” she says, “and it must be to make people happy.”

Mary Elizabeth Williams is a staff writer for Salon and the author of "Gimme Shelter: My Three Years Searching for the American Dream." Follow her on Twitter: @embeedub.

Source:   http://www.salon.com/2013/12/09/susan_boyles_powerful_graceful_aspergers_statement/