America for Autism

America is finally for Autism despite our Bully in Chief who publicly mocks handicapped Americans and our ignorant Republicans in charge of our laws who discriminate against women’s needs meanwhile there isn’t a single law about male reproductive rights in the books. The fact remains that since the 1980’s for whatever reason you want to blame it on, there has been a growing population of Americans who have autism. For many years no one even knew how to deal with the condition and isolated the very people who like isolation and just don’t have the social skills of “normal” people. Whatever that is defined as having. We live in an anti-social world lately anyway where people are becoming more isolated and choose to hide behind their electronic devices like computers, smart phones, blogs and video games. That is heaven to a person with Autism. They like a world like that too.

The Autism population are adults now and growing. It is nice to know that there are sensible people in corporate America who can see beyond a disability and find the ability in their employees. The Autism population is finally not being isolated but are being considered employable and with proper care and attention can become some of the most valued, talented dedicated assets to any company. Autistic folks do not have a problem with intelligence but they do have a problem with social and communication skills. Sadly at least 80% of Autistic adults are still unemployed despite Trump’s claims of a great job report.

At Microsoft they are looking for the talent in Autistic folks. Their Chief Assess ability Officer is Deaf and is looking to employ Autistic people. Since 2015 she has implemented a push to identify Autistic talent. She finds talent by giving an Autistic person not in a face to face interview but by allowing them to be alone with a task to solve on their terms and more likely than not, they succeed faster than most “social” folks. Software engineers can be found from great Autistic people. Last year 50 big name companies like Ford, AT&T, Ernst & Young NCR, Microsoft and others recruited Autistic folk. German Software Company SAP started its Autism at work program five years ago and it has been a success for the company who plans to hire more than 600 Autistic employees.

Ten years ago no one had hope for a self-sustainable life for an Autistic person. Just by describing their work achievements have made them more social. Years of speech and occupational therapies are good treatments but a sense of pride in your work is priceless for us all.  Being different from others can be a good thing. Because they are considered professionals, they can deal with customers over the phone better because they are talking about a subject and not to just each other in person. Yet their social skills have improved through work. Instead of being on public assistance for the rest of their lives, they are employable and living on their own even if it is all alone happily.

Autistic employees have group meetings and love it because they know that no one like our President will look at them weirdly or mock them. That is a comfort zone. Each autistic employee is assigned a mentor, someone who will shadow them to make sure all goes well. “Normal” people who have a friend or relative with Autism are the greatest people to mentor an Autistic employee because they know. There is hope for America who believes that everyone here can contribute to society. We all want to be accepted for who we are.