As young adults venturing out to explore the unlimited monetary opportunities available in our ever expanding economy, we familiarize ourselves with the procedure of pursuing a job. Hundreds of resources and examples are available for us to use to successfully prepare ourselves for the transition into employment. But many may not have the same opportunities.
Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD, is a neurobehavioral condition that handicaps an individual’s ability of proper communication and comprehension. Autism is normally diagnosed among children around the ages of 2 and 3. Symptoms that parents or doctors usually identified in the early years of childhood include inappropriate social interaction, compulsive and repetitive behavior and speech delay. Many times, the story behind the autistic diagnosis is that parents notice the communicative absence in their toddler’s first couple of years.
Although kids with ASD lack proper communication skills, they are commonly strong in visual learning, such as with puzzles, science experiments, and documentaries. Autistic kids can do very well in school, but may not necessarily behave in the “classroom manner” that is expected of other children in an educational environment. For example, a child with ASD may be extremely good at math computation, but would not be able to sit still and take a 60-minute math test like his fellow classmates.
Current public school systems have improved, compared to past decades when special education did not exist in most states. Adjustment in accordance with individuals with ASD is at most necessary in order for our education systems to be labeled as socially accepting and ethical.
“There is no current treatment for autism, just educational strategies that do not not put emphasis on learning abilities for nonsocial information. We need to take their learning style for what it is and feed it,” Laurent Mottron, a psychiatric researcher at the University of Montreal, said.
Nowadays, adults with ASD find themselves confined to low paying and mediocre jobs due to the impact of rejections by other job employers who underestimate their capabilities and what they can accomplish. This lack of diversity and social acceptance is the missing piece, needed to complete our puzzle of unity and non-discrimination in economic society.
Although the unfortunate circumstances of autistic employment persist, a few tech companies like Microsoft, SAP and CAI have recently teamed up with Specialisterne, an organization that helps prepare autistic people for employment, to change their style of interviews to impartially benefit people with ASD.
This is just the first step to encourage the emergence of more opportunities for those with ASD in hopes that they can gain the confidence needed to be successful in their careers, and potentially change society’s thinking about the world.
