The definition of autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired social interaction, repetitive patterns of behavior and impaired communication skills. It is, however, definitely not true that people suffering from an autistic spectrum disorder are unintelligent and can't apply their skills in their work.
Research from the past few years confirms that many autistic people have normal or high intelligence, and sometimes even a genius level of intelligence. The advantages of autism include a high degree of concentration and attention to detail, deep unilateral specializations, analytical skills, perseverance and loyalty. The world's leading companies, particularly in the technology sector, are starting to realize this. Recently, some of them have come up with recruiting campaigns focused specifically on people with autism spectrum disorders.
SAP, Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard lead the way
A pioneer in this field is the German supplier of ERP systems, SAP. The company launched its global program to hire autistic workers in 2013. In the Czech Republic, SAP started offering jobs to autistic people in April 2015 in cooperation with the Apla organization. After training under the supervision of a professional mentor, the autistic employees work as software testers, programmers and data quality controllers.
Microsoft announced its plan for a project to employ autistic people as early as 2012. The project was launched on this year's World Autism Awareness Day - 2nd April. The pilot project is proceeding in cooperation with the Specialisterne employment agency which focuses on employing autistic people. So far, Microsoft is offering ten full-time positions at its headquarters in Redmond, Washington. The company values autistic people especially for their strong ability to remember information, highly detailed thinking and knowledge of mathematics and coding.
A similar program is currently being launched by Hewlett-Packard. The company wants to employ autistic people as researchers in Australia. A pilot project is already running in Adelaide and more than 10 autistic employees have been hired since January. In October, the program will be launched in Canberra in cooperation with the Australian Department of Human Services and Latrobe University's Autism Research Centre. The centre's workers will perform research on autistic adults and their families since most of the previous research focused on children. The Danish organization Specialist People Foundation will select and assess the autistic workers in Canberra.
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