Article on Aspiritech in Crain's

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Software-testing firm aims to tap the unique skills of autistic workers

Posted by Ann D. at 3/24/2011 6:42 AM CDT on Chicago Business

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Aspiritech started where few startups do — in the checkout line of a Target

store.

Company founder Weitzberg's son Oran, a 31-year-old Roosevelt University

graduate with Asperger's Syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism, had found

success as a cashier after years of struggling to find intellectually

challenging work. He loved his job but had difficulty keeping track of time on

his breaks and was fired after three years. " That just spurred me, " says Ms.

Weitzberg. " I said, `I've got to find a solution to this.' "

So she did what any mother would do. Well, any mother with a background in

social services. Inspired by a Danish company called Specialisterne, which had

used people with autism's capacity for detail to found and staff a

software-testing company, Ms. Weitzberg had Northwestern's Kellogg School of

Management look into possible business models for people with autism. " If they

can harness strengths of autism to provide people with training and employment

in software testing in Denmark, " says Ms. Weitzberg, " we can do it here. "

With help from a few Kellogg students and other " angels, " as Ms. Weitzberg calls

them, her husband, Moshe, was able to begin training employees in the basement

of their home, and Aspiritech was launched. The unique nature of the business,

however, puts an additional hurdle between Aspiritech and potential clients.

" It's understandable that potential client companies are a little skeptical at

first, " says Ms. Weitzberg. " We started off telling them that proof-of-concept

comes from a Danish company, and that Harvard Business School and others have

done studies in which they found software testers with Asperger's Syndrome and

other forms of high-functioning autism to be 50% better — actually superior — at

software testing. "

Director of Business Development Marc Noland focuses sales pitches on the

financial benefits of working with Aspiritech, rather than philanthropy. " Part

of the motivation behind Aspiritech is to create real value in the marketplace

and have our resources and our testers — that typically have Asperger's syndrome

— not be given charity in the work that they do. "

For Ms. Weitzberg, creating a sustainable business model is a necessity.

Aspiritech has only nine testers on payroll, but there are hundreds of

applicants waiting in the wings, as children born with autism come of age and

begin to look for work. " Here we have found one good solution, " she says.

" There's a need. "

Okazaki, director of Avenues to Independence, an organization that

supports adults with developmental disabilities, knows how tight the job market

can be for people with autism. He places unemployment for adults with

developmental disabilities at around 85%, and he's seen many of his clients lose

their jobs. " Those jobs that many of our people with disabilities might

otherwise get into, they're competing with people who don't have disabilities. "

While some critics have raised concerns that companies like Aspiritech are

exploiting the talents of people with autism, Ms. Weitzberg contends that the

company provides important benefits to employees. " We start our testers at $12

an hour, " she says. " Our testers are really superior at what they do. "

Aspiritech has just recently hired its first full-time employee, an autism

specialist who helps the testers adapt to their work environment and interact

with one another.

Mr. Noland, the firm's director of business development, believes Aspiritech is

at the forefront of a sector that will grow. " I'm confident that five or 10

years down the road, people with Asperger's will be very common faces in the IT

world, " he says. " There's a large group of people who are heavily unemployed or

underemployed that can add a lot of value in this space. And I think from that

perspective Aspiritech is really a pioneer. "