Building a More Inclusive Work Force

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July 5, 2011, 9:20 pm

Building a More Inclusive Work Force

By DAVID BORNSTEIN

In recent years, there has been a dramatic rise in the diagnosis of autism

spectrum disorders (A.S.D.). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

estimates that 730,000 people in the U.S. under age 21 have an A.S.D. It’s

much harder to estimate the number of adults on the autism spectrum because only

in recent decades has the condition been regularly diagnosed.

What is clear is that almost all people with A.S.D. — which is four to five

times more prevalent among males than females — struggle to find work where

they feel comfortable and valued and where their abilities are well used.

In the coming years, there is going to be a wave of young people with A.S.D.

graduating from schools and embarking on careers. It will take significant

changes in workplaces across the country to accommodate them.

There is much to learn. On Friday, I reported on a Danish company called

Specialisterne, which can supply a piece of the answer. Specialisterne trains

people with autism to work as consultants in large companies where they excel at

jobs like testing software and managing data. The model has inspired similar

initiatives in a variety of countries, including the U.S. Thorkil Sonne, the

founder, notes: “There are so many people who do not fit in today — who have

skills but cannot find a way to make use of their skills.â€

Many readers agreed — and they wrote in to share stories of the difficulties

they, or their children, have faced. “As a parent of a young person living

with a disability, I’m inspired by what’s happening in Denmark,†wrote CDM

from Providence, R.I. (3). “It’s very difficult to watch a person you love

be forced to face the fact that, because of his disability, he isn’t valued as

someone who can contribute in significant ways in the workplace. The only jobs

that are made available are menial ones.â€

from North Carolina (44) added: “In my 13-year career, I’ve yet to

find an employer who tolerates my A.S.D. issues, much less embraces them. Thank

you for letting me know that someday, some employer may accept my unique

contributions to the workplace, or even value them.†And CHN, a special

education teacher from Houston, who works in a program that supports high

school students with A.S.D. (65), noted: “Transition out of high school and

into the real world is by far the most troubling and challenging issue we

face.†(In April, a job skills training Web site called JobTIPS, designed for

young adults with A.S.D., was launched by a group called do2learn, with support

from the National Institute of Mental Health.)

Traditional job placement strategies are often not effective for people with

many types of disabilities. a from Upstate New York (41) recalled her

son’s experiences with a state supported “job coach†who did little more

than provide him with job listings. “It would have been better to pick one job

announcement and work through the whole process with him, including role-playing

for a job interview, talking on the phone, writing applications, resumes and

thank you letters and advocating for him on the other side of the fence.â€

The U.S. Office of Disabilities Employment Policy advocates an approach called

“Customized Employment†in which a vocational specialist creates an in-depth

profile of a person with a disability and, working with both employee and

employer, defines the specific conditions of employment in which both parties

are most likely to benefit.

That’s what Specialisterne does, focusing on a subset of people with autism. A

Chicago-based organization called Aspiritech, works in a similar fashion,

training people with autism as software testers. Aspiritech’s co-founder Moshe

Weitzberg, from Highland Park, Ill. (49) commented that the company has hundreds

of potential employees on its waiting list. “[O]ne of our recent customers

mentioned: ‘I am amazed by the level of detail that your testers are able to

catch.’ In spite of our very satisfied customers, we still find it difficult

to convince the business community that people on the [autism] spectrum can

provide incredibly high quality work, which is critical to software

development.â€

But it’s not just in software testing that people with autism could excel.

“We started off in the IT sector because I worked in that sector,†explained

Sonne. But if I had been working in a hospital, I probably would be talking

about how good people with autism are at assessing X-rays, testing life-critical

equipment, or entering medical data. In any business there may be five percent

of all tasks that would fit very well with our consultants.â€

Specialisterne consultants are involved in jobs like monitoring the cable

network for a utility company and digitizing correspondence for a Danish

municipality. They are also well suited for things like motor repair, piano

tuning, and pharmacy, explains Sonne.

But companies can also become more broadly inclusive by designing whole work

environments to accommodate people with differences. One example is Walgreens,

which has designed regional distribution centers in South Carolina, Connecticut

and Florida so people with disabilities, particularly autism, can work side by

side with non-disabled employees. Having clear visual cues, for example, is

extremely helpful, as is helping to reduce stress for people who may be highly

sensitive to noise, light and touch.

The financial services firm TIAA-CREF, which owns more than 400 farms, has

established a program called Fruits of Employment, which hires people with

autism to do farm work in two of its orchards and vineyards. One reader,

Yukarisakamoto from Tokyo and Singapore (55), offered the example of the Coco

Farm & Winery in Japan, which employs many people with autism. from

Arizona (63) drew attention to Uzmanlar Danismanlik in Turkey, Autism Works in

the U.K., and Kaien in Japan, all of which hire people with autism, and drew

inspiration from Specialisterne.

It’s notable that many of the initiatives above — including those at

Walgreens and TIAA-CREF, as well as Specialisterne and Aspiritech — were

started by entrepreneurs or managers who themselves had a child with autism.

“I wonder what would have been if Thorkil Sonne’s child had not been

diagnosed with autism,†commented ETF from New Jersey (16).

It’s an important question. Developing employment for people with a wider

range of disabilities will require a far more concerted and generalized effort

from businesses than currently exists. It will also require a range of models

for people who do not fit the kind of corporate consulting that Specialisterne

or Aspiritech offer. “Turning the disability into a strength is a great

idea,†explains Standifer, a clinical instructor for disability policy

and studies in the School of Health Professions at the University of Missouri,

who has authored a highly referenced guide on adult autism and employment. “My

concern is that there is a whole group of people with classical autism and more

significant issues for whom this kind of model can’t address.â€

One company that has experience customizing employment for a wider range of

clients is Montana-based -Hammis Associates, which, among other services,

develops profiles of people with disabilities and surveys the needs of a range

of employers in the community to come up with good matches. It would seem that

the combination of in-depth personal assessments and a detailed mapping of

community employment needs would be essential to any systematic solution.

From the corporate perspective, hiring and managing people with disabilities has

historically been seen as a burden, not an opportunity.

But there is one industry in which many people with what would (elsewhere) be

considered disabilities have thrived: information technology. “There are a lot

of people who have been very important in the history of IT who would probably

rate high on the autism scales,†explains Austin, dean of the faculty

of business administration at the University of New Brunswick, who is author of

a Harvard Business Review case study on Specialisterne. “Some of the most

brilliant people in the industry have been effective because companies have been

willing to work with them.â€

Austin says that businesses in general, as well as business schools, haven’t

paid sufficient attention to the competitive value of employees with

differences. “When you find somebody who is different there might be something

remarkable and important in that,†he says.

That’s because innovation often comes from the margins of society. When

anything can be copied cheaper somewhere in the world, companies that figure out

how to do things differently gain the advantage. That means companies benefit

when they generate valuable accidents and harness the talents of people with a

wide range of perspectives and backgrounds. “The 20th century tried to make

people fit into the system,†explains Austin. “The 21st century will be

about managing people who don’t fit in.â€

Sonne hopes to bring the Specialisterne model to every state in the United

States — but not through a franchise model. He plans to work closely with

companies – guiding and mentoring them so they learn how to assess, hire and

manage many more people with autism. “I hope this spreads!†writes

Sleepygirl, from California (36) “Not just for those with ‘disabilities,’

but for everyone who does not conform to the ideal personality.†As Sonne

says: “When we send the message to our children that it’s O.K. to be

different, we create a very attractive world for them.â€

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Bornstein is the author of “How to Change the World,†which has been

published in 20 languages, and “The Price of a Dream: The Story of the Grameen

Bank,†and is co-author of “Social Entrepreneurship: What Everyone Needs to

Know.†He is the founder of dowser.org, a media site that reports on social

innovation.