
The Autism Advantage - Libertatea
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/magazine/the-autism-advantage.html
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laserDinosaur
"many companies struggle to find workers who can perform specific, often
tedious tasks, like data entry or software testing; some autistic people would
be exceptionally good at those tasks"

This line made me a little uncomfortable. Just because they are autistic does
not mean they are idiots. They are just as aware of the boredom of these tasks
as anyone else, possibly even more angry at the tasks since they can't
communicate just why they don’t like the work. This seems to have a hint of
the old tactic of putting two Autistic kids together to play assuming they
will relate with each other, not realizing they don't like talking to autistic
kids as much as regular people find it hard to talk to kids with autism. Just
because they can't communicate doesn't mean they are second tier citizens.

That being said, finding work for kids with Autism is great, and chances are
it’s the simpler work they will have the coordination to do, but the rational
being “Let’s get autistic kids to do menial labour nobody else wants to do”
rather than “Let’s find work autistic kids are capable of doing and will
enjoy” rustled my jimmies a bit.

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MrEliasen
You hit the nail right on it's head.

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yitchelle
For me, who has a son that has Asperger's Syndrome, this story hits home.
Although my son is only 7yrs old, I can see that he can potentially be part of
mainstream society if Thorkil Sonne and his friends are making good progress.
It gives me hope for kids like my son.

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MrEliasen
Been there done that. Not happy with it. He does have a good vision and he is
a very nice person.. but Specialister only stress me the fuck out.

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yitchelle
Can you provide some more details why it is stressing you out? Maybe the
execution of on the vision is a bit poor?

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MrEliasen
I have patterns and ways I want things to be done and I want those things the
exact same way.. that I am aware of and that is not the issue (just for
clarification for the text below).

I have issues working with very repetitive tasks, like data input. I am not
able to go into details about how it works and how "Specialisterne" analyse
their students (in lack of a better word), as all their students sign an NDA
about this stuff.

About Thorkil's vision, I'll quote him: "My vision is to create new
possibilities for people with ASD [Autism Spectrum Disorder] and to influence
society to adopt a more positive attitude towards people with ASD."

I hope this was in enough detail, else let me know if you want me to
elaborate.

