

Startup company succeeds at hiring autistic adults - matan_a
http://news.yahoo.com/startup-company-succeeds-hiring-autistic-adults-162558148.html

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cooperadymas
This is an inspiring story, and I wouldn't be surprised if it were made into a
movie someday.

The revenue numbers quoted don't bode well though. $120k projected for this
year, 60% of which is from donations. They are paying the employees $12-$15 an
hour, which seems competitive and is more than they would make bagging
groceries. That just isn't enough money to go around when you're paying
employees and trying to make your own living.

Hopefully they're able to succeed.

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absconditus
$12-15 per hour is not competitive for testing software.

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burgerbrain
It is competitive for people with autism, which is clearly what he meant.

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VladRussian
i guess, some times ago blind people were not expected to make even $12-15 in
the high-tech, and these days they are employed like equals. Once the process
is streamlined and with the help of technology, i think, the autistic people
will be able also to make more. The start is hard and slow in such seemingly
impossible tasks.

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epo
Was done years ago in Denmark <http://ashoka.org/fellow/thorkil-sonne>

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iuguy
Am I the only person who finds this a complete non-article? Lots of companies
hire people that have aspergers or high functioning autism.

I do find it comes across as an almost exploitative and discriminatory policy
of hiring people with autism, but perhaps that's more to do with reading the
title as a startup company, as opposed to it being described as a non-profit
in the article.

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wisty
Very few companies hire autistics, which is why the article notes they have
similar employment prospects to people who are both blind _and_ deaf.

Some aspies get hired, if they happen to be savants, or have rare and
marketable skills they have developed, but savants are quite rare.

Generally, people with autism are not seen as team players, and don't really
thrive in chaotic workplaces. I've worked with a guy I'm pretty sure was ASD
in a uni project, and it wasn't too hard - he just needed an extra 5 minutes
of explanations every now and then, but was otherwise pretty good. His
complete lack of eye contact was creepy, but you could say the same about
people with prosthetics, and it's wrong to treat _them_ differently. But
"People skills" is more universally required than eyesight, because it's not
seen as unfair to discriminate against people with unusual mannerisms, while
people with obvious physical handicaps get more recognition, as their
handicaps are more obvious, and aren't seen as intrinsic as personality
defects.

Diseases with external causes get a lot more sympathy than those that are seen
as an integral part of the victim.

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aidenn0
The worst thing about employment for those with autism is that a lot of the
jobs for "dumb people" are extremely ill suited for people with ASD, as they
tend to be service related (bagging groceries being the canonical example).
The last thing you want an autistic employee doing is interacting with
customers, especially customers that are in a hurry.

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keithpeter
I have taught several people with Asperger's Syndrome over the years, and a
few more with ASD of more or less severity. Many have had problems getting
into employment here (UK). Some work in Libraries classifying (not customer
facing), others work in highly structured aspects of IT. This is a really nice
initiative.

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benvanderbeek
Sounds like Focus from Vinge's A Deepness In The Sky

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petegrif
Well done.

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sabat
This so could have been an Onion headline.

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zethraeus
I'll leap on your downvote train. That was also my initial reaction to reading
the headline. Perhaps that means it was a bit of a glib summary..?

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rabble
<sarcasm>

I thought that was was google did? Hiring Asbergers (Autistic) programmers is
pretty much the norm, no?

</sarcasm>

