jobs4autism.com » advice

The Voice of Experience – A Texas Autism Story

Barbara — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 21:14:17 +0000

Greg posted a comment on one of the posts that was so full of insight and information I felt it should be shared, so I’m copying it here…

“I am on the higher functioning end and have had people comment on walking slow, not being flexible enough, etc. I would be glad to share how I got disability with a lot of patience, a lawyer, and the effects of our condition such as anxiety, depression, and fatigue. You have to have some detailed notes etc. Once you get turned down you can get a lawyer at no cost up front - comes out of lump sum disability payment.

I volunteer right now and would like to have a job but after years of not being able to hold on and my age, now it will be hard. I am a dedicated and committed employee. It is just on the high functioning end. People want to ask what is wrong and instead I get fired. I got social security so I can have the disability protection that at the time could help me keep a job, due to past harassment from employers. You have to stay the course.

Texas is not the best place for help. I went to the re-hab folks and was told I was too old. They cannot help. I would be glad to share my process more, that started when I was a kid.”

photo from www.autismparents.net

Adult Autism & Employment – a guide and a conference from MU

Barbara — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 19:38:36 +0000

Although the University of Missouri’s Disability Policy & Studies office doesn’t provide direct services to persons with disabilities, its many projects provide advice, training, and support to agencies and groups that do.

Mostly they provide advice and continuing education to counselors and service providers at agencies in Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas, but thanks to a new guide designed to help disability service providers do a better job and to Autism Works, an upcoming national conference on autism & employment, the rest of the country is now able to benefit from their studies.

Adult Autism & Employment: A guide for vocat ional rehabilitation professionals, written by MU School of Health Professions clinical associate professor Scott Standifer, suggests how to accommodate adults on the autism spectrum during employment services and in the workplace.

“Until now, there hasn’t been a resource available to employment service providers that is specific to autism and provides recommendations to help with the features of this growing population,” Standifer says. “This guide provides specific advice on a variety of employment issues for adults with ASD and, ultimately, helps the counselors find jobs for their clients.”

Autism Works will be Thursday & Friday, March 3 & 4, 2011, at the Sheraton Westport Hotel in St. Louis, MO. The conference will bring together the disability employment services community (vocational rehabilitation) and autism community to learn from each other and improve employment options for adults with autism. Topics will include: understanding the vocational rehabilitation (VR) process, what VR counselors need to know about autism, job development and work-place supports, funding possibilities for employment supports, and insights from working youth with autism.

Besides bridging the gap between vocational rehabilitation, one of the goals of the conference is to bring new voices into the discussion. Speakers will include Dan Tedesco, father of a child with autism and software developer who is busy building autism-specific iPhone applications; Joan Kester who provides technical assistance for voc rehab agencies and who is busy working on her dissertation on building communities of practice at George Washington University; Paul Andrew, who works for an agency that certifies disability employment service providers internationally, to assure they are doing person-centered, professional work; and Zosia Zaks via video link, a trained vocational rehabilitation counselor who has autism. As Standifer says, “She embodies the very connection we are trying to make with this conference.”

For more information on the Autism Works conference, go here: http://dps.missouri.edu/Autism/Announcement01.html

Autism Job Placement: An Autism Resource

Barbara — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 19:49:12 +0000

Natural Learning Concepts manufactures materials for autism, speech and cognitive delays. Founders Jene Aviram and Joselyn Blum say the company’s goal is “to increase language and communication skills of children who fall on the autistic spectrum or have development delays while showing them how much fun it is to do so.”

All of the illustrators they employ are on the autism spectrum, and that got them thinking, if we can do this, others can, too. So in 2007, Aviram and Blum launched a new resource to help those on the spectrum find employment: Autism Job Placement.

Their theory is “if you can get on-line, you can get a job!”

The site is set up in forum-style, where employers who are interested in quality of work, who are willing to look beyond interview or interpersonal skills to a potential employee’s unique skills and abilities, post job openings.

Potential employees post information about themselves and about the type of job they’re seeking. Both groups can look over what has been posted in hopes of a match in location, skills and interest.

For those employers who might have doubts about hiring someone on the spectrum, basic information is offered about autism, including this list:

Good reasons to hire people with autism and Asperger’s
- Many have the ability to focus intently on projects.
- Others are very detailed and excel in any position requiring this skill.
- Some are excellent at finding imperfections and make top notch editors.
- With excellent research abilities, many make outstanding technical writers.
- Often they have a wealth of knowledge and have excellent computer skills.
- Some have excellent catalog and sorting skills.
- Others excel in routine work and never miss a beat.
- Typically people with autism are punctual, loyal and dedicated employees who prefer to remain in the same company for a long period of time.

This is a free service and it’s not limited to location. Please help spread the word!
Click here to go to the forum and get started posting jobs or job requests.

Get a Master’s degree, dig ditches – An Autism Job Request

tdomf_7a1de — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 16:15:24 +0000

I have never seen a job I wanted. I went to school until there were no more degrees to get. After graduation I sought and got a series of jobs that any ditch digger could do. It did not occur to me to aim higher until I realized all these low-aiming jobs are painfully dull.

I have sought and received excellent career counseling but sadly found no career ideas with them.

One light is here: Socrates Cafe. For about 6 years now I have been facilitating two such groups and am told by the long-attending participants that I am especially good at it. What I do is ask good questions of people which results in good answers. I also make sure people don’t talk too much nor too little. And when someone is speaking I make sure they have fully expressed themselves before anyone else gets to speak.

No one does this for a living. Many skilled people do it as a part of their living (journalists — DO NOT ask me to cover a town hall meetings; managers — I dread the thought of disciplining employees, Chairpersons of the Boards — yeah, right) but because this is my “special interest” I find any job that merely includes group facilitation to be uninteresting.

I would be thrilled beyond imagination if you can help me.

Still Searching for Employment in the UK: An Autism Job Dilemma

Barbara — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 16:24:09 +0000

We received the following email recently. Anyone in the UK or Europe… do you have any suggestions or advice for “Still Searching”? Please send me an email or add a comment! Thank you!

“I am a 48 year old adult autistic in the UK.

I really need to work from home because of inability to interact with a workforce and lack of speed at working. I also cannot use a computer and have to be assisted so IT jobs are out.

The only other kind of jobs offered by any disability organisation is factory work, which I can’t do because of lack of speed and I can’t interact which will also stop me from working as a counter assistant in a fast food place which is the only other option for the disabled.

Does anybody know of any other kinds of jobs which can be accessed by a person my age and disabilities and is there an advocate who can be paid to explain the disabilities to employers and hopefully look for a suitable job if any?

If you know of anywhere in the world which will do this and contact me, please tell me. I have looked in the UK for 10 years, please do not tell me to go to the NAS or the JobCentre.”

Thank you again for any suggestions or ideas you can offer to “Still Searching”!

- Barbara

Finally figured it out late in life – an Asperger’s Job Search Story

tdomf_7a1de — Thu, 20 May 2010 21:17:58 +0000

My son is nearly 21yrs old and it is only recently that I’ve figured out that he could literally be the poster child for Asperger’s Syndrome (wonder if they need a model…). He just recently finished his 2nd year of college, and although he struggled greatly due to social problems in elementary school, we moved him from public to private school where the problems decreased a bit, and his grades improved dramatically. I’m not saying that the social “strangeness” changed. Let’s face it, kids with Asperger’s are always the oddball and usually the target of bullies.
He was tested for ADD/ADHD, etc.. when he was younger, but it was during a time when all of the counselors just wanted to label every kid with ADHD and put them on a pill. I was once completely against medicating my children, but if they came out with a pill to treat Asperger’s tomorrow… I would be the first in line!
We’re now looking for a job. I say “we” because he’s now making me frustrated. He applied for jobs via walk-ins, he’s had a single job that lasted all of 3mos his entire life – but he knows what he’s doing. The fact that he took his friend, younger brother, and cousin along with him while asking for applications was probably the first reason that any applications that he filled out were filed in the “circular bin”. The next knock against him was being dressed in heavy metal tee-shirts and putting no effort into his appearance prior to going out to ask for applications… and we’re not even going to talk about how long it took me to get it through his head that the employers are not obligated to call, interview him or tell him that they’ve decided on another applicant.
Talking on the telephone is another hurdle. Time and time again he has been told that the first thing he should do is introduce himself – it doesn’t matter if it is the person he is looking to speak with or the Pope on the other end of the phone, the first words out of his mouth should be “Hello, my name is….”. I cringe and make sure I’m not holding anything heavy to throw across the room because I can bank on the first words out of his mouth being “Who’s this” – after he is the one that dialed the call!
I am currently looking for information as to how to go about having him tested now that he is older. It was a really touchy situation trying to explain that I think he has a problem, but I was able to get him to agree to seeing people that could help him because they would have resources on finding him a suitable job. This really needs to happen, I don’t like the idea of him being labeled, but it is the only way to get him the services that are needed to help him.
It is so difficult being the parent of a grown child with this problem – especially after both of us have suffered through the battle of his social quirkiness for so long already. There is no way to give him constructive criticism without it sounding like I am bashing him, but as bright as he is (and he is very intelligent), he just does not have the capacity to realize that some of his behaviors and the things that he says are at times inappropriate, and now that he is older, I can honestly say that it sometimes makes him sound like he’s a real jerk.
If I can pass anything on from my experiences, it would be to allow your child to be labeled at a young age – these children can usually function on a normal to above average intelligence level and will not need special classrooms. However, the teacher will be empowered by knowing how to deal with things and it will also be helpful if the students in the childs’ classrooms are also educated on the condition because they will be less likely to tease a child if they know that there is a reason why the child sometimes does things differently and will be less inclined to ostracize your child.