However, this will be my last post. Jobs4Autism.com is a nonprofit website and our supporters are no longer able to keep it operating.

Although I feel our site provided a much-needed service in the autism community, I know there are so many others out there fighting for awareness and solutions to the problem of employment for adults on the spectrum. Please give them your support.

Thank you for the support you gave Jobs4Autism, for helping to spread the word about us.  I wish the best of luck in whatever hurdles you face. Don’t give up! Keep asking for help and keep helping others by sharing your stories in some way, even if it’s not here.

Our Facebook page will remain open as a resource for sharing and learning. If you’re not a member already, please join at http://www.facebook.com/groups/Jobs4Autism/

Best wishes and thanks again!

Barbara

We are the only student written newspaper in the state of Wisconsin that the paper is written only by the students from the high school and some from the middle school too.

Here is my article; it took me 3-4 weeks of writing and editing and making it good. Hope you like it as much as I do.

Editor’s Note: While the “P-News Point of View” column usually features an opinion article written by a Pulaski News student, this issue, the column will feature a first-hand article about what it’s like to have autism and attend Pulaski High School.

My name is Jerrod Michael Zeitlin and I have a type of autism called Pervasive Development Disorder (PDD). No, you didn’t happen to just accidently wander into an autism anonymous meeting; this is my attempt to give you a glimpse into my world and the world of other students with autism. Everyday, my alarm goes off and around 6:15. I roll out of bed and begin preparing for school. I have to get dressed eat breakfast, take my medication, brush my teeth and put on my shoes.
While I’m on the bus, some of the kids try to bully me, but I refuse to fight them (I’m not that kind of person) so I just ignore them, the best I can, and wait until we get to school.
During first hour, I attend gym class. The biggest problem I have in gym is that I have trouble keeping up with my classmates. After recent foot surgeries, I am still limited by the pain and had to take a week off of gym. Even though I was able to rejoin my classmates a week later, I’ll still likely have to have more foot surgeries in the future.
Besides struggling because my surgeries, gym class is also hard because I don’t have any friends in this class and often I end up being paired with someone I don’t know to do activities like weight-lifting. For now, I just look at it as another obstacle I have to overcome. (Sometimes I feel that there’s an obstacle around every corner while I’m at school, but I just deal with it and keep going.)
After gym, I have business class. I like it, but it’s a bit fast-paced for me. I find the material interesting and enjoy the projects (one of our projects is to make our own business and I really like that) but sometimes I wish it was slower paced.
My next class is Pulaski News, and it’s my favorite class (and, no, I’m not just saying that because my article is in the paper) but I enjoy writing for a newspaper that is distributed throughout the public and enjoy the hands-on aspect of the class.
Passing time in-between classes is tough because there is a lot of noise and people hanging out and I wish I could join in their fun.
Fourth hour I have math class, however, I take math through an online program called Odyssey, which is nice because it reads the problems out loud. This is a big plus since sometimes reading more complicated material can be difficult for me.
I’m supposed to do my math work during fourth hour, but lately I’ve had to use that time to make up missed gym classes. I will have to be sure to catch up my math when my gym class is caught up. I worry about this a lot even though my teachers reassure me it will be okay.
During fifth hour, I have study hall, which is a nice chance to slow down and make sure I’m caught up on all of my work. At least that is how it is supposed to go. Sometimes it takes me a long time to catch up on my work so I don’t always finish my current work, so I often worry about completing everything on time.
Sixth hour I work in the school guidance office as part of my school’s work experience program. The program is designed to help students to prepare and develop skills that will help them once they’ve graduated from Pulaski High School. As part of my job description, I run passes to students and teachers, make copies and just generally help out in anyway I can.
The last hour of the day I have art class. I like the class and making the projects, but sometimes it’s a little difficult to keep up with my classmates who always seem to be a few steps ahead of me. I am trying to work through it the best I can. I know trying my best is all I can do, but it is hard to be okay with that.
Finally, at 2:48, the bell rings and I make my way to the buses to head home. I like to get on the bus first and get one of the back seats. I think I should get a back seat since I’m a senior. Sometimes the other students pick on me on the ride from school, but I just tough it out until I get home. A lot of time when I get home I need to rest and shoot hoops to help reduce stress from the school day.
While I know the education I am receiving as a student at PHS is important and necessary, I wish I had more of an opportunity to make more friends among my classmates. Often, other students are confused by my condition and do not know how to react to me.
This is especially difficult since PDD already makes it hard to meet new people and understand other people’s intentions. I think I have gotten better about it as I have gotten older, but it sometimes still bothers me.
While students with an ASD may require extra time and assistance in the classroom and a few other everyday situations, it’s important to remember that we still want to be treated normally, like everyone else; ask me about autism, I’m happy to talk about it. I want to help others understand ASD disorders.
My story is just one of the 730,000 individuals in America living with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). With no known cause, and so many variants of the disorder, it’s important to remember to treat those with ASD like “normal” people. As one of my favorite, famous individuals living with an ASD Temple Grandin says, “I am different, not less.”

That’s the logo of Paperworks Studio, a “mission-based market-driven social enterprise” that employs people with special needs to make hand-made greeting cards.  About 20% of those artists are autistic, according to an article by Alice G.  Walton in Forbes magazine, “Living Life with Autism: Has Anything Really Changed?”

Owned by Goodwill Industries and based in Traverse City, Michigan, the company has doubled in the past year and is on track to do so again this year.

Each one-of-a-kind card is made by hand from recycled materials, including recycled blue jeans.  There are cards that contain flower petals and ferns and some with coffee, small pieces of upcycled wool or even recycled beer products. They can create customized holiday cards, wedding invitations and cards with your company logo on them.

Through the production of these cards, the members of the production team learn life and work skills, grow in self-esteem and obtain more independence.

“When you give a card, it shows you care. When you give a Paperworks Studio card you are giving cards that change lives.”

The mission of Paperwork Studios is to remove some of the barriers in life of people with disabilities through job skills training and the production of these quality cards.  In their words, “Our profit is people.”

Watch the following video to learn more about Paperwork Studios and the people behind the cards.

With this in mind,  Autism Speaks  launched the Autism Speaks Transition Tool Kit, a unique guide and roadmap to help families on the journey from adolescence to adult life, in February 2011.

Autism Speaks gathered information and input from professionals and parents to develop the free Tool Kit.

According to the article on the Autism Speaks website (HERE), the kit “identifies opportunities and resources to develop these skills with the goal of enabling the adolescent or young adult to participate to the greatest extent possible in their own transition plan.”

Topics include:

• Transition Planning and the IEP process
• community life
• employment
• housing
• post secondary educational opportunities
• health
• internet safety
• issues surrounding sexuality
• a timeline and other organizational tools for the transition process

For more information, read the complete article here: http://www.autismspeaks.org/about-us/press-releases/autism-speaks-launches-transition-tool-kit-providing-practical-information-a

“Autism doesn’t qualitatively change when you hit adulthood. You’ve got the same issue with reading social signals, with understanding instructions,” said Scott Standifer, a clinical associate professor at the University of Missouri’s School of Health Professions.  ”We forget how important social relationships are in maintaining employment.”

Standifer’s  office provides training and consultation to State Vocational Rehabilitation agencies.

According to a fact sheet compiled by Standifer based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and other sources, less than one-third of people with a disability aged 16 to 65 were working in 2010, compared with about two-thirds of people without a disability. And people with autism were only about half as likely to be working as people with disabilities in general (33 percent compared with 59 percent).

Families of people with autism as well as employers and co-workers can all help to make the employment experience a positive one for these individuals. Here are some tips:

• Families should start preparing for their teens’ transition into adulthood and the work force well in advance, perhaps even as much as two or three years before graduation. “People with autism are often so anchored in routines that it is important to have new, productive routines in place for them well before they hit graduation and leave school behind,” Standifer said.
• Find a job that matches their more general abilities and strengths. Although it’s hard to generalize, people with autism often do well doing gardening, simple bookkeeping, merchandising (such as folding or organizing clothes in a department store), as well as in library and school settings, said Charles Archer, CEO of the Evelyn Douglin Center for Serving People in Need, in Brooklyn, N.Y., an organization that helps people with disabilities live independently.
• Take advantage of local vocational rehabilitation counselors, more of whom are cropping up all over the country, Standifer said.
• Find jobs with consistent routines. “Individuals with autism need a workplace that is structured, that’s non-judgmental, that provides ongoing training and very, very strong levels of consistency either in work and/or communication,” said Archer.
• Create accessible work environments. This might include providing written instructions for a task rather than verbal ones.

Autism Transition Handbook is a wiki providing individuals with autism spectrum disorders and their families access to the most current and comprehensive information on the transition to adulthood.

Much of the information on the site is general in nature; for example,  Transition  Overview and Guideline, Transition to Work, and Laws and Regulation are a few of the subjects covered, and include external links.

Thanks to funding from the Pennsylvania Department of Education, transition services specific to Pennsylvania are also included.  Information specific to other states will be added later. If you would like to help develop information for your state, please send an email to autismwiki@devereux.org.

Click HERE to visit Autism Transition Handbook