Specialisterne – Autism Job Opportunities
“Did you know that people with ASD are natural born specialists?”
This question is posted on the home page of Specialisterne, a groundbreaking Danish company that employs more than 40 people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). “Specialisterne” means “the specialists” in English.
It all began six years ago when Thorkil Sonne, father of three sons including one with autism, realized that the abilities of people with ASD - such as attention to details, being systematic and persistent – would make them good at specialized work in industries where those traits are required, such as the telecommunications industry where Sonne, a Danish IT specialist, had worked for 15 years. He was inspired by his concern at the exclusion of people with autism from the workplace, and his son Lars, who once reproduced a road map of Europe from memory. He said “I wanted Lars [to have] the same chances as his brothers. When you say autism most people think of the film, Rainman, and the common perception is that anyone with such a condition is unemployable.
“I came to realise this was very far from the truth. As long as someone with autism could feel comfortable in a workplace and have the social confidence to perform a job then they would have skills that made them more capable than others to perform certain tasks which required large degrees of precision, focus and memory recall.”
Sonne re-mortgaged his home, hired six employees with Asperger’s and convinced his former employer, Danish communications company TDC, to grant him a contract testing mobile phone applications and games. Next Specialisterne was hired to test the Danish version of Microsoft’s Windows XP Media Centre. Its reputation grew; now Specialisterne also provides services to CSC, a global IT services company, Nordea, Scandinavia’s largest bank and is preparing to open its first international operation in Glasgow early next year. A spokesman for the National Austistic Society, Raemond Charles, said, “There is a vast pool of untapped potential out there which we are simply missing. A branch of Specialisterne in the UK would be a very important step in opening up the work place to people with autism.”
Mr. Sonne has said, “This is not about offering cheap labor or some kind of occupational therapy. We charge market rates, our consultants receive a market salary and that is because they simply do a better job. If you have a piece of software that needs repeated testing, a student being paid to do it in Britain or India is going to get bored and lose concentration at the fifth or sixth attempt.
“Our consultants relish the challenge of that repetition and they can spot anomalies in a large amount of data that others would struggle to spot. We cannot be perfect but our error rate is 0.5 per cent compared to the five per cent for other testers.”
In addition to the benefits his workers provide to Specialisterne’s clients, Sonne mentioned the benefits to his workers themselves. “I have seen people transformed. One of our consultants had not worked for 24 years. Now he is testing for Cisco Systems. He finally feels he is part of society and respected. He can talk up at family gatherings. He recently got a girlfriend. Lars wants to work for us as a trainer. I see no reason why eventually those who are at lower points in the autistic spectrum should not work as well.”
(Read the original article by Cahal Milmo and published in The Independent upon which this is based here.)
Note: Specialisterne is inspiring others around the world. Autelligent Laborities is a “group of committed citizens working hard to promote this business model in America” (check out their website here.) Aspiritech, another nonprofit company dedicated to providing autism job opportunities, is gearing up up to launch operations near Highland Park, IL. (Read our post about Aspiritech here or check out their website, here.)
Let us know about any others!
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How does a person apply for this company?
I have been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome and have been in love with computers and software since I was 5yrs old. I’m now 22yrs old and have a self taught knack for computers and how they work. I also have amazing attention to detail. Unfortunately though I live in the United States.
Well they diagnosed me with ADHD and ADD but there was always talk that they thought that I could have Asperger’s Syndrome. I’ve done a little research into the signs and symptoms. I seem to match nearly all the symptoms and signs.