The Autism Advantage

"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.

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.

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.