Second Day of Autism at Work Summit

We started the day off with a presentation by Jenny Lay-Flurrie, Chief Accessibility Officer at Microsoft, who spoke at length of the program at Microsoft. Then Dr. Robert Austin introduced the autism hiring managers from several different companies such as SAP, Microsoft, E&Y, JPMC, DXC and Ford. Each company rep spoke of their hiring process for autism hiring or how their existing hiring process has changed to accommodate people on the spectrum. Generally, each company has a screening or first contact, an assessment phase, then a decision to hire. Some companies have special hiring programs where they hire a few people in one shot using specific advertising or sourcing campaigns, others modify their hiring portals and have boxes that candidates can check to indicate they have a disability or that they need accommodations in hiring. In the later case, no one asks what their condition is, but instead the recruiter asks what accommodation is needed. It could be "more time to answer questions" or "I don't look people in the eye"  for a person with autism, or "I need a sign-language interpreter" for a deaf person.

Assessment phases can take a few hours or up to six weeks, depending on the employer, the jobs, the education and experience of the candidates, and the scope of the hiring effort. If a company is looking for people to do manual labor, e.g., the interview might consider of a few hours of task-based evaluations where management and staff review the performance of a candidate. If a company wants to hire people with a desire to be programmers but little practical experience - and perhaps even little traditional education - assessments can be weeks long with individual and team challenges and company-specific task assessments. Candidates in programs like this could earn stipends from the state they live in. Those who are not selected get constructive feedback on why they were not selected, help with resume building, and often a certificate or a line on their resume that says they went through the assessment as training.

A keynote address was given by Nick Walker, managing editor of Autonomous Press. Mr. Walker emphasized that one of the keys to developing the full potential of autistic employees is to look beyond stereotypes that limit our ideas of what these people can do in jobs - do we take the well-meaning but misguided attitude that they are all only good at math or counting tooth picks like Rain Man, or the demeaning attitude that they can only do rote work or worse? These attitudes have been challenged by the aforementioned employers, and hiring mangers are finding that autistic people can do just about anything the rest of us allegedly "normal" people can do - graphic arts, animation, manufacturing, call center work, programming, QA, project management, technical writing, web design, editing...you name it.

The rest of the day built on these ideas and panel speakers from each of these companies and related NGOs or state agencies spoke of their experiences in the process. There were three tracks that the attendees could choose from (see the schedule here and register to watch via livestream here) during each afternoon session - Imagination tracks, in which planning for a hiring program was emphasized and assisted by experienced speakers; Ideation tracks, in which attendees heard from the experiences of first-time practitioners (I will be speaking on one 26th April at 10:30AM PDT); and Collaboration tracks that discussed how to scale operations.

I was unable to attend a good chunk of the afternoon because I had to catch up with my day job, but I was able to join an ideation track about creating accessible interviews, which I detailed in the second paragraph, above.

At the end of the day there was a closing session about the Autism At Work Roundtable. Companies who comprise this roundtable have had at least one year of experience with autism hiring and have agreed to work together to share experiences and best practices. These are companies that are, in some cases, competitors, getting together to collaborate. I can't emphasize this enough - everyone at these events since 2016 feels that strongly about how important this issue is that they feel obligated to evangelize about it. It's a great experience.

First Day of 2018 Autism at Work Summit

The 2018 Autism at Work Summit opened tonight at Microsoft’s Redmond, WA campus with a keynote address and chance to network.

People from across the country attend, from companies like SAP, Microsoft, EY, DXC, Ford; nonprofits like Integrate, Autism Alliance of Michigan, Tech Kids Unlimited;  state agencies like North Carolina Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services and the Texas Workforce Commission; schools like Vanderbilt and UNC Chapel Hill; and private companies like Cognoa.

The evening’s talk was introduced by Chuck Edward, Corporate VP of Global Talent Acquisition, Microsoft. He told a story about how he gathered scores of recruiters in Microsoft recently and, at the end of their gathering he focused a spotlight on stage for three different new hires: one, hired from another company, the second a new hire from Romania, and the third was a new hire’s mother; the woman spoke of how happy she was that her autistic son had been hired. Years of work and worry had come to bear more fruit than she could handle and she could now utter, “my child works for Microsoft!” proudly.

The keynote address was delivered by the founder of Rising Tide Car Wash, Tom D’Eri. Tom created the company when his brother, who has autism, turned 22 and he decided his family had to do something to create meaningful employment for their sibling. So they created a car wash company that hires people with autism.

Tom spoke proudly of his employees, emphasizing, “They earn; they are not carried.” Employee morale and customer satisfaction are over the top. He spoke of the clear processes the employees were given to follow, the excellent work they did, the intense concertation, love and pride they give their work.

He emphasized that the traditional interview and selection process doesn’t work for this. His company uses a model more like a trial, in which the candidates are given tasked to do and observed for their performance and selected accordingly. He stressed the need for each industry to create jobs in their industry and not token jobs just to hire and pay someone. His is a profitable business for himself and his employees. For many, it is just a first job – many move on to other jobs or go to college.

At the conclusion he urged all of us in the audience to

Day 25: My Favorite Autism Book

I’ve read half a dozen in the past few years, among them, “Neurotribes” by Steve Silberman, “In a Different Key”, by Jon Donovan and Caren Zucker, “Uniquely Human” by Barry M. Prizant, “Understanding Autism for Dummies” by Stephen Shore and Linda G. Rastelli with foreword from Temple Grandin, and “Look Me In the Eye!” by John Elder Robison. These were all very inspiring and educational, but I like things with a practical bent, too.

So instead I call my favorite book, “An Employer’s Guide to Managing Professionals on the Autism Spectrum” by Marcia Scheiner, founder of Integrate. It’s a very practical expository work on accommodating workers on the autism spectrum and a usable reference work with easily retrievable information on how to handle different situations.

What I find most likeable about the book, though, is how the management advice given is applicable to all employees. It encourages you to listen, look for the cause of performance disruptions, address them in a personal and tailored manner, and harmonize your team. It advises using clear instructions and providing accommodations that are useful for all people.

I so enjoyed the book I bought a copy for my daughter, an HR professional in Westchester County, New York, and sent two copies to Lansing, MI for the managers there to benefit from. I encourage anyone who is a manager to read it, whether they have employees on the spectrum or not.

Day 24: Symbols

I know of two prominent symbols for autism awareness: the long-standing but recently disputed blue puzzle piece, and the new, emerging infinity rainbow for neurodiversity.

There is an interesting history about the puzzle piece written here. I did not know it has been around since 1963! The other symbol, and neurodiversity, are explained here.

The puzzle piece has come under fire, mainly from actually autistic people, of late. They feel that it puts the wrong emphasis on them and their condition as being a missing piece of their lives, or they feel it represents or is promoted by organizations, like Autism Speaks, that they disagree with to some extent. The new symbol, the infinity sign, is gaining some traction but the term neurodiversity and the symbol are not yet widely known or accepted. Also, the people who do not like the puzzle piece sometimes disdain the "light it up blue" campaign as well for the same reasons. They suggest gold because the periodic table symbol for gold is Au. Other suggest red. What I find interesting is that if you add gold salts to molten glass, you get red glass in the end!

Nonprofits like Specialisterne have symbols for their programs. Specialisterne chooses the Dandelion because of the misconception of the worth of the plant. Is it a weed to be eliminated or a resilient plant that feeds bees, tastes good on salads, and can grow anywhere? 

Day 23: Political Issues Around Autism

To me, a political issue is one that involves disagreements between two parties In large portions of the public. There are many in the autism community

• Identity or person first language – some autistic people or parents prefer “identity first” language (I am an autistic person) versus “person first” (I am a person with autism). The former feel that autism is an integral part of their being, the latter feel that they are a person, first, and autism is just one aspect of their identity. There is even a third, nominal way to refer to a person with autism (or an autistic person): an autistic. This also has adherents and detractors.
• Funding for autism research – should autism be cured? Is it something that can be cured? Some would disagree and want research to go into help autistic people get on better in the world or raise awareness.
• Vaccines – Some still adamantly believe that vaccines or part of their makeup cause or help bring autism into being.
• Benefits – should autism be considered a condition for which one gets benefits from the government, private insurers, or employers? It is not consistent in all 50 states, nor is the belief that one should.
• Autism Speaks – some autistic people despise this organization because they refuse to deny the idea that vaccines cause autism and because they search for a cure.
• Civil Rights – speakers like John Elder Robison believe that the move to integrate autistic people into education, the workplace, and society is a civil rights issue on a part with any other in the last century.
• Autism Moms – the autistic communities that I listen in to on Facebook and Twitter get outraged at certain mothers in the public eye, such as Judith Newman, author of “To Siri, With Love.”

Whatever the issue is, I try to keep an open mind and listen to both sides. There are some that I come down squarely on one side or the other, but on others I am content to sit on the fence and adapt to whatever group I am speaking with at the time.

Day 22: I can't live without....

Today’s challenge is about things that autistic people can’t live without. I can’t speak to this topic, though I can imagine many autistic people would say things about their family or friends who support them.

What I know I can’t live without in my efforts to spread autism awareness, acceptance and hiring are the many kind words I have received from the members of this community, the assistance I have received from HR in IBM, the support of my managers in my efforts, the support of the Autism at Work community across the globe, and from the many friends I have made in all the different spaces around autism – education, volunteering, teaching, and so on. I have learned a lot in the past three to four years and I am grateful for meeting all of you.

Day 21: Dispel a Myth About Autism

There are so many. I’ll take on a few.

1.     They have no empathy – autistic people, by the origin of the word autism (form of Greek autos- "self" + -ismos suffix of action or of state), are thought to be locked up in themselves and have no empathy and cannot connect with or bond to their parents. They actually are quite empathetic. Here is a Scientific American article on the topic. In short, they do not express emotions like the rest of us learn to. Emotional expression is a form of communication – we read it from others’ body language, facial expressions, tone of voice. Because some of them do not learn to wear their heart on their sleeve, we have to find other ways to read their emotions and encourage them to learn to verbalize it. I recently read an amusing post by an #actuallyautistic person who explained he even apologized to inanimate objects and plants!

2.     Their condition is caused by unsympathetic mothers – this was actually a belief at one point. Mothers who did not bond with their children were called “refrigerator mothers” because they were cold to their infants and this was the cause of the child’s inward turning, according to Leo Kanner. If that were true, it fails to explain the mothers and fathers who work very hard for their autistic children. This myth caused so many mothers grief, guilt and despair, and unfortunately the attitude continues.

3.     Autism is caused by vaccinations – don’t get me started. This idea has been disproven countless times, but Paul Wakefield and a portion of the population still hold on to the idea like some do chemtrails or the idea that UFOs regularly land in Accord, NY. Celebrities like Jenny McCarthy didn’t help. Furthermore, the #actuallyautistic community takes great offense to the idea that their unique condition is caused by a poisoning.

There are many more out there. Exposing the moldy, pernicious and harmful ideas to the sunlight of rational examination and similarly allowing the seeds of truth to germinate is the best way to dispel the nonsense. Research things, talk to parents of autistic children, credible doctors and – very importantly – #actuallyautistic people.