News and Knowledge

Autism employment initiatives are all around us. And though they are all putting forth tremendous efforts, my two favorites—New York Collaborates for Autism (NYC4A), and the new “Hire Autism” job portal from OAR—are pulling together large amounts of resources to resolve the 75 to 85 percent unemployment rate for adults on the spectrum.

But when we crunch that unemployment percentage with U.S. population, working age, and the statistic of 1 in 68 people with autism, we end up with more than 2.5 million unemployed spectrumites.* How then are we doing?

Any out-of-work spectrumite—or close family member—knows the answer to how we’re doing: “Great. But nowhere near good enough.” And perhaps not so coincidentally, autism employment initiatives are currently pausing to assess their progress.

* My word for individuals on the spectrum.

All these initiatives really started 10 to 15 years ago, when the world started to look at our strengths, as people on the spectrum, and not solely at our challenges. Before then (during the “cure” or vaccine days), the picture was intentionally drawn with the brush/context of tragedy. But folks then realized that, even in the midst of real, as opposed to imagined tragedy, the tragic route was not only serving no one, it was actually making things worse. So an emphasis was then put on what people could do, not what they couldn’t do.

Suddenly we started hearing names like “Einstein, Beethoven, Thomas Jefferson, Emily Dickinson, Thomas Edison…” as clinical professionals started diagnosing the dead. This was followed by the realization that we hadn’t just contributed to Silicon Valley, we’d built it.

And even when the world took the time to find that, okay, a lot of us didn’t have that kind of brainpower, some of us had real capabilities, if not abilities, and could easily become working, productive people under the right circumstances. The time was now to harness the (dubious-yet-marketable) “Rain Man” iconography, rather than pathologize it from afar.

NYC4A, in its work with Project SEARCH (and in the smaller, employment wing of Neighborhood Network of New York), led the charge in showing people how to organize, collaborate, lobby, and enact system change with selfless, “mega-results-oriented” focus. ASTEP later noted how nonprofit entities needed to speak the language of businesses—and not just sell social good—as it lobbied large companies they were hoping to see open up to spectrum employment. Others focused in on specific professions: three nonprofits dedicated themselves to software testing. A plethora of nonprofit entities were doing their part, making small to large steps forward in response to what had to be termed an unemployment catastrophe.

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 But now we pause as the conundrum of “who needs to adopt to whom” rears its philosophically ugly head. Do spectrum folks need to adapt to tasks and environments? Or do the structures in place need dismantling so that they can be tailor-made for our folks? Or is there a fork in the road where we can meet?

Needless to say, the answers will vary based on the individuals. Work environments, hours, productivity expectations, functional abilities, and talents contain endless variations (which is one of the reasons to really like the design of OAR’s new “Hire Autism” job portal).

Spectrum behavioral differences are generally ill suited to the inflexible rigidity of corporate culture, and yet there will be plenty of talented spectrumites who want boring 9-to-5 corporate jobs and will thrive in them.

Others need space to create. And for that, we should continue to welcome the variations (and not attempt to narrow our focus) coming from a bounty of new and old nonprofits. We should hope that the existing programs grow, and encourage startups to keep entering with new ideas.

Our only mistake would be to assume that we’re getting close to resolving the autism unemployment crisis. The measuring stick of our success as a community could very well be our capacity for endurance.

Years ago we learned there is no singular face of autism. A diagnosis that can range from Albert Einstein to a non-verbal individual is bound to deeply offend the human need to compartmentalize. But if the definitions force us to be more flexible and open, then we become better people.

Let’s use that same infinity of variation to resolve this unemployment crisis and put to use the talents of the millions who miserably waste away at home. Focus on what the world could do if those millions were productive. How much richer we would all be with salaried, productive lives and without the millions of days we endure as a collective, filled with depression and not satisfaction. Imagine people taken off of government benefits (freeing up money that could be put to use elsewhere). Imagine the benefit to those outside the autism community. Imagine more flexible and open thinking.

The light at the end of the tunnel is not visible. But that said, don’t become paralyzed by the misery either.

Instead, fasten your figurative seatbelts, buckle down, and get to work.

Michael John Carley is the founder of GRASP, a school consultant, and the author of Unemployed on the Autism Spectrum (2016), Asperger’s From the Inside-Out (2008), and the upcoming “Why Am I Afraid of Sex?” Building Sexual Confidence in the Autism Spectrum…and Beyond! In 2000, he and one of his two sons were diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. Re-evaluated in 2014, he was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. More information about him can be found at www.michaeljohncarley.com.