Need for autism ‘acceptance and inclusion’

Despite the World Autism Awareness Day being observed on April 2 and many monuments lit up in blue lights to show support for the cause, the concept is simply not enough. There should be autism “acceptance and inclusion”, as recommended by author and inventor Robert J Szczerba, who describes himself as “the father of a wonderful 11-year-old boy with autism”.Writing in forbes.com, the advocate for children with special needs, states that every day is Autism Awareness Day for his family. Much of his time is spent worrying about what career opportunities will be available to his son once he reaches adulthood.Society has created stereotypes and cultural obstacles that make it difficult for “neurodiverse” individuals – those with different thinking styles – to lend their voice to the global chorus. An area where change is urgently needed is in demolishing the hurdles to employment for individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).Autism and ASD are both general terms for a group of complex disorders of brain development. These disorders are characterised, in varying degrees, by difficulties in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication and possible repetitive behaviours. Many individuals with autism have the skills frequently desired by employers, including visual learning skills and the ability to recognise patterns, strong attention to detail, concentration and perseverance over long periods of time, high diligence and low tolerance for mistakes. One significant challenge, according to Szczerba is that many employers do not see the upside in hiring individuals who can be considered rigid and moody or have poor communication skills. New approaches are needed that allow businesses to tap into the potential of this unique demographic.  Szczerba has stressed that early identification and nurturing of special abilities are crucial, along with creating intelligent and interactive tools to identify and nurture interests in the arts, science, and technology fields.Intelligent and adaptive training programmes ought to be constructed to help individuals overcome identified challenges in academics, social interactions, and general life skills. Developing artificial intelligence algorithms that match individuals with appropriate jobs across a wide variety of industries; deploying novel approaches for interviewing and assessing potential candidates in neutral, non-threatening environments; and utilisation of systems integration practices to co-ordinate information from candidates, employers, advocacy organisations, governments, and service providers, are among Szczerba’s suggestions.From a technology perspective, none of these recommendations are revolutionary in nature. Machine learning, virtual environments, and systems integration concepts have obviously been around for years. Many of these concepts have been successfully developed and deployed in other industries, but have never made the transition to the areas of special needs or employment. The entire system needs to be addressed holistically. Simply fixing individual pieces, without addressing the whole enterprise, is unlikely to make much of a difference.