People with Asperger syndrome—a mild form of autism—have been given the chance to work, testing software at an Illinois-based company. According to CBS, Aspiritech finds that people with Asperger’s make great software testers because they have intense focus, memory for detail and are comfortable with repetition.
The employees at Aspiritech earn $12 to $15 an hour and take part in exercises that help build their social skills. They are trained together as well as taken on group outings where they play miniature golf, go bowling or eat at a restaurant. For many of them, it’s the first time they’ve been able to find meaningful work in an environment that understands their needs.
“We want to improve social skills among people who tend to be socially isolated,” Marc lazar, Aspiritech’s autism specialist, told CBS. “For many of them, software testing is not going to be their lifelong career, but while they’re here they’re going to improve their job skills and they’re going to learn what kind of behavior is expected on the job and they’re going to have more to put on their resumes.”
The news outlet noted that most of Aspiritech’s employees did not learn they were on the autism spectrum until adulthood because diagnosis didn’t become standard until the early 1990s. And because most research dollars go to children with autism, adults tend to be neglected.
Asperger’s also tends to be underdiagnosed, with two to three persons of every 1,000 diagnosed with the condition in the United States.
