Attitudes are slowly changing as corporations around the world take a new approach to helping people with autism.
Understanding the difficulties facing people with autism isn’t easy to do. If you, a friend or family
member or someone you live with has autism, then you would have more of an idea than most. That old ‘imagine spending a day in someone else’s shoes’ really only goes so far. You could imagine you had no legs, but until you have to deal with every aspect of day to day life with no legs, you really wouldn’t understand.
People diagnosed with autism have a few hurdles to face; there’s no getting around that fact. Some of the hurdles have to deal with the condition itself, anxiety, obsessive compulsive, and social anxiety all make it extremely hard to not only get a job but deal with all the day to day things involved in holding down employment. One of the hardest things is the interview itself, being put in a strange environment, under pressure and having to deal with people face to face, is an extremely daunting challenge for someone who doesn’t have to deal with autism. When you have autism, all of these factors just multiply.
Luckily, there are some big corporations like Microsoft, who are going out of their way to help people with autism land their dream jobs. Microsoft has developed a new program which is specifically tailored towards helping people with autism deal with the pressure of interviews and introductions. They have the foresight to understand that just because someone has autism, it doesn’t mean that they can’t get the job done just as well, and in some cases, even better than someone who doesn’t have autism.
Things will change. Unfortunately, change takes time. It takes a certain amount of time to overcome any stereotype, but in the future things are looking better. The next time that you have to interview someone for a jobtake a little consideration about how they are acting in a high-pressure situation.
