Aspies For Freedom

Are you looking for work?  Maybe you should not bother to look for work in Illinois or other places in fact.  No one wants to hire people with AS because they will have poor communication and interpersonal skills.  This article tells me why.

http://lmi.ides.state.il.us/lmr/articl12.htm

I am so angry.

Some years ago I worked with a guy who had MS. He had lots of problems communicating and just getting around. When a new position opened up, my boss told me she would have to phrase the job description so the guy with MS wouldn't be hired or even tempted to apply.  I told her to put in "people with MS need not apply".  She said she couldn't put that in because it was mean. I told her that's the same as phrasing the description a certain way and it's descrimination either way.

It's going to be hard for me, as I live in Illiinois.

As the mother of a child with Aspergers, as a person who has many of the traits myself, and as the daughter of a man I am now sure also has Aspergers, and as someone who spent many years in management hiring people, I don't think job prospects have to be as bleak as you assume.

WRITTEN skills are just as, if not more, important than verbal skills.  There is absolutely no reason someone with Aspergers cannot learn to write and communicate in perfect written English.  I understand spelling is a common struggle, as it is with my son, but we live in the age of spell check, so the inability to spell is no longer the spoiler it once was.

Verbal skills can be learned.  I am a CPA by profession, and most people who enter the profession have poor verbal skills.  But, to advance in public accounting, you need good verbal skills.  So, the field trains people how to interact in a business networking session.  Really.  My firm spent days each year on this.  Practicing, video recording, and so on.  Can I say I learned to LIKE this part of my job?  Not really.  But it is a means to an end, and maybe I'm naive, but I think someone with Aspergers can absorb that concept.

I don't want to change any part of who my son is.  But I also know there are skills he will need in life if he is acheive his dreams.  We are working to teach him those skills, and we've explained why we want him to learn them.  Yes, it is a struggle, but he gets it.

Am I way off base here?

Maybe I am, but I think there are many ways to compensate for innate differences.  All you have to be willing to do is try.

DW_a_Mom,

I'm sure you are aware that AFF exists to represent the best interests of all who find themselves on the Autistic Spectrum.

Your views on the employment prospects of people with ASD seem to underestimate (inter alia) the difficulties faced by the non-verbal people on the Spectrum.

Stella

DW I think you are making the common mistake of judging how others can work and cope by basing it on your own experience, rather than on the common experience of many aspies.

I am glad you have been successful, some aspies work it all out well, and some don't, dependant on their education opportunities, abilites, country of origin and the prevailing prejudices there.

Have you seen the statistics from the NAS of only 12% of aspies in full time work, and 6% of autistics.

Stella,

I realize the spectrum is broad.  I don't want to discount the difficulty the vast majority of people on the spectrum will face.

But I also don't want to see people give up and assume.  The children I know at my son's school who are on the spectrum are growing up in a different world than they would have 10 or even 5 years ago.  I see nothing but hope when I look at them.  The talents they do have are noticed, rewarded, and encouraged.  Isn't that a good thing?  Isn't that better than being led to believe you can never fit in?

Employers can benefit from a wide variety of skills.  And there are many opportunities for those whose communication skills emerge only in writing.  I really believe that.

I guess, as I read the link, and heard things I've heard over many years, I couldn't reconcile it to the hopelessness on this thread.  In my old job (I semi-retired when I had my first child), we cared more about writing skills than speaking or even social skills.  I guess that is my point.  I read this board and see people on the spectrum conversing extremely well in writing.  I wanted those on this thread to realize that if they can do that, they've met the goal most employers have.

I am dispirited to realize that my optimism doesn't fit with the real life experience of people with Autism and Aspergers.  I really hope that it won't be so in the future.  I have to believe that, I think.  I want my son to be realistic, but also to believe.  If you don't believe you can have it, you never will.

Not really. I get terrified by the regurgitated lie that the normies will accept us and stop abusing us if we beg them hard enough. Realism is what we need right now, not optimism.

This is necessarily a self-selecting conglomerate of people who have access to a computer connected to the internet, who are able to understand how to use it, and, what is more, have a desire to interact with other people and are able to do so.

We must at all times remember those who are unable to have a voice here, or who might not have thought of communicating with others like themselves, or, indeed, anyone else at all.

Stella

I think I probably should stick with just the parents board.  I was hoping I could use my career experience to help give some insight into the work place for those who desired it, but, perhaps, the bridge there is just too large for me to cross.  It isn't just people on the autistic spectrum who don't understand the rules of the business world, and I find it sad when bright people with a lot to offer fail to suceed not through lack of ability, but through lack of knowing how to work the system.  It seems to me like everyone loses something when that happens.  But, as my attempts here have shown rather quickly, I am not, at least at this point in time, capable of being part of the solution.

I wish you all the best in finding a way to make your unique gifts help you earn a living.

*Feels his brain rattle from people miswriting "hear, hear", an English expression that should have gone out with the colonies...*

If you just give up because you do not get the response you want, you will never learn to talk  with Aspies, DW.

Hm, I didn't think I was giving up, just moving away from offending anyone else ...

You know, my son and I can have the best, and I mean the best conversations.  But, if I'm honest, I have to admit that, most of the time, trying to listen to him drives me nuts.  I have auditory processing issues as it, and when my son tries to speak in codes and stories and rhymes I just can't deal with it.  I feel so guilty about tuning him out most of the time.

Sigh.

So, yes, I want to be able to hold meaningful conversations with Aspies.  But I don't want to stick my very big nose in where it doesn't belong.  I was very much feeling like it was the later I ended up doing here.

But, if I can take home a valuable lesson from it, bring it on.

Amazing grace!! I agree with Iron Man in his response to you--don't run away. As I see it, this is a discussion board--respectful disagreement with someone may lead to clarification of the issues involved, which can be a good thing. I doubt that it was your intent to cause offense, and no one has control over how what one says will be interpreted--this can cause communication problems.  I've blundered into stuff here, and will probably continue to do so, and I've learned a tremendous amount, so am grateful to people.

DW, I realise you mean well but some of us would never fit into the kind of business world that has the kind of "rules" you mention. We would feel suffocated and trodden down in very short order. We need a job where we can use our creativity and ability to think "outside the square" (to borrow what I realise is a rather hackneyed phrase).

I have good written English but find that nobody really cares about that in the working world - if you aren't verbally fluent, forget about going very far within the organisation. That actually suits me though - I'd prefer a job where there is not too much pressure.

We don't want to be just "clones" of everybody else but all too often that is what corporatism entails. If you aren't a "yes-man" or "yes-woman", you are penalised but I think honesty is often what is needed for necessary improvements to take place.

I live in IL too. No wonder I have trouble getting a job here, lol. They're really hypocrites though, I worked at a record store where the guys there were total bullies. Yelling at me if I didn't understand something the first time.

Oh but they're good canidates, cuz they'll roll over for boss like a pet dog.