Two-thirds of people with Asperger’s Syndrome/ high-functioning autism are unemployed. That’s ironic because some have savant strengths. For example, Will Bernick is able to tell you what day of the week a given date will be ten years from now. He’s kind, loyal, and intelligent enough to have completed a B.A. Indeed, roughly ¼ of Aspies (what most prefer to be called,) have a bachelor’s degree.
What’s the problem?
Most Aspies have major gaps in learning, for example, lacking the wherewithal to get a bus pass, let alone adequately read social cues or the judgment to make timely decisions. Their verbal skills are usually good but often off-putting, for example, long, fast-spoken, disjointed monologues without eye contact. Many are clumsy, with poor eye-hand coordination. They may have such mannerisms as odd posture, arm flapping, and body twisting. They can be socially naïve and unable to recognize humor. They may have unusual habits such as scavenging through garbage cans to bring home used food scraps. The skills required for life are very different from those required to get a college degree.
Will’s father, Michael Bernick was Director of California’s labor department and three years ago co-founded the AASCEND Job Club for people with autism/Asperger’s. There, many Aspies have come for help in finding work. Bernick laments that despite extensive support, most Aspies remain unemployed, with employment rarely lasting more than a few months, and usually only doing such basic work as data entry, warehouse work, envelope stuffing, basic software testing, and visual inspection of products for defects.
Contrary to the stereotype, most Aspies are friendly and eager to be social but the characteristics listed above make them difficult to befriend and especially to employ. When I asked Bernick about careers like welder that are said to be in demand, he said, “Many Aspies might (inadvertently) blow up the building.”
A few corporations such as Best Buy and SAP have been trying to hire and keep Aspies employed but the early results haven’t been promising. Indeed, even when employers are told that most of an Aspie’s salary would be paid for by the taxpayer, most employers would rather pay full-freight for someone else.
What to do, short-term
Temple Grandin, a professor at Colorado State University, is the most widely known expert on employing people with autism/Asperger’s. She lists a wide array of jobs she believes Aspies can do, including many higher-level positions.
Bernick says that a few of the people in the AASCEND Job Club do have higher-level jobs, for example, one who is a photographer, two who are handymen, but that those are the exceptions.
He believes that an Aspie’s best chance at finding enduring employment is to identify, perhaps with help from parents and/or a career counselor, one or more tasks that Aspie can do as well or better than can a person without Asperger’s/autism. For example, some Aspies are excellent at focusing on small details and/or staying with repetitive tasks for a long time.
Longer-term hope
While all disability is sad to see, I’m particularly moved by the plight of Aspies. They are usually intelligent, kind, and eager, yet an accident of fate too often relegates them to a life of dependency. Indeed, most Aspies are on long-term disability.
I find hope in Cambridge University scientists having found a biomarker for Asperger’s and now a gene associated with it. Perhaps before too long, a prevention or cure—perhaps some sort of gene therapy--will allow Aspies to fully use their gifts.
Dr. Nemko was named “The Bay Area’s Best Career Coach” by the San Francisco Bay Guardian and he enjoys a 96 percent client-satisfaction rate. In addition to the articles here on PsychologyToday.com, many more of his writings are archived on www.martynemko.com. Of his seven books, the most relevant to readers of this blog is How to Do Life: What They Didn’t Teach You in School. His bio is on Wikipedia.