Excerpt from Care2: (click for entire article)
Square One, a Los Angeles-based software and design firm, has started a small pilot program (with three people) to design a software-testing training program for people on the autism spectrum. According to Business Week, company co-founder Chad Hahn and his wife, Shannon, who works with individuals with developmental disabilities, are trying to create a “work environment that would be friendly to those on the autism spectrum,” many of whom especially struggle with social interactions.
In the U.S., the unemployment rate for individuals Asperger’s Syndrome could be as high as 80%. While social situations and communicating with others may be difficult, some autistic individuals excel using computers and technology and, prior to Square One, some other companies have sought to draw on these abilities. In 2004, Thorkil Sonne, a Danish software engineer with an autistic son, founded Specialisterne, 75 percent of whose software consultants have Asperger’s Syndrome or an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The company’s employees test software and technological devices and there are now offshoots in Iceland and Scotland. A small nonprofit, Aspiritech, was founded in 2008 in Chicago; its employees also have Asperger’s Syndrome or an ASD and test smartphone apps.
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