Autism is rarely understood, even in this modern day. Some kids with autism get bullied at school because they are different and branded “weirdos”. Even adults may not understand autism and feel that it should be managed or controlled. Working with autistic people seems to be avoided in many professional environments.
However, one man decided to do something positive about it, after his own son was diagnosed with “infantile autism, normal intelligence” at the age of 3. Thorkil Sonne is the founder of Specialisterne, a not-for-profit foundation with the goal to create 1 million jobs globally for people with autism. They partner themselves with corporations, schools, and community agencies to create change in how autism is perceived in a work environment thereby creating opportunities for employment for work-ready neurodiverse talent.
Sonne decided to learn and understand autism so their family life will not be hampered by this disability. He soon became the president of a local chapter of Autism Denmark, where he found out that people with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) rarely had the chance to use their special abilities in the labor market. Being in the IT industry for 15 years, he understood the value of the special skills people with ASD had. Some possess remarkable memory and a discerning eye for detail. They can solve certain problems with ease, can think out-of-the-box, and are patient as well as persistent in their work. It seems this disability was more of a special ability. Specialisterne defines them as “specialist people.”
So far, Specialisterne has created over 10,000 jobs for people with different abilities. It educates employers to see neurodiversity as a competitive advantage and not a hindrance. It supports the labour market by integrating autistic people in their work environment, and provides them access to an untapped talent pool. Specialisterne can be found in Denmark, the US, Canada, Australia, Italy, Spain, Singapore, Brazil, Norway, Austria, Iceland, Ireland, and Northern Ireland. It also collaborates with India, China, Argentina, and the Czech Republic, even without having a local office there.
Sonne’s vision and mission to make autism understood and accepted appears to be working. Hopefully other countries will participate with Specialisterne so that the 1 million jobs for autistic people will soon be achieved, even surpassed. After all, they are still people who have the right to equal opportunity employment.
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