Articles

The following articles do not necessarily reflect the official viewpoint of Asperger Technical, but are made available to encourage debate. Some have been written by people with Asperger syndrome and describe their experiences of life.

Prejudices

Why do so many employers and managers see people with Asperger syndrome as bad and neurotypical people as good? Some of the language used by senior figures in the Engineering and IT industries brazenly displays ignorance and prejudice. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, a high proportion of managers and interviewers in the high technology industry hold a view that people with Asperger syndrome are incapable of speaking for themselves, incapable of feeling or emotion, and incapable of contributing anything useful to society or the economy.

Asperger syndrome does not make people sick or unhealthy or crippled. They can have a perfectly fit and healthy body; live a full and happy life as long as anybody else's; and have a perfectly able mind, often with above average intelligence; be a good and moral person; and have various, skills, gifts, and benefits, not just as a result of thinking in a less common way, but just as anybody can.

The word 'disability' is nowadays used by many employers to describe a diverse collection of misfits and minorities. It has almost become a dustbin term to contain all the inconvenient minority groups of society whose only real thing in common is that they don't function like the majority.

Asperger syndrome is legally classed as a disability because people with Asperger Syndrome do not think and behave and function like neurotypical people who make up the majority of society. It is true that people with Asperger syndrome have numerous and diverse difficulties, but their largest obstacle by far is to overcome other people's prejudices, demands, and expectations, and convince them they are worth employing. Far too many managers and work colleagues want people with Asperger syndrome to be something they are not, and talk and behave in ways that they think are 'normal' and 'conventional'. When people with Asperger syndrome ask for help and support with the issues in the workplace they cannot manage, employers have a tendency to try to make them accept only the corporate culture and values, and deny themelves.

People with Asperger syndrome deserve to be given the same opportunities as everybody else. They should not have to face extraordinary judgement, scrutiny and criticism that most neurotypical people do not face.

Would the west have won the Cold War without Asperger syndrome?

This short article is intended to highlight changes in attitudes in the high technology sector and how industries that were once attractive to people with Asperger syndrome no longer value these people as much as they used to.

There is a possibility that the West might not have won the Cold War if it wasn't for people with Asperger syndrome. Many of the finest scientists and engineers who worked for NASA and defence contractors from the 1950s to the 1980s are reputed to have Asperger syndrome, and their dedication and single-mindedness coupled with their high intellectual ability was highly valued by the management and ultimately the government.

In years gone by, engineering and IT companies were more interested in recruiting people who could do the job well and possessed a high level of technical skills and knowledge. This tended to favour people with Asperger syndrome. Attitudes have changed since the end of the Cold War, and in recent years, companies that employ engineers and software developers have increasingly wanted people who are good all rounders rather than experts in a few areas. They also want job applicants to have soft skills, people skills, and team leadership skills, complete with a solid track record to back them up with. This change in attitude has seriously disfavoured people with Asperger syndrome. Many companies also subject job applicants to various psychometric tests and personality profiles which can often work against people with Asperger syndrome, so the company ends up rejecting excellent people simply because they underperform on some test totally irrelevant to the job they have applied for, or because the personality profile shows that they don't like hosting parties.

Two stops short of Dagenham

A very well written story describing an extreme instance of changes in attitudes in a company employing computer programmers that no longer favours people with Asperger syndrome. The story is fictitious but similar scenarios are reputed to have happened in practice.

"There have been a few comments raised from both companies and the Asperger syndrome community about the terminology and the role and scope of 'Human Resources' in the article, and that it doesn't correspond with the human resources department in their own company. It has to be taken into account that the article is American in origin, so the terminology and functions of different company departments can vary depending on which side of the Atlantic you are on." - Asperger Technical.

A glimmer of hope

Thankfully there does appear to be a growing awareness of the injustice of the employment situation facing people with Asperger syndrome in certain industries. We have received an article from an accountancy journal about accomodating Asperger syndrome in the workplace.