Star Wars movie with an Autistic/Aspie Reference (Hey, Coming up with Titles is Hard)
Welcome back! Last week we left off with how much more potential harm than good hiring initiatives towards Autistics/Aspies are doing. You know, cheerful stuff. This week we will...continue looking at that topic still (you can never have too much of a good thing), finding out some of the ways the message, though positive on the cover, has some, well, unfortunate messaging behind it (though again, that is not necessarily always the intention with every initiative). Anyways, enough talk, time to walk (to the next paragraph).
If you look to your right, you will see the wonderful white space with the scroll icon at the very end. If you look to your let you will see a lovely picture of the author himself and some relevant info (please no screen caps while the tour is in progress).
What’s one of the jobs Autistics/Aspies are usually pigeon holed into? Why, tech or data entry ones of course (not to say that that’s necessarily a bad thing if you are skilled in that way, fair play to yeah if you are). Often the companies hiring Autistic/Aspie'ss are being sold the message that we are all coding savants. Which is wrong obviously, ‘cause if we were all coding savants there would be a lot less misunderstandings about us out there on the internet, and a lot more references about obscure things that we happen to like at the time. Less lies about a cure, and more articles on how certain anime shows, or graphic novels, are the bomb.
Then of course, there is the mistreatment: vocational agents disclosing employees disability/diagnosis with hiring manager without the expressed permission of the employee. Telling said hiring manager what negative, stereotypical behaviours the employee will be exhibited once hired. Then, according to the article, forced to make eye-contact, “criticized for their natural way of being” (The Dark Side of Autism in the Workplace, Paragraph 14), and made to work with either a job coach or undergo ABA training, just to name a few. Fun times for no one.
See this wonderful picture of a father and his child having fun together? This is all the fun that you will not be having if something like the above happens to you.
The workplace trainings, the article says, are barking up the wrong tree: they are trying to understand Autism/Asperger's (In a way where they don’t just ask us about it. Talk about fighting a battle with both hands tied behind your back and on your knees). What they should be doing instead is trying to improve conditions by providing quality leadership, improved communication practices and “universal diversity and inclusion training” (The Dark Side of Autism in the Workplace, Paragraph 15).
Well, that does it for this week! Next week will be my personal thoughts on the topic before moving on to a different topic altogether (I actually have one already picked out this time! Go me!). Hopefully this has not left you feeling to distrustful and/or full of dislike towards all hiring campaigns geared towards Autistics/Aspies, as not all are this bad (and we should definitely demand for, and make good use of, those that are actually worth while). In the meantime, this continues to be, The Audacious Aspie.
Source:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dark-side-autism-workplace-marcelle-ciampi