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Why are all programs for autism in the tech field

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endersdragon34
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12 Mar 2018, 12:45 am

I HATE PROGRAMMMING. Sorry... had to get that out of the way. I get that many autistic people enjoy it. I get that it's an easy field to make a program for, and fill it up with autistics. I get all of that but still.... I... HATE... PROGRAMMING.

On a related note I hate being here at the age of 31 working part time for min wage, when I have a master's degree in special education. I am considering going back to school for law school, and have already been accepted to one school (it was my fallback school but ranked around 50th (don't want to put the precise number just in case), and is still a pretty good school especially as they are only going to charge me $10,000/year which is really cheap for law school), but even the legal field doesn't have a program for us. I know I can get a job outside of a program, it just has never really happened and I have applied to so many jobs to not get discouraged... so here is a list of fields there needs to be a program for people with autism (disclaimer: we does not mean literally every single one of us, but enough of us to make it a real thing):

Research of any kind...: we love nonfiction books, we love information, a lot of us love science and technology and so much else. Heck look at me loving special education, we would be some of the best research assistants and eventually researchers ever; the first university to do this will be set for life. Make it so

Legal: this goes with the last one a bit, we are great researchers and a lot of us have a very strong sense of advocacy, make a training program that uses this in the legal field and then helps us get jobs at nonprofits or profits that fit our skill set

Accounting/statistics: good with numbers, good with data analysis, good at figuring out new ways to look at the same data, etc. Seems like a no brainer

Media communications/journalism: not sure what to call this one, and it might seem odd for people like us, but a lot of people are behind the scenes at news outlets researching what's going on and have to be obsessive enough to connect it back to the past. One of my old mentors told me that the first 3 autistics he ever met were his colleges sports announcers who were able to use their research skills, number skills, and obsessive personalities (yes aspies can be obsessed with sports I am one of them) to call really good games, and if you watch a lot of sporting events, especially on your local channels you will often see announcers who seem to be more than a bit autistic.

These are just a couple I would like to see happen, feel free to share any others.



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12 Mar 2018, 6:54 am

Where you live, it seems like the education system has a problem stereotyping Autistics.

Where i live, you can get an adapted education that runs in parallel with the main course, regardless if you have AS, ADHD or whatever.

One only has to look at this forum to see that the amount of people interested in programming is far from 100%...


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18 Mar 2018, 11:49 pm

I know what you mean....I have no interest in or aptitude for STEM (I have nonverbal learning disability for one thing). That doesn't make me an idiot...I have degrees. Do people think all NTs who aren't in STEM are stupid?



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19 Mar 2018, 3:02 am

endersdragon34 wrote:
I HATE PROGRAMMMING. Sorry... had to get that out of the way. I get that many autistic people enjoy it. I get that it's an easy field to make a program for, and fill it up with autistics. I get all of that but still.... I... HATE... PROGRAMMING.

On a related note I hate being here at the age of 31 working part time for min wage, when I have a master's degree in special education. I am considering going back to school for law school, and have already been accepted to one school (it was my fallback school but ranked around 50th (don't want to put the precise number just in case), and is still a pretty good school especially as they are only going to charge me $10,000/year which is really cheap for law school), but even the legal field doesn't have a program for us. I know I can get a job outside of a program, it just has never really happened and I have applied to so many jobs to not get discouraged... so here is a list of fields there needs to be a program for people with autism (disclaimer: we does not mean literally every single one of us, but enough of us to make it a real thing):

Research of any kind...: we love nonfiction books, we love information, a lot of us love science and technology and so much else. Heck look at me loving special education, we would be some of the best research assistants and eventually researchers ever; the first university to do this will be set for life. Make it so

Legal: this goes with the last one a bit, we are great researchers and a lot of us have a very strong sense of advocacy, make a training program that uses this in the legal field and then helps us get jobs at nonprofits or profits that fit our skill set

Accounting/statistics: good with numbers, good with data analysis, good at figuring out new ways to look at the same data, etc. Seems like a no brainer

Media communications/journalism: not sure what to call this one, and it might seem odd for people like us, but a lot of people are behind the scenes at news outlets researching what's going on and have to be obsessive enough to connect it back to the past. One of my old mentors told me that the first 3 autistics he ever met were his colleges sports announcers who were able to use their research skills, number skills, and obsessive personalities (yes aspies can be obsessed with sports I am one of them) to call really good games, and if you watch a lot of sporting events, especially on your local channels you will often see announcers who seem to be more than a bit autistic.

These are just a couple I would like to see happen, feel free to share any others.


Stereotypes. Most people I know on the spectrum are not programmers and would probably not be good at programming, and most of my classmates in STEM were probably not on the spectrum. I meet more people on the spectrum who are interested in art than I do people on the spectrum who are interested in programming.



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19 Mar 2018, 3:59 pm

Chronos wrote:
endersdragon34 wrote:
I HATE PROGRAMMMING. Sorry... had to get that out of the way. I get that many autistic people enjoy it. I get that it's an easy field to make a program for, and fill it up with autistics. I get all of that but still.... I... HATE... PROGRAMMING.

On a related note I hate being here at the age of 31 working part time for min wage, when I have a master's degree in special education. I am considering going back to school for law school, and have already been accepted to one school (it was my fallback school but ranked around 50th (don't want to put the precise number just in case), and is still a pretty good school especially as they are only going to charge me $10,000/year which is really cheap for law school), but even the legal field doesn't have a program for us. I know I can get a job outside of a program, it just has never really happened and I have applied to so many jobs to not get discouraged... so here is a list of fields there needs to be a program for people with autism (disclaimer: we does not mean literally every single one of us, but enough of us to make it a real thing):

Research of any kind...: we love nonfiction books, we love information, a lot of us love science and technology and so much else. Heck look at me loving special education, we would be some of the best research assistants and eventually researchers ever; the first university to do this will be set for life. Make it so

Legal: this goes with the last one a bit, we are great researchers and a lot of us have a very strong sense of advocacy, make a training program that uses this in the legal field and then helps us get jobs at nonprofits or profits that fit our skill set

Accounting/statistics: good with numbers, good with data analysis, good at figuring out new ways to look at the same data, etc. Seems like a no brainer

Media communications/journalism: not sure what to call this one, and it might seem odd for people like us, but a lot of people are behind the scenes at news outlets researching what's going on and have to be obsessive enough to connect it back to the past. One of my old mentors told me that the first 3 autistics he ever met were his colleges sports announcers who were able to use their research skills, number skills, and obsessive personalities (yes aspies can be obsessed with sports I am one of them) to call really good games, and if you watch a lot of sporting events, especially on your local channels you will often see announcers who seem to be more than a bit autistic.

These are just a couple I would like to see happen, feel free to share any others.


Stereotypes. Most people I know on the spectrum are not programmers and would probably not be good at programming, and most of my classmates in STEM were probably not on the spectrum. I meet more people on the spectrum who are interested in art than I do people on the spectrum who are interested in programming.


I didn't like programming either, but I am in a different tech-related field. Programming to me is way too complicated. I couldn't understand any of it. I would rather fix computer problems from the software point-of-view that doesn't have to be written in code or any broken down hardware that needs to be replaced.

Command-lines to me is as close to actually have coding involved. The example would be telling a router to send data out to the internet like sending mail to the world from one port traveling to another port through wires or wireless communication.

Just send out those updates for fixes or additions to the software and I'll be happy to deploy it to the machines. :)

What I am saying is, there are other tech fields out there. If you're like me and like to fix computer problems without writing code. Being an IT administrator, Network Architect, or Network Administrator are the ones I know. Cybersecurity analysts are also good as well if you're into criminology and want to help us out with security issues.
Something like that.



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19 Mar 2018, 5:17 pm

Some other areas that would be good or some autists depending on their individual strengths (we all have a different profile of what we're good at of course, which is kind of the point of this thread right?)

Project Management (it may not seem obvious, but it's definitely an area that an organizing aspie could excel)
As mentioned above, but maybe more ambiguously: analytics
Quality Assurance
Technical writing
Design (industrial, process, db, graphic, interior, etc)
Installation / Diagnostic / Repair (automotive, technology, appliances, telco)
Any job that we're interested in regardless of what it is :p


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14 Apr 2018, 11:37 am

Stereotypes, I guess. Wikipedia says "Most students with AS and HFA have average mathematical ability and test slightly worse in mathematics than in general intelligence, but some are gifted in mathematics" and I think this applies to programming; besides, even if you have the ability, it doesn't mean that you would love it.



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22 Apr 2018, 1:57 am

Only slightly related to this, but when I was getting job coaching a couple years back I was approached by someone who made the suggestion of registering with a temp agency for autistics, and the first thing they asked me was " Do you have an affinity with computers?" and I said " No" and they said " Oh", and that was the end of it because all the jobs they offered were computer-related.

So yeah.


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22 Apr 2018, 3:13 am

Because there is an enormous need for skilled IT people, so employers may be motivated to be flexible enough to hire autistics.

In research and journalism there is enormous competition for positions. Why should employers go out of their way to hire autistics when they don't know what to do with the number of applicants they have?


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22 Apr 2018, 9:31 am

CyclopsSummers wrote:
Only slightly related to this, but when I was getting job coaching a couple years back I was approached by someone who made the suggestion of registering with a temp agency for autistics, and the first thing they asked me was " Do you have an affinity with computers?" and I said " No" and they said " Oh", and that was the end of it because all the jobs they offered were computer-related.

So yeah.


Was that the temp agency who asked you that?


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24 Apr 2018, 10:05 pm

underwater wrote:
Because there is an enormous need for skilled IT people, so employers may be motivated to be flexible enough to hire autistics.

In research and journalism there is enormous competition for positions. Why should employers go out of their way to hire autistics when they don't know what to do with the number of applicants they have?


Right.....there's a high enough demand for tech workers that employers have to hire people who may not have the best social skills.

Kinda sleazy on the part of companies...they can claim they're doing a public service without affecting their bottom line at all.



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26 Apr 2018, 3:24 pm

underwater wrote:
Because there is an enormous need for skilled IT people, so employers may be motivated to be flexible enough to hire autistics.

In research and journalism there is enormous competition for positions. Why should employers go out of their way to hire autistics when they don't know what to do with the number of applicants they have?


Well said! IT-related opportunities have a future, and salaries are above-average. The growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI) will also open-up new opportunities. Opportunities will stem from people using AI TECH. as tools; as opposed to only those who mainly design AI apps.



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26 Apr 2018, 4:56 pm

underwater wrote:
Because there is an enormous need for skilled IT people, so employers may be motivated to be flexible enough to hire autistics.

In research and journalism there is enormous competition for positions. Why should employers go out of their way to hire autistics when they don't know what to do with the number of applicants they have?


Cos it’s like they’re saying, “We only want high functioning or intelligent autistics”.


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30 Apr 2018, 3:10 pm

The 'Specialisterne' initiative (originally started in Denmark) has chapters in the U.S. 'SpecialisterneUSA' assists people on the Autism Spectrum with mainly TECH. related employment.

'Autism at Work' is another initiative. The company 'SAP' has long had experience in hiring people on the Autism Spectrum.

RELATED: WP discussion on: 'Google and Coursera [online education provider] Launch Certificate Program to fill IT Talent Shortage: viewtopic.php?t=360282

Anybody had experience with (or are considering) services through the above mentioned initiatives?