Autistic-only or primarily autistic firm

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Tyri0n
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19 Jul 2013, 8:18 pm

Would a low-end (or possibly not low-end, though the big 4 take up the high-end market) legal, accounting or tax firm that primarily hires qualified autistic people (would have to have a degree/training or at least some sort of certificate in accounting, maybe offered in-house?) be a viable idea (thinking long-term)? Seems like clients could advertise diversity by working with such a firm and it could get preference for government contracts in some locations.

Anyway, in any field, is a primarily autistic firm something that exists? Or could be viable?



redrobin62
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mitch413
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19 Jul 2013, 9:30 pm

Good idea! I was wondering the same thing, except for software engineering. There are lot of people on the spectrum who are good programmers who have not been able to get hired due to the challenges associated with being on the spectrum.

The challenge is starting such a business. I have no idea how to do it, and I'm not sure people like us would be too good at the entrepreneurial part. Maybe if some NT business person had an interest in working with people like us. I think we'd have a lot to offer, regardless of what type of business it is.



Tyri0n
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19 Jul 2013, 10:15 pm

I saw how someone in India worked as a freelancing tax accountant online and then eventually started an entire firm that still gets work through the same site portal (charging much higher rates of course) as well as working with other companies directly and got the idea for doing a similar thing except having autistic people do it. A lot of the tedious accounting work could even be done by LFA's if there was a computer program to train them with lots of visual examples (maybe?).

My idea would be to "start" the business as a sole proprietorship (solo firm) and then gradually recruit autistic people informally to do some of the work on a contr*ct (some how the site won't let me enter the full word) basis until it was big enough to hire them as full-time employees.

I think I'm NT enough to function in a business setting. I'm wondering if my only barrier is a f****d up sleep schedule, which could be solved by being a business owner or firm managing partner of my own firm.



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19 Jul 2013, 11:38 pm

I think so.
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20 Jul 2013, 2:08 am

I think with anything, you need a balance of both: NTs + ASD, male + female, experienced + inexperienced, mature + (immature? LOL) You get the idea. I read an article recently that talked about how important it is to have a person with ASD on your team because of their ability to stay on task and pay attention to details. In fact, it was said that bosses wished ALL employees had those skills. So, it works both ways.

There is such thing as too much of a good thing.

So, will it work? No. It lacks balance.



Tyri0n
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20 Jul 2013, 2:18 pm

ASDsmom wrote:
I think with anything, you need a balance of both: NTs + ASD, male + female, experienced + inexperienced, mature + (immature? LOL) You get the idea. I read an article recently that talked about how important it is to have a person with ASD on your team because of their ability to stay on task and pay attention to details. In fact, it was said that bosses wished ALL employees had those skills. So, it works both ways.

There is such thing as too much of a good thing.

So, will it work? No. It lacks balance.


Sure, but I mean it would hire autistics to do most of the actual work. There could be NT's to do things like marketing and public relations. Autistics to do the number crunching and form preparation and NT's who interact with people. Once you put NT's in the mix, then social mismatch becomes a problem. Unless you integrated in some NT's who were specially chosen for "fit."

Autistics are more conscientious and more attentive to detail, so I imagine that, for some jobs, autistics would be superior, so I don't see why a firm that does that kind of work primarily wouldn't hire autistics to do that work.