In 2004 a Danish company started with a unique concept: their employees are autistic. Theyperform duties which require precision, understanding and consistency, such as the testing of software. These are jobs in which autistic people typically perform much better than ‘normal’ people. The concept is so successful that in the meantime 27 autists are employed in the two Danish branches. Plans for expansion abroad are being finalised.
AARHUS. At the very beginning, director Thorkil Sonne (46) had some reservations. Would he be able to run a commercial entity with autistic people? Two years later he employes 27 autistic people. What is more, there are seven others in training. With a wide grin Sonne concludes: “The concept really works.”
The 27 employees of Specialisterne (The Specialists) perform soft ware tests with great precision, enter computer data and assess user instructions. The company serves a number of large, well known Danish companies. Sonne was inspired to this idea when his son, now nine years of age, was diagnosed with autism. “Through him I came to know the world of autists, not only a fascinating world, but also a fragile one. In a normal job, routine does not acquire status, aseverything revolves around new challenges. Autistic people love what they already know. Their incredible memory and their eye for detail makes that they are excellent in testing procedures, often they even can predict where the mistakes will be found,“ says Sonne, who thinks that the talents of autistic people could very well be applied in luggage control, viewing of x-ray photographs in hospitals and even as air traffic controllers.
Most of the employees suffer from the Asperger Syndrom, an autistic disorder whereby a normal or above normal intelligence is attached to certain marked deficiencies in social and communication skills. This disorder affects mostly males. There is only one woman employed at the Specialists.
Employee Torben Sörensen (32) suffers also from the Asperger Syndroom. Sörensen works twenty hours per week in this attractive office, where he shares a room with a colleague. At his request, these twenty hours are divided over four days. “I rather work four days than three. I prefer a working day over a free day, because those make me inactive.” explains Sörensen. His job has had a positive effect on his self-esteem. “I have become much more active. It has alsogiven my life a boast in other areas. One day a week I am following a course to become a yoga teacher. Without this job I wouldn’t even have started the course.”
Sörensen is very happy with his job, but occasionally he is bored. “They say that autists like to repeat things, but there are limits, even for autists”, he says with a little twinkle in his eye. Soon he will be out-sourced for a few months at the office of a client. “I am looking very much forward to that.”
That was another of Sonne’s initial doubts. “I had the idea that my employees could only work at our office. They are much more flexible than I ever imagined.” Sonne strives to make his employees as confident as possible; they must be able to developthemselves personally and socially. For this reason he hired a ‘pedagogical consultant’ who regularly speaks to the employees and, if necessary, helps them to solve their personal problems.This approach is very effective, since all the six employees with whom he started are still workingwith him. “The textbooks mainly tell us what autistic people cannot do. It really surprised me to see how social my employees can be. They are good colleagues and some of them even have become friends. They show interest for each other, and that is something which according to the textbooks could never have happened,” states Sonne.
Sonne has prepared an international plan including a co-operation with Belgium. “But we are not hundred percent ready yet. I first want to know how our employees can develop themselves.”
The Belgium entrepreneur Jens Pas of management advisory agency 12B has many years ofexperience in testing software. He visited Specialisterne last autumn. “The great thing about Sonne is that he specifically had decided on a commercial approach, it is not a sheltered workplace. He thus offers these people, who could not do a normal job and would be at home living from social benefits, a real perspective for their future.”
For more information see: www.specialisterne.dk
