using autistic strengths in business

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Danish IT consultancy is using the special skills of people with autism

to improve the quality of its **software

testing*<http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2007/09/04/226554/intellect-laun\

ches-software-testing-best-practice-guide.htm>

*.*

Autistic Spectrum Disorder

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism_spectrum_disorder> (ASD)

affects half a million people in the UK, and sufferers are usually unable to

find regular employment. Carol , director of the National Autistic Society

Scotland, said, " Only 6% of people with autism are in full-time employment, yet

they tend to be highly qualified. "

In Denmark, a commercial IT services business called Specialisterne

http://www.specialisterne.dk/html/english/Home.html has been set up to offer

people with autism the chance to enter the workforce.

The founder of Specialisterne, Thorkil Sonne, formed the software company in

order to make use of the special skills that people with ASD can bring to the

workplace. " The main benefits that autistic individuals bring to the workplace

are they are methodical and exhibit great attention to detail. " Other attributes

that people with ASD can exhibit include motivation, focus, persistence,

precision and the ability to follow instructions.

According to Sonne, these skills have come in useful for the task of software

testing, checking documentation and ensuring functional specifications do not

contradict.

Sonne's inspiration for Specialisterne came from personal experience: his son

was diagnosed with ASD four years before he founded the company. Knowing the

difficulty that people with autism have in finding employment, Sonne started

looking at how to support autistic people in a work environment and joined his

local autism society in Denmark.

With a background in IT, Sonne believed autistic people would be able to excel

at jobs in IT where attention to detail, focus and precision would be

beneficial. However, the education system in Denmark is limited in the amount of

IT training that it provides, so Sonne needed a different way to identify IT

aptitude in autistic candidates. By speaking to parents of

autistic children at the society, Sonne discovered that many of the children

loved Lego, and he struck on the idea of using Lego

Mindstorm<http://mindstorms.lego.com/>robots as a teaching and assessment tool.

People with autism have various problems communicating, which makes it difficult

for them to perform well in job interviews. So instead of verbal communications,

Sonne uses Lego. " I realised I needed a tool they would be comfortable with. We

found that Lego could be used as a tool to identify their thought processes. "

Prospective staff go through five months' training so that they can get

comfortable in a work environment. " They go through exercises using Lego to

identify their skills, and we try to find out what motivates them, " Sonne said.

Generally, people with ASD need to work fewer hours and cannot cope well with

stress, so the training is also intended to identify any

limitations the candidates will have in the workplace and their stress limits.

Bluechip companies, including Microsoft and global IT services provider CSC,

have hired staff from Specialisterne to help improve software testing.

Forsting, business manager at CSC in Denmark, told Computer Weekly that

the team from Specialisterne had been working from the CSC office in Copenhagen

mainly doing exploration testing, system testing and testing documentation for

CSC's client work across mainframe, internet and Oracle applications. " You will

be amazed at how good a memory these people have, " he said. " They have a

photographic memory and notice things we do not normally see, which is really

useful in a test environment. "

Forsting said the main benefits for CSC has been that the people from

Specialisterne are faster and very focused. " This means you get the job done at

a lower price and better quality than with our own testers. "

Specialisterne is among a handful of companies around the world experimenting

with a model of commercialism called Social Enterprise

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_enterprise>,

where business and the social sector combine forces to provide a product or

service that can compete in a commercial market. Austin, associate

professor at Harvard Business School, has been looking at the approach. " People

will buy a product or service on grounds of corporate social responsibility. The

challenge is to see if this business model actually works, " he said. Social

enterprises such as Specialisterne need to change people's perception so that

they can compete on merits rather than win business purely on humanitarian

grounds, he said.

It is early days for Specialisterne, but the company does have some big-name

clients and is now seeking funding to establish operations in Glasgow. If Sonne

is successful with Specialisterne, he will be able to provide those with ASD

with an opportunity to work. Moreover, he will also be able to a offer

businesses a software testing service, an area of IT that is often overlooked.

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