nyt: For Some With Autism, Jobs to Match Their Talents

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June 30, 2011, 9:30 pm

For Some With Autism, Jobs to Match Their Talents

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By DAVID BORNSTEIN

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/30/putting-the-gifts-of-the-autisti\

c-to-work/

Steen B. Iversen tests mobile phones for the Danish telecommunications

firm TDC. Before landing his job two and a half years ago, Iversen, 50,

who has been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, spent more than 12

years looking for work. " It's always been somewhat traumatizing, " he

said. " I have had jobs, but I always got fired. People would laugh about

me behind my back and laugh at me to my face. Those problems have more

or less been a problem for me from childhood. "

In the working world, Iversen said, his biggest problem was

communication. " Most of the time it simply was that people didn't

understand me and I didn't understand them, " he said.

Turning workers with autism who " didn't fit in " into high-paid

specialists.

Iversen works for a remarkable Danish company, Specialisterne ( " The

Specialists " ), that is improving the futures of many families by opening

up job opportunities for people with Asperger's Syndrome and

high-functioning autism who have historically found themselves excluded

from employment, largely because they don't fit in with workplace norms.

Specialisterne was founded by Thorkil Sonne.....

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