German Software Firm to Hire Hundreds of Workers with Autism

A German software giant has announced it intends to employ hundreds of people with autism as software testers and programmers in a global drive over the next seven years.

SAP, which has already launched pilot projects in India and Ireland, said that the move aimed to find workers "who think differently" in the hopes that this would lead to innovative ideas and advances.

By 2020, one percent of SAP's currently 65,000-strong workforce is expected to be affected by autism, a company spokesman told the AFP news agency.

Couple Finds a Home

So happy for this couple and their families.

After months of waiting and legal action, Paul and Hava Forziano, a pair of newlyweds with developmental disabilities, have finally found a home where they can live together.

Paul and Hava Forziano
at their wedding.

In July, the couple will move to a one-bedroom apartment in a Riverhead group home run by East End Disability Associates, according to Roseann Forziano, the groom's mother.

Burt Bacharach Revisits Autistic Daughter's Death in Memoir

NEW YORK -- Burt Bacharach knew writing a memoir would be emotional — not because of his never-heard backstage tales or his tumultuous marriages. He knew that being honest would force him to come to terms with the death of his daughter.

“It was very tough because I had to revisit what that period was and go deeper into it,” he said of his daughter Nikki’s premature birth, years of emotional issues, and eventual suicide at the age of 40.

Law Limits Award to Abused Workers

A jury verdict earlier this month to mentally disabled workers who were abused and forced to live in a “house of horrors” has been drastically slashed after trial.

The bunk house at Henry's Turkey
 Service.

A federal law that limits damages will cut the jury’s award from $240 million to $1.6 million.

After deciding that Texas-based turkey processing plant Henry’s Turkey Service subjected the workers to abuse, discrimination and physical punishment at home and at work, the jury awarded $7.5 million to each of the 32 workers.

N.J. Developmental Centers Brace for Huge Change

TRENTON -- With its imposing, Victorian-era buildings and leafy, college-like campus, the Vineland Developmental Center was in its time a state-of-the-art institution for treating young women with complex mental and emotional disorders.

At its peak in the late 1950s, just over 2,000 women lived at the center. Once there, often at the behest of families that no longer could care for them, they could expect to stay for life.No longer.

CDC: 1-in-5 Kids Have Mental Disorder

Millions of American children suffer from depression, anxiety, autism spectrum disorders and an array of other mental health issues, and the prevalence of such conditions is rising, a new study shows.
Roughly one in five children experience a mental disorder in a given year, according to a report released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The costs for health care, special education, juvenile justice and other services for people under age 24 with mental disorders total nearly $250 billion each year, the report shows.

Autism in Flight Prepares Kids for Travel

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A month ago, Ruth Goldman couldn't imagine taking her twins to the airport to board a plane. Her 11-year-old sons have autism and don't react well to unfamiliar sights and sounds.

Daniel Goldman at the security check.

"It just wasn't even on the list," said Goldman, of Miramar.