Discovering Untapped Brain Power

A decade ago, Thorkil Sonne, a telecommunications executive living in Ringsted, Denmark, was terrified about what the future might hold for his seven year-old autistic son, Lars. But rather than give in to despair,

Employees Oran Weitzberg, left, and
 Rick Alexander test a new program.

the middle-aged father started a company Specialisterne (Specialists in Danish), which helps high-functioning adults with autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs) find employment. Today business is booming. Sonne oversees branches in a half-dozen European countries, including Germany, England, and Spain and is funneling workers to such IT giants as SAP. Now he is even moving to Delaware to establish a foothold in America.

Danish IT Firm Hires Individuals with Autism

Check out this amazing story of a Danish businessman who has hired individuals on the spectrum. He was in Australia recently for an autism conference. And his quote of the day: "The term disability often overshadows the abilities that are typically there, somewhere. You just have to find them."

A Danish businessman who runs a successful IT firm staffed only by people with autism says it's time to recognise the special skills of people with disabilities.
Thorkil Sonne founded Specialisterne (English translation: Specialists) five years ago, and his team of consultants now make light work of some of the most detailed, time consuming and repetitive jobs in computer programming.
"I have 43 employees now with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and we serve customers like Cisco and CSC, and big Danish companies, for services like software testing, data entry and quality control," Mr Sonne told AAP.
"It's all the tasks where you have to be very structural, you have to have very high precision ... These tasks are very well suited to our staff but not so motivating for people that are generalists."

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