Neurodiversity Is Next on the Civil Rights Agenda for Workplace

A burgeoning civil rights movement is poised to change the workplace, and it revolves around differences in brain function. Advocates for neurodiversity say that it’s just as critical to business success as gender or racial diversity in the labor force. 

A growing number of companies actively recruit candidates on the autism spectrum for tasks that are suited to their strengths, such as those involving large amounts of data or rigorous attention to detail. They include SAP, Freddie Mac, ULTRA Testing, as well as specialized recruiting and placement firms for people with neurological differences.

Benefits of Hiring Workers with Autism

The Israeli Defense Force’s Satellite Intelligence Unit 9900 assigns autistic soldiers to monitor electronic combat maps for even the minutest changes. Their rare ability to focus for hours on end provides better results than non-autistic soldiers.Software powerhouse SAP is actively searching for people with autism for jobs that require high attention to detail such as software testing. It hopes to have people with autism make up one percent of their workforce by 2020.