Auticon Asperger autistics as an IT tester

Only autistic people as IT testers

11/10/2013

On the first of November, the IT service provider in Frankfurt / Main opened its fourth location in Germany. The special feature of the company is that only Asperger Autists work there as IT testers.

Exclusively people with Asperger's Syndrome
After Berlin, Düsseldorf and Munich, the fourth location of the company Auticon has now been opened in Frankfurt / Main. The work should begin in February 2014 and the job interviews with the potential new IT testers should start in the next few weeks. As the founder of the company, Dirk Müller-Remus explained, only people with Asperger's syndrome, a weakened form of autism, should be employed as consultants, as in the other locations in the Main metropolis.

Significant problems in the job market
Since this form of autism is often not obvious, but expressed by weaknesses in social interaction and communication, it is often said: „Asperger is not diagnosed but discovered.“ Frequently affected are not able to intuitively recognize verbal and non-verbal signals and are therefore often found by fellow human beings to be strange. According to Müller-Remus, this leads to it, „that these people have significant problems in the labor market. They have to pretend that they do not usually tell their boss about their disability, and of course, dealing with these people will be difficult.“

Unique skills
However, this adjustment is not necessary at Auticon, because the company founder explicitly relies on the strengths of the Asperger Autists. Thus, these unique skills have analytical-logical thinking, accuracy, concentration and pattern recognition and are therefore able to identify even the smallest software errors. The social interaction difficulties caused by the disease will be counterbalanced by job coaches who have direct contact with customers.

Give as many autists as possible a chance
By the end of next year, 15 consultants and two job coaches will be working in Frankfurt. So far, 30 Asperger Autists are already working for the company. The number of employees should double by the end of 2014, and more locations are planned. Müller-Remus explains the reasons for the growth strategy: „We want to give as many autistic individuals throughout Germany as possible a chance on the first job market, but save them from moving to another location, which represents a major hurdle for many affected people. And that's why we as a company need to seek proximity to our potential employees.“ However, all applicants should have extensive IT skills and logical-analytical skills.

Connecting social and entrepreneurial
One reason for engaging in autism is in the entrepreneur's family. That's how the idea for the concept of the Social Enterprise Auticon came into being, as he himself is the father of a boy with Asperger's Syndrome. Müller-Remus got to know other people with Asperger in a self-help group for those affected and relatives and stated: „They were all well-educated, but all were unemployed and living on Hartz IV or other benefits. And that's when I came up with the idea of ​​combining the social with the entrepreneurial and giving these people a chance with their special skills in the job market.“

More promotion called for
Matthias Dalfert, professor of applied social sciences at Regensburg University of Applied Sciences, told dpa news agency just a few months ago that people with autistic disorders in the job market find it difficult. Thus, only about five percent of the autistic work in the labor market, in Asperger's syndrome, there are 20 percent. „With appropriate funding, the number could be three times as high“, so Dalfert. However, Auticon is not the only company that relies on the special abilities of autistic people. The software company SAP also plans to fill one percent of its jobs with autism by 2020. This is about the proportion of the population suffering from autism.

Autism is not curable
Autism is mostly described as a congenital, incurable perception and information processing disorder of the brain. Symptoms and individual manifestations of the disorder can range from mild behavioral problems that are barely noticeable to severe mental disabilities. Common to all autistic disabilities is an impairment of social behavior. So there are difficulties to talk to other people, to correctly interpret what has been said, to use and understand facial expressions and body language.

Mild form of autism
Asperger's Syndrome is a mild form of autism. in the „International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems“, A catalog published by the World Health Organization (WHO), which is considered the most important, globally recognized diagnosis classification system in medicine, mentions three over - criteria: a qualitative impairment of social interactions. A qualitative impairment of communication, as well as limited repetitive and stereotyped behaviors, interests and activities. (Ad)

Picture: Tim Reckmann