Making space for autism in engineering

Discussion in 'Human Science' started by Magical Realist, Jan 31, 2015.

  1. Magical Realist Valued Senior Member

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    This is an interesting article in that it proposes welcoming autistic people into a field often ideally suited for their gifts. Best of all it suggests a redefining of autistic people by a more humanizing standard, as some of the greatest minds of history have even turned out to be on the autistic spectrum:

    "What would you think if I told you that there was a group of people within our society that probably contained amongst their members some of the greatest engineers, scientists and inventor’s humanity has ever produced? Amongst its members are likely to be Einstein, Tesla and Newton as well as many of the luminaries that were responsible for the dotcom boom and the explosion of Silicon Valley in the world’s most concentrated area of business wealth. I presume you would, as engineering companies would want a way to identify this group of people and to get them to work for their business if possible. What if I went on to tell you that only 15% of this group actually find full time work as adults? Would you think this was nonsense? Or would you be worried as to how we can allow this waste to happen? The more business savvy might immediately see this as an opportunity ready to be exploited and I would agree entirely.

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    Notoriously difficult to get along with and ruthlessly focused, Isaac Newton is now believed to have been on the autistic spectrum

    The group I am talking about is the autistic people in our society. A group that now makes up about 1 in 100 people in the UK and a group that is willing and able to work but is woefully under-utilised in the workplace. More specifically it is a group whose minds are often particularly well suited to engineering work...."

    Read more: http://www.theengineer.co.uk/opinio...-in-engineering/1019776.article#ixzz3QREIMFOL
     
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  3. Seattle Valued Senior Member

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    The only problem is that there is no problem

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    High functioning autistic people who are able to focus on detail but who don't have perfect people skills already fill the engineering ranks.

    If they have the skills to get though the university course work they can already (and do) get into engineering.
     
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  5. elte Valued Senior Member

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    There are the ones who function at less than the skilled engineering level who fall into the 85% who can't hold a decent job. Many of them nonetheless do design work and are the ones you see who have yards full of junk that they build new gadgets out of.
     
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