FED: Disability should not overshadow ability: businessman
By Danny Rose, Medical WriterFri Aug 21 01:28:55 EST 2009
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SYDNEY, Aug 20 AAP - 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."
By "generalists" Mr Sonne means people who don't have ASD, a brain development disorder often characterised by reduced social and communications skills.
However, people with ASD can display a razor sharp focus and attention to detail, boosted memory recall and enhanced numerical skills.
Mr Sonne offers the example of software bug testing, saying it required a series of meticulous tests to find faults, followed by "fixes" by the programmers, and the process was repeated several times over.
The final runs were the most critical, and yet this was the time when conventional testers could find their attention waning.
"The big difference between our consultants and testers ... is that if its generalists who do the testing, after the first two or three times they lose their motivation," Mr Sonne says.
"... So we try to find the niches in the business sector where we can bring in our staff who are motivated by repetitive tasks."
Specialisterne received a top honour in Denmark's IT awards last year and it charges market rates for its services.
"We're not cheap labour," Mr Sonne says.
The company was set up without government funding and the inspiration, Mr Sonne says, was the birth of his third son Lars who was diagnosed with ASD at age three.
It has now expanded to Scotland and work is underway to replicate the business model in other countries.
Mr Sonne was in Australia this week for talks with interested groups and to attend the Asia Pacific Autism Conference, in Sydney.
"It's very likely that we can replicate the concept to Australia ... I think we could create at least 100 jobs here if we transferred our experience from Denmark," he says.
"I get very positive feedback," Mr Sonne also says of his workers.
"The term disability often overshadows the abilities that are typically there, somewhere. You just have to find them."
AAP dr/ash/cdh =0A
FED: Disability should not overshadow ability: businessman