Opinion: Stop Hiring Autistic People for the Wrong Reasons
Three Reasons That Should Not Drive Your Decision to Hire a Person with Autism
“I’m not a unicorn”says Ashlea McKay. “Believe me, I want you to hire autistic people, but here are three reasons that should not be driving the decision to do so.”
“As an autistic job seeker myself, I can tell you that it’s pretty tough out here. I’ve been searching for 2.5 years now with no success. The job market is a minefield of myths, misconceptions and misunderstandings for autistic people and our unemployment rate is abysmal. A recent study found that here in Australia, 31.6% of autistic people are unemployed — a rate that is 3 times that for people with disabilities in general and is almost 6 times the unemployment rate for people who do not have a disability.”