New Prospects for Job Placements for Individuals with Autism
Cinzia Raffin
From an enactive perspective, it has been hypothesised that it is a peculiar sense-motor and affective approach to the world that starts the atypical neuro-developmental trajectory of people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In this pathway, the «core» characteristics of autism do not so much belong to the individual nor are they linearly determined by their conditions, but rather are the result of the individual’s interaction with their natural and social environment. Just as the environment has played a central role in the ontogenesis of autism, so the environment continues to be the biggest obstacle to the inclusion of adults with ASD, also affecting the workplace. The idea that at the basis of the failures of employment policies for people with ASD (less than 20% of people permanently employed in Europe) there are biases that can only be overcome through a cultural revision of the concept of inclusion is proposed. Finally, a 6-step model for the job placement of a person with ASD in a profitmaking company is presented and a divergent proposal for the future — the «autistic company» — is launched, taking as an example an organization that already comes very close to this model.
Keywords
Autism, Enaction, Job, Inclusion, Rights.
