Introduction
According to Equality Act (2010) states that a disabled person has either a physical or a mental impairment that affects his/her ability to perform normal activities. Autism is a disability as result of brain development disorder that is characterized by problems in social interaction, verbal and non-verbal communication, and lastly repetitive behavior. The three types of Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) includes childhood disintegrative disorder, pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) and Asperger syndrome (What Is Autism? 2013).
In the world of health, the three types of autistic are referred to as ASDs. Autism disorder first emerges in infants as early as six months old and become established between two to three years old. The boy child is at risk of having a problem of autism as compared to a girl child, the research carried previously showed that one in 42 boys is at risk of autism while only one girl in 189 girls is at risk of autism(Autism Science Foundation, 2011). The causes of autism are mainly environmental factors and genetic factors that influence the early development of the brain.
The environmental factors are the events that occur before and after birth such as the age of the parents at the time of conception, maternal illness during pregnancy, high levels of extreme maturity, very low birth weight and certain problems mothers encounter during birth for instance deprivation of oxygen to the baby’s brain. The genetic factors includes situations when either one parent or both parents have a history of autism in their lineage, hence their genes are transferred to the young ones. This will turn make the kids to be at a high risk of autism.
People with autism face a big challenge in securing meaningful employment and are at risk of either being without a job or in jobs that underutilize their knowledge, skills and experience or doing jobs they are not suited to do as compared to people who live without disability. This has lead to most of individuals with autism disorder to feel isolated in the society and lead a life full of stress and depression (Baldwin et al., 2000.p. 2440-2449).
Those individuals with autism problems face a challenge in acquiring employment because most jobs requires individuals who can instantly responds to both the employer and consumers demands as well as responding effectively to unexpected situations. The thesis statement for this paper is to analyze the reasons for and against large companies hiring autistic people in companies.
Interventions
Several campaigns have been carried out across Europe and United States of America all with an objective of getting disabled people acquiring meaningful employment. The Disability Confident Campaign that was established in 2013 has seen the government of UK and various employers working together in ensuring that all the barriers are removed that prevents employment of disabled people.
This will present people with disability such autism people the opportunity of fulfilling their potential and gaining meaningful employment hence realizing their dreams in life. Several employers have supported the campaign of employing people with disability such Ashok Vaswani who is the CEO of Barclays said that employing people with disability is not doing some kind of CSR programme nor is it charity but a fundamental part to our business model.
Additionally, Sir Andrew Witty the CEO GlaxoSmithKline stated that if the world’s disabled population were allowed to fully engage in the economy as customers and employers it would increase world economic activity by around 3.6 trillion dollars which is equivalent of creating Germany in the world economy.
It is high time employers should employ people with disability because diversity is a huge asset to any employer. Chartwells Independent business at Old Swinford Hospital School in Stoubridge has taken the initiative of employing Steven who is autistic in the catering team for over seven years and all they have are praises for his exemplary work. McDonald’s has also employed Dawn who has a learning disability for more than 12 years and they believe that people with disability bring great qualities to the company (Department for Works and Pensions 2014).
Discussion
People with disability should be employed to various positions in the company and business because of various reasons. Over seven million people who work in UK either are disabled or have a health condition. The gap between the adults employed with disability that is employed is so wide as compared with the non-disabled individuals. Employers should employ more staff with a disability as a way of reducing the gap between the people with disability and the non-disabled people who are in employment. This will the employment sector to be diversified since individuals with disability are accorded equal chances in job opportunities.
Continuous encouraging people with disability to apply for vacant positions in the business assist the employer in increasing the number of high quality applicants available. This will create a work force that is a true representative of the diverse range of clients the business serves as well as the community the business is based. Furthermore, additional skills will be brought into the business such as British Sign Language skills that could lead to large savings for the employer (Department for Works and Pensions, 2014). Additionally, individuals with autistic disorder will work better in jobs that require visual thinking as well as systematic information processing jobs (Baldwin et al., 2000.p. 2440-2449).
The cost of maintaining an employ who has just become disable at a point in time for instance through an accident is low. The advantage of retaining an employee who developed a disorder and is skilled as well as experienced is much cheaper as compared to employing and training a new staff. People with disability are also employed is a benefit that is directly related to business objectives.
People with disabilities are employed in the business to fill the vacant positions based on the organization personnel needs. Organization can have a certain job that can be done well with one who is disable hence their needs will make them to employ the disabled individual (National Center on Workforce and Disability, 2008).
Autistic people should not be employed in companies and various businesses because they are slightly slow in responding instantly to jobs requests and demands as compared to I individuals who are not disable. Jobs such as cashier, waiter, or receptionist are demanding jobs that require who can think and act slightly faster in serving the customers and achieving the goals of the company. Therefore, autistic people are likely to struggle in meeting the demands of customers and those of the employer in busy environments such as fast food restaurants.
Communication is one of the major factors for the success of any business company; employer will communicate to all the employees whatever is expected of them and are the expected to perform their duties without any problem. Autistic people have a problem of verbal and non-verbal communication and low intellectual ability (What Is Autism? 2013).
They will take a lot of time before to understand what is expected of them or even fail at all doing all their responsibilities as expected. This will slow down the activities of the company and impact negatively to the business. They are not in a position to communicate effectively in verbally and non verbally as well as have experience difficulties in social interaction.
Conclusion
Autism is a disorder because of brain development caused by environmental and genetic factors. They should be employed in business companies because they bring great qualities to company. Diversity is a huge asset to any employer therefore; employer should employ people with disability in their business and company to achieve diversity in workplace and productivity.
Reference
Baldwin, S., Costley, D., & Warren, A. (2010). Employment Activities and Experiences of Adults with High-Functioning Autism and Asperger’s Disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 44, 2440-2449.
Department for Works and Pensions (8 July 2014). Disability Confident Campaign
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/disability-confident-campaign
Department of Work and Pensions. (2014). Employing disabled people and people with health conditions. Retrieved November 28, 2014 from
How common is Autism? (2011). Autism Science Foundation. Retrieved November 28, 2014, from http://www.autismsciencefoundation.org/what-is-autism/how-common-is-autism
National Center on Workforce and Disability. (2008).Why Employers Hire People with Disabilities. Retrieved November 28, 2014 from http://www.onestops.info/article.php?article_id=67
What Is Autism? (2013). Autism Speaks Organization. Retrieved November 28, 2014, from http://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism