'Agricultural specialisterne': rural employment revolution for those with Autism

[Visionary7903]

Specialisterne (‘the Specialists’ in Danish) seeks to harness strengths that many people with Autism Spectrum Disorders possess - good attention to fine details, precision, and high tolerance for repetitive tasks.

Bruce Gutlove is the Managing Director of Coco Farm & Winery in Ashikaga, Japan. This winery is unique in that it is made up of over 100 employees who have developmental or cognitive disabilities including severe mental retardation, autism, Down’s syndrome, and emotional disabilities. It is able to compete on the general market and is considered to be high quality in Japan.

Some interesting quotes from the press that I found reminiscent of the way the strengths of Autistics are being harnessed by Specialisterne in Software Testing:

…As far as the pairing of autism with winemaking, it is a natural fit.
“Autistic people are very detail-oriented. They like the repetitive work and so some of this works very, very well with their personalities…”

…Such attention to detail is a characteristic of autism and a requirement for some Coco Farm tasks, such as applying labels to bottles. Some students have mastered the winery’s bottling line, which requires a worker to add empty bottles to a fast-moving mechanical line and remove filled ones at precise intervals…

The philosophy behind Coco Farm is somewhat similar to that of the relatively high functioning workforce at Specialisterne:

…As touched upon at the start of the paper, the economy of Coco Farm has a different basis than that of modern society which rests on making more, working faster, and generating greater efficiency. Kawata says, “It seems to me that we are pursuing maximum efficiency in everything, and shunting aside those who cannot keep up with the pace of others in the competitive labor force—which will not lead to human happiness.” Coco Farm’s wine- making is the polar opposite of pursuit of profit at the expense of humanity, and is economic activity that places humans at the center. In this way of thinking, the well-being of the laborers takes precedence over efficiency. In other words, sacrifices in the present for the sake of the future are not made, and each person’s “here and now” is given priority…

…Another staff member said, “That’s okay if people are not able to perform heavy labor; there is definitely something at the school that the students should be doing at this moment.” At Coco Farm, one can say that human beings are not made to fit the economy, but that there is an “economy with a human face” being realized in which the economy is made to fit human beings…

(sources: Autistic winemakers crafting fine vintages in Japan - CNN; Hotei friend Bruce Gutlove makes cover of Wall St Journal!; http://www.nier.go.jp/hidekim/ESD/BenevolentEconomy.pdf)