Remaking the meaning of 'disorders': trend of harnessing those with unique skills

[Visionary7903]

What about the effect of the environment on adults - on their performance and mental health?

First I will focus on a negative environment, devoid of positive niche construction. (In my next post, I will focus on environments which seem to include positive niche construction.)

One would think that being a ‘square peg’ in a ‘round peg’ job is likely to affect a person’s brain and health in a negative way (this is likely to be the current situation for the vast majority of people with Autism).

Alan G. Carter has a theory that the stress of being normal in the midst of unhealthy - and bullying - people leads to immune system weakness. This extremely stressed state can often result in chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome (CFIDS) / Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME). While this is just a theory, it intuitively makes sense that there would be negative ramifactions for a person’s health when they are regularly encountering more stress then they are able to deal with.

He talk quite a bit about the effects of stress and noise on health and Computer Programming performance, especially for those with ADHD and/or Autism, in his blog. He has a theory on ‘stress addiction’. For example, there is this entry (source: The Programmers’ Stone Blog Archive Noise In Open Plan Offices):

Noise In Open Plan Offices
October 9, 2007

Way back in Peopleware (Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams: Tom DeMarco, Timothy Lister: 8601406426641: Amazon.com: Books)

http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=theprosto-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0932633439

, DeMarco and Lister were very critical of open plan offices, particularly the incessant noise of ringing telephones and other people’s conversations.
More recently at Joel on Software (Where do These People Get Their (Unoriginal) Ideas? – Joel on Software), Joel Spolsky has been saying the same thing over and over. So interesting to notice an abstract, Creativity and Breadth of Attention (Taylor & Francis – Fostering human progress through knowledge), which concludes that:
(a) trait breadth of attention was correlated modestly and positively (r =. 20) with creative performance; (b) creative performance was impaired by exposure to noise, especially noise that was unpredictable or intelligible; and (c) noise impaired creative performance more in participants whose trait breadth of attention was wide than in those whose trait breadth of attention was narrow.
So people with greater environmental sensitivity are more creative (here determined by writing poems, an acceptable alternative to writing Java), unpredictable phones and intelligible conversations are most impairing, and they impair the best people the most.
So open plan offices are shown to impair the performance of the highly priced workers put in them. This is bad accounting. Perhaps the motive for this bad accounting is an unconscious desire on the part of accountants to create stressful, dopamine raising environments.

Under: Neuroscience, All Postings, Stress Addiction, Programming

[Visionary7903]

Thorkil Sonne (founder of Specialisterne and the Specialist People Foundation) sees the ideal outcome of his ‘revolution’ in modest terms (source: http://www.jobpostings.ca/article/autistic-revolution):

…what Sonne views as the ideal outcome of this perceptual shift — that there will be no need for ‘specialist’ companies in the future, and inclusive hiring practices simply being a hallmark of successful businesses.

Given the broad implications of such a goal, it’s almost possible to forget that the foundation originated with a single toddler, scarcely old enough to play with Lego, the famous Danish toy being one of the methods used to convey technological concepts in the Specialist People Foundation’s training program. Lars, now 13, is described by his father as being bright and keen to learn, with ambitions of some day joining Specialisterne’s workforce as an instructor, though only for a short while before pursuing other things. “I didn’t make the company for him; he wants to do other things,” Sonne admits, his tone a mixture of pride and amusement, before summarizing his parental and philanthropic hopes with characteristic simplicity — “All I want is that he’ll be understood and respected for his skills and personality.”

In a similar vein to Sonne, Patricia Wright (Easter Seals’ National Director of Autism Services) writes about the ideal outcomes she seeks (source:
Community Stories | Easterseals Disability & Community Services):

…I’m proud of those three hard-working people, but one day I would like to be able to stop telling these “amazing” success stories. Instead, I’d like to celebrate that every individual with autism seeking gainful employment is able to accomplish this objective. I look forward to celebrating a day when getting a job is not considered a remarkable accomplishment — just one of the processes of adulthood.

In an effort to promote employment for people with autism, Easter Seals has joined efforts with Sumida River Solutions (SRS), a global for-profit social innovation organization founded on the principles of Neurodiversity & Autism Advocacy. SRS and Easter Seals are working together to match highly talented individuals who have autism with full-time employment and contract opportunities at large corporations.

As more and more people with autism gain meaningful employment, their success stories can blend into the message that “adults work — those with autism, and those without.”