We can change this
According to Microsoft's blog, starting next month (May 2015), Microsoft will expand their diversity hiring practices:
This week, we announced another exciting effort, a new pilot program with Specialisterne, focused on hiring people with autism for full-time, Redmond-based Microsoft positions. It’s early days but we’re excited to get going and we know we’ll learn a lot along the way. Why are we so passionate about this space?
It’s simple, Microsoft is stronger when we expand opportunity and we have a diverse workforce that represents our customers. People with autism bring strengths that we need at Microsoft, each individual is different, some have amazing ability to retain information, think at a level of detail and depth or excel in math or code. It’s a talent pool that we want to continue to bring to Microsoft!
The program will begin with 10 hires for the pilot program. Microsoft will be using the services of
Specialisterne to create the program. From
Specialisterne's website:
Specialisterne, which translates from Danish as “The Specialists” is a socially innovative company where the majority of employees have a diagnosis on the autism spectrum. Employees work as business consultants on tasks such as software testing, programming and data-entry for the public and private sectors.
We harness the special characteristics and talents of people with autism and use them as a competitive advantage, and as a means to help people with autism secure meaningful employment. Specialisterne has operations in numerous locations around the world.
This is really exciting news for us all. Everyone is affected by disabilities in various degrees and we all just want ourselves or our loved ones to have the opportunities to gain acceptance on their terms.