Autism is on the front burner in the headlines of America and around the globe. It is said to be one of the fastest growing neurological disorders in recent times. Assuming that those numbers are in fact correct, one must ask the question...

"How will the worlds workforce be prepared to deal with such a diverse challenge?"

Not very well, I'm afraid. It seems that all the education is geared towards school-age children through High School. After that it is up to the parents to figure out on their own.

There are no programs and no funding for programs for adults living with Autism.

With the current local and global economic stranglehold, many funding sources have either been cut or eliminated altogether.

Some areas of the U.S. are more progressive than others, in that they offer ongoing vocational education support, on a limited basis, throughout the life span. Most do not. And there in lies the rub. Unless these individuals are trained in their specific strength base, they will fall through the cracks and get lost in the system.

As it is, presently, unless a person is so severely effected by the disorder they often go unrecognized as having a spectrum disorder and are viewed as a person that doesn't "fit in" with the norm and subsequently is moved on from job to job.

Even the most severely effected persons living with Autism are not mentally retarded. Most are above average intelligence and hold some unique skill that is useful in the everyday working environment.

As the parent of a twenty-seven year old autistic woman I have had first hand experience helping my daughter deal with the world after high school.

After several poor job fits, on the job abuses, vocational "job coaches" that did absolutely nothing other than collect a check and allowed my daughter to flounder on the job site, to say that I was frustrated is an understatement.

Realize that after one reaches the leagal age of consent, a parent can not waltz into a job site and "advocate" for their child. Employers will normally frown on such parental "interference" and the situation could possibly turn worse for that individual, especially if that person "looks" normal (still haven't figured out yet what normal is, exactly), on the outside.

I have been told by many that I possess the "tenacity of a bulldog", so as I had done many times throughout my daughter's life, I took matters into my own hands and developed a job interview aide entitled: "Eight Things About Me."

It was derived from a grade school format for younger children with autism entitled: "15 things about me."(http://www.autism-society.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=12023)(http://www.nlconcepts.com/articles/teacherletter.pdf) The objective was designed to aide teachers to know when a student with autism is showing signs and symptoms of stress and anxiety and how to better assist them to stay focused, relaxed and on task. After reading, I thought "What a great idea! This may work at the job site, as well."

I tailored specific to my daughter's particular needs and voila...success! One common sense document changed my daughter's life profoundly. Her self-confidence has skyrocketed with just a bit of understanding and support from her employers. She has been at her position since October of 2007, has had several raises in pay and has had her hours increased from half-time to full-time.Her performance reviews have been nothing less than stellar.

The organization has since adopted this format to hire other individuals with learning disabilities, of varying types, other than autism.

I would like to be clear that it was volantary on the part of that particular organization to use this format and that no money has changed hands. I did not reinvent the wheel. All I did was develop a tool (from an existing one) to assist my daughter to be independent and successful.

Bottom line is that employers need to become educated about an epidemic of emormous proportion that will be entering the worforce and how best to help these indivuals to be the best that they can be to ensure "their" bottom line because with 1/150 births...that's an awful lot of people with autism that will need to be employed in the coming years.

Something to think about...I say.

The format is as follows: