A special interest in weaving
by Beth
This month Patricia Wright, Easter Seals National Director of Autism Services, wrote two posts about careers for adults who have autism. The first one was about an IT firm that goes out of its way to hire individuals with autism who have a special interest in internet technology. The second post was about a business professor with autism who says his special interest in consumer behavior contributes to his professional success. In both posts, Dr. Wright warned against assuming people with autism all have the same special interest.
After these posts were published, I received a note about an interview with artist Gary Rosenthal. In the interview, Rosenthal discusses a new line of woven Judaica he is producing with the help of two workers who have autism. The artist says:
I like to say that all of my staff/associates do what they do better than I would do. Nowhere is this clearer than with my autistic associates. Everyone is different, but John and Tim love to work on repetitive tasks where precision is critical. Weaving is a favorite task and the more the better.
Rosenthal says that the success of the mezuzahs have motivated him to create more woven items and hire more staffers who have autism. I think that’s great! Just hope he’s read Patricia Wright’s posts here and knows that not all people with autism are precise and like repetition the way his workers John and Tim Do.
October 28th, 2009 at 6:45 am
I like the looks of Gary Rosenthal’s work, and after reading this story about how he goes out of his way to hire staff with autism, I like the spirit behind his work, too. Thanks for sharing —