If you are wondering what are the best jobs for adults with high-functioning autism or Asperger’s syndrome take a look at our list below and you will definitely find your answer. While choosing any job, one should focus on his/her strengths and interests and choose the job accordingly.
For persons with high-functioning autism or Asperger’s, it is often hard to function in a workplace full of social interactions and regular chit-chats. For them this can be excruciating and what to say about attending long meetings?! That could be a complete disaster. This means that most jobs based on interaction with other people are ruled out. Both, high and low-functioning people with autism or Asperger’s often have very poor short-term memory and thus have problems with jobs that put high demands on short-term memory. On the other hand their-long term memory is often much, much better than in those people who are not on the spectrum. In addition to great long-term memory, people with Asperger’s or high-functioning autism have incredible attention to detail which makes them best at jobs which require this skill. People with AS or HFA are often encouraged to pick college majors and education in an area which will enable them to get jobs once they graduate. If you are interested, you can also take a look at our list of 7 best school districts in New York City for autism.
Doctor Temple Grandin, Assistant Professor at Colorado State University autism spokesperson, discusses job opportunities for people with autism spectrum disorder and breaks down job categories into two groups: individuals with strong visual/spatial learning skills and visual thinking and the second group are individuals who are not strong visual learners but are often good at mathematics, fact memorization or music. Her advice for people with Asperger’s or autism is to choose jobs which have a well-defined goal or endpoint, to focus on work itself rather than “adjusting” your personality and to make sure that your superiors are aware of your limitations. The last advice might be the most important one.
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In an article about job opportunities published by Forbes Magazine, it is stated that according to some estimates unemployment rate for adults on the autism spectrum exceeds 90%. One of the reasons for such a high rate of unemployment can also be the fact that employers often do not see the good side of hiring persons with high-functioning autism or Asperger’s. Many employers falsely believe that people with ASD cannot do the job as efficiently as their co-workers who are not on the spectrum. In reality, people on the spectrum can perform jobs as efficiently and often even better than their colleagues who are not on the spectrum.
While compiling this list of 10 best jobs for adults with high-functioning autism or Asperger’s syndrome, I focused primarily on a list compiled by Dr. Temple Grandin because the majority of other websites only copied her list. I’ve included Applied Behavioral Analysis Program’s Guide website, opinions of Quora users and My Asperger’s Child website. I chose jobs from both categories: jobs for visual and jobs for non-visual thinkers. I’ve also included some of the jobs recommended for non-verbal individuals with Asperger’s or high-functioning autism. The point of including various jobs while compiling the list is to offer ideas on a variety of jobs so that anyone reading this list can find a job that will suit him/her. Jobs on our list of best jobs for adults with high-functioning autism or Asperger’s syndrome are ranked according to median annual wage, from lowest paid to highest paid job. Let’s take a look.
