Greetings everyone!  I want to share with you an interesting article I read entitled, “Microsoft to Recruit Employees With Autism.”

“Microsoft is planning a pilot program to actively hire people with autism spectrum disorder, the second techology company to launch a recruitment effort that specifically targets this population.
The company says plans are underway to hire people with autism for full-time positions at its Redmond, Washington, headquarters.
Microsoft said it will work with Specialisterne, a nonprofit that focuses on helping people with the developmental disorder apply their talents to work in the technology field, to facilitate the hiring effort.  The same company worked with SAP, a Germany-based software giant, to hire people on the spectrum in the United States and abroad.
Microsoft expects its program to include about 10 people with autism.  “Microsoft is stronger when we expand opportunity and we have a diverse workforce that represents our customers,” wrote Mary Ellen Smith, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of worldwide operations, in a blog post.  “People with autism bring strengths that we need at Microsoft,” she writes.  “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.”
Smith, who has a 19-year-old son with autism, said that though a new pilot program is focused on autism, Microsoft is “passionate about hiring individuals of all disabilities.”

*Information was derived from an article posted in THE ASHA LEADER*