Autism/Asperger’s in tech: resources?
I have diagnosed ASD. Managed to make it work since my teens through sheer effort, luck and by compensating heavily with intellect/memorizing “rules” where others have built-in social intuition. However it feels like it’s really coming in the way as my job becomes more and more about people. I keep hearing how “half of Silicon Valley has autism,” are there any resources/Facebook groups/Slack channels, etc. for people with the condition? All I can find online are resources for parents of autistic children. Would love to find a community for high-functioning autistic/Asperger’s people in tech.
I have Asperger’s, and share similar experiences in regards to how I’ve managed to make it work. I’m an engineer at Boeing in Seattle, not really tech but I would also love to find more resources/a community.
Eye contact is a nightmare for me, I never get past on-sites and I'm extremely lucky if I get past a phone screen
When did you all get the diagnosis ? I wake up in the middle of the night every now and then worrying what the future would hold for my 5 year boy. I see he struggles to hold conversations with his peers . It wasn’t obvious when he was a child, also he was a late talker . Really glad to see you all are doing fine . Did you get speech therapy , ABA when you were young? social skills are the hard to teach
I would also like to know the answer to the same question. Want to know how you cope.
Is this true? Half of Silicon Valley?
It’s not meant literally but it’s a common meme that autism is heavily overrepresented in tech (e.g. from Temple Grandin: https://www.mercurynews.com/2014/01/21/temple-grandin-half-of-silicon-valleys-got-mild-autism/)
Anecdotally 50% seems accurate