PAUL BIBBY, March 20, 2010

Extraordinary memory … but the only work James Russell, who has high-functioning autism, can find is filling envelopes and lugging boxes.

Extraordinary memory … but the only work James Russell, who has high-functioning autism, can find is filling envelopes and lugging boxes.

JAMES RUSSELL has a truly remarkable knowledge of train timetables.

He was diagnosed with high-functioning autism as a child. Off the top of his head, the 20-year-old can tell you just about every Sydney train line affected by track work for the past two years, and the date it happened.

Yet the only work Mr Russell can get is filling envelopes and lugging boxes. Since leaving school - filled with hope for the future thanks to supportive teachers and a loving family - he has been shuffled from one menial job or TAFE certificate to another.

Now he is unemployed and it is taking a toll. ''Struggling for work makes me feel disappointed, stressed,'' he says. Mr Russell's mother, Tina Russell, describes it as hitting rock bottom. ''He really became very depressed and reclusive - he didn't want to get out of bed in the morning.''

Mr Russell is among tens of thousands of people with relatively mild disabilities who have fallen through the cracks of the country's flawed disability support and employment system. Skewed towards early intervention and finding work for the severely disabled, it gives scant attention to the needs, and potential contribution, of people like Mr Russell.

There are about 95,000 adults with one of the three autism disorders - autistic disorder, Asperger's disorder and atypical autism - and 53 per cent are unemployed.

Most of those who are working are in low-status or sheltered employment that is often far below what they are capable of. ''They're putting together headsets for Qantas, they're stacking shelves at the supermarket, they're filling envelopes,'' the director of young children and families at Autism Spectrum Australia (ASPECT), Anthony Warren said. ''For … many it's intolerable and inappropriate.''

When people with disabilities finish school, the level of government support falls away. Having been in the underfunded but relatively nurturing environment of special needs programs, school leavers get assistance and training for three days a week for a maximum of two years. After that they are on their own.

''Focusing too much on what happens at school as opposed to the transition from school to young adult life is definitely a problem,'' the Disability Council head, Dougie Herd, said.

But the lack of support in finding suitable employment is only part of the problem. There is also a dearth of understanding among employers about the school leavers' special needs and their capacity to make a valuable contribution.

''There's a very significant social impairment which means that people with autism have very specific planning and organisational difficulties,'' Mr Warren said. ''They are easily overwhelmed in work situations where there's a lack of predictability and well-organised physical structures. On a practical level they have difficulty engaging in ordinary social conversation. Job interviews, for example, are a complete mystery.''

The solution, according to ASPECT and the Russells, may lie in a revolutionary employment model developed by the Danish company Specialisterne.

Its founder, Thorkil Sonne, has started a computer software business where 80 per cent of the employees are autistic, with hugely successful results.

In its first year Specialisterne made a profit of 1 million kronor ($200,000) and is now competing with Microsoft and Apple for software contracts.

All employees are paid market rates and the workplace is set up to cater for their unique needs.

''The federal government needs to fund a pilot program using the Thorkil Sonne model in Australia,'' Ms Russell said.

''There is no question in my mind that James and many thousands of others like him could do that kind of work. They have so much to offer. Why don't we make use of them?''

from http://www.smh.com.au/national/remarkable-minds-just-waiting-for-work-2…