Article about college majors and jobs for people with ASD

[Chrysanthemum]

https://www.iidc.indiana.edu/irca/a...people-with-autism-or-aspergers-syndrome.html states “It is important that high functioning autistics and Asperger's syndrome people pick a college major in an area where they can get jobs. Computer science is a good choice because it is very likely that many of the best programmers have either Asperger's syndrome or some of its traits. Other good majors are: accounting, engineering, library science, and art with an emphasis on commercial art and drafting. Majors in history, political science, business, English or pure math should be avoided. However, one could major in library science with a minor in history, but the library science degree makes it easier to get a good job.” Do you agree with this? Why or why not?

Personally, as a female university student diagnosed with ASD, I definitely would not major in computer science because of my lack of interest in it and because as an adult I have rather weak skills in visual perception/reasoning.

I think that this article has some good points and some good job suggestions for people with ASD with various thinking styles (e.g providing lists of potential jobs for both visual and non-visual thinkers as well as for people who are non-verbal or minimally verbal) although in the suggestion of college majors personally I feel it is a bit too dismissing of the fact that strengths and weaknesses of different people with ASD differ from one another.

 

[menander]

What a dream to even be there.

 

[Els]

https://www.iidc.indiana.edu/irca/a...people-with-autism-or-aspergers-syndrome.html states “It is important that high functioning autistics and Asperger's syndrome people pick a college major in an area where they can get jobs. Computer science is a good choice because it is very likely that many of the best programmers have either Asperger's syndrome or some of its traits. Other good majors are: accounting, engineering, library science, and art with an emphasis on commercial art and drafting. Majors in history, political science, business, English or pure math should be avoided. However, one could major in library science with a minor in history, but the library science degree makes it easier to get a good job.” Do you agree with this? Why or why not?

Personally, as a female university student diagnosed with ASD, I definitely would not major in computer science because of my lack of interest in it and because as an adult I have rather weak skills in visual perception/reasoning.

I think that this article has some good points and some good job suggestions for people with ASD with various thinking styles (e.g providing lists of potential jobs for both visual and non-visual thinkers as well as for people who are non-verbal or minimally verbal) although in the suggestion of college majors personally I feel it is a bit too dismissing of the fact that strengths and weaknesses of different people with ASD differ from one another.

Seems to want to help, might have some suggestions, but steoretypical and sexist. I don't see why discouraging an autistic person to go to study history or whatever they want to study while it can be a real center of interest for him/her. There's no mention of psychology while I think there are autistic people interested in it and that they can become good at it, at least good enough to get jobs. Same for teaching/school, I don't see why advising to avoid English, history, maths, while you can become a teacher and teach well afterwards if the person enjoys it. Those "more feminine" stuffs that aren't mentionned. Basically, an autistic person could be in any field because autism doesn't mean anything about personality.
That being said, I think it's better to avoid jobs in which there's a lot of imprevisible things happening and tons of action and spontaneity and adaptability recquiered (travels from one day to the next and so on). Regularity and calm environments seem to fit better, but again, I don't believe an autistic person with the right personality would automatically be bad at teaching. There are entire fields which are overlooked in the article, and I hate that the first thing they propose when thinking autism are computers.

 

[Els]

Could be also very good at dog training if the autistic person has spent hours and hours decoding dogs; which is something some autistic persons do (thinking about... me lol). What's proposed is very restrictive. I think it's better to pay attention to your interests and then decide what job's lifestyle seems the most comfortable practically.
For me, I'm going back to uni and it's indeed in order to work in librairies through. But really, an autistic person could go study gorillas, with the training he might have in studying humans he'd beat all the others at it.

 

[Chrysanthemum]

What a dream to even be there.

What do you mean by that?

 

[Rasputin]

https://www.iidc.indiana.edu/irca/a...people-with-autism-or-aspergers-syndrome.html states “It is important that high functioning autistics and Asperger's syndrome people pick a college major in an area where they can get jobs. Computer science is a good choice because it is very likely that many of the best programmers have either Asperger's syndrome or some of its traits. Other good majors are: accounting, engineering, library science, and art with an emphasis on commercial art and drafting. Majors in history, political science, business, English or pure math should be avoided. However, one could major in library science with a minor in history, but the library science degree makes it easier to get a good job.” Do you agree with this? Why or why not?

Personally, as a female university student diagnosed with ASD, I definitely would not major in computer science because of my lack of interest in it and because as an adult I have rather weak skills in visual perception/reasoning.

I think that this article has some good points and some good job suggestions for people with ASD with various thinking styles (e.g providing lists of potential jobs for both visual and non-visual thinkers as well as for people who are non-verbal or minimally verbal) although in the suggestion of college majors personally I feel it is a bit too dismissing of the fact that strengths and weaknesses of different people with ASD differ from one another.

I disagree that a major in pure math should be avoided. Math was the one subject that I excelled in most, without even trying.. Besides fields such as engineering and computer science rely heavily on math.

 

[Chrysanthemum]

Seems to want to help, might have some suggestions, but steoretypical and sexist. I don't see why discouraging an autistic person to go to study history or whatever they want to study while it can be a real center of interest for him/her. There's no mention of psychology while I think there are autistic people interested in it and that they can become good at it, at least good enough to get jobs. Same for teaching/school, I don't see why advising to avoid English, history, maths, while you can become a teacher and teach well afterwards if the person enjoys it. Those "more feminine" stuffs that aren't mentionned. Basically, an autistic person could be in any field because autism doesn't mean anything about personality.
That being said, I think it's better to avoid jobs in which there's a lot of imprevisible things happening and tons of action and spontaneity and adaptability recquiered (travels from one day to the next and so on). Regularity and calm environments seem to fit better, but again, I don't believe an autistic person with the right personality would automatically be bad at teaching. There are entire fields which are overlooked in the article, and I hate that the first thing they propose when thinking autism are computers.

Well in terms of what's mentioned being very restrictive, it's my thinking that these are only examples and not an exhaustive list.

I agree about the teaching. The thing is though that ASD could be thought of as a "social" disability (though the DSM V diagnostic criteria says "currently or by history" for symptoms so I guess some people with ASD may actually develop good social skills but had some social issues in the past), and it can be argued that teaching requires good social skills (and possible/likely that some students will come to teachers about issues they're having, though if it is something beyond the scope of a teacher I think listening to the student and suggesting to the student the school counselor as a resource might be good). I don't mean that some people diagnosed with ASD might not be good at these social aspects though and even enjoy these social aspects.

 

[Rasputin]

Well in terms of what's mentioned being very restrictive, it's my thinking that these are only examples and not an exhaustive list.

I agree about the teaching. The thing is though that ASD could be thought of as a "social" disability (though the DSM V diagnostic criteria says "currently or by history" for symptoms so I guess some people with ASD may actually develop good social skills but had some social issues in the past), and it can be argued that teaching requires good social skills (and possible/likely that some students will come to teachers about issues they're having, though if it is something beyond the scope of a teacher I think listening to the student and suggesting to the student the school counselor as a resource might be good). I don't mean that some people diagnosed with ASD might not be good at these social aspects though and even enjoy these social aspects.

If you are very knowledgeable of the subject, it is possible to be a good teacher even with some social anxiety. I taught analytic geometry and calculus in graduate school, and was very effective. Whether I could teach below the college level I don't know; my guess is I would not be able to teach below college level.

 

[menander]

What do you mean by that?

I am not equipped to go. :-(