The Evolving Face of Autism

Matt Riebel at work

Some time back I posted a blog related to Matt Riebel, a former nAblement contract consultant who had done some outstanding work for PepsiCo in their data gathering function. He was working with a robust and complex query and reporting application. His managers expressed high praise and appreciation for his work and capacity to learn and master new technical skills. That wasn’t surprising to me, nor I expect would it have been for anyone who’s worked with candidates who have been identified as having Asperger’s or high-functioning Autism.  While Matt engages differently in social or professional environments, his intelligence and focus was capable of trumping much of his idiosyncratic behavior.

 Matt has relocated to the Baltimore area and taken a position in data mining with the National Security Agency (NSA). He was in town earlier this summer and his former manager at PepsiCo and I shared a nice lunch with him. It was very gratifying to have been invited by Matt to meet with him while he was back in Chicago for a brief window. Over a lingering lunch he shared some of the nature of the work he was performing on behalf of the NSA,  as well as the process through which he and other new hires were being evaluated and developed at this vaunted organization.  Matt also shared some more personal aspects of his transition, living situation, new friends – some with related challenges-  and the growth of his career aspirations. I continue to feel honored to know Matt and to have had any modest impact on his career and his continuing success in life.

Autism Speaks, Autism TV, Autism Project

It’s hard to imagine not being engaged in or overhearing a conversation regarding the growing presence of – or perhaps diagnosis of -  autism in our society. Media has been riddled with accounts of more  kids being identified through testing or other evaluative tools, and there is an overall heightened awareness of  Autism Spectrum Disorder  in our nation.

Autism Speaks is a blog and educational site that is helping lead us to a new and respectful awareness of the reality of living with – and thriving with – Autism and other ASD challenges. Watching some of the videos on the Autism TV site on Wrong Planet, the fun and quirky banter between “Aspergian” hosts Alex Plank and Jack Robison,  and compelling interviews with the likes of Steve Silberman of Wired Magazine (he speaks to his observation of high relative prevalence of Autism in Silicon Valley), I was struck with how far we have come in our journey of exploration around this complicated group of conditions. I’m certain you’ll be as intrigued as I am by the evolving face of this complex challenge, as well as the extraordinary contributions that many of our friends, family and colleagues who have been “labeled” with one of the diagnoses within ASD are making across multiple professional fields.

For another compelling link check out Ali Hossaini’s Autism Project on ArtLab TV and consider a sub-grouping within traditional Diversity and Inclusion, namely “Neurodiversity”. Great brain fodder.

ASD is a highly complex group of disorders that effects not just the person who has been diagnosed, but everyone who interacts with that person. I don’t want to presume to put a generic happy face on this challenging, and often very emotional group of conditions or ignore the other well-documented behavioral complexities of it, but it is encouraging to see the interest and attention that is being accorded to the creative and positive face of this very human condition.