How this Bangalore-based NGO is dismantling bias against the differently abled

"If you expect people to deliver, they deliver."

This is not a Monday morning motivational message. This is the conviction — or "secret sauce" as he prefers to call it — that Dipesh Sutariya has in those who are differently abled.

And for good reason. The bias is so subconsciously ingrained that it takes conscious effort to view the 'differently abled' as "people with different skills". For most of us, a visually-impaired person walking with the assistance of a cane, is a 'blind' person. Rarely, if ever, do we perceive that person to possess elevated auditory or olfactory senses — innate skills that would be highly valuable in sectors such as perfumery or sound testing.

It was this inclusive approach that led Thorkil Sonne, an IT professional in Denmark whose two-and-a-half-year-old son Lars was diagnosed with infantile autism, to start Specialisterne (Danish for The Specialists), a social venture that seeks to leverage the skills of those on the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Sonne's mission to create a million jobs for people with autism found an echo in India, when another IT professional, VR Ferose, was given the same diagnosis for his son, Vivaan, as Sonne had been for Lars years earlier.

Autism @ Work
Ferose, who was then SAP Labs India's managing director, went to Denmark to meet Sonne. When he saw that Specialisterne was using their skills — excellent memory for visual information, attention to detail, good at repetitive tasks and mathematical skills — for software testing and quality control, he wanted to replicate the model in India.

"I did not start with any grand plans. It all started with an intention to make a difference in a meaningful way by a group of like-minded people," says Ferose via email. "One step lead to the other and today Autism @ Work is a landmark commitment by SAP for people on the spectrum." SAP today employs 98 people on the autism spectrum across eight countries, says Ferose, who is now the senior vice president and head of globalization services at SAP in Palo Alto, California, US. By 2020, the IT giant hopes that 1% of it's global workforce will comprise of people on the autism spectrum. SAP's push for inclusiveness is not borne out of it's employee's passion for a better world, but driven by business sense.

"People with autism are able to see patterns. They are very persistent, they pay attention to details and tend to be perfectionist. These traits are very good in areas of testing," explains Manjusha Nair, chief product owner, globalization services at SAP Labs India. "When they test products, they see things that we don't. And their tests are much more comprehensive. So their feedback allows us to improve the quality of the product. We don't view Autism @ Work as a CSR activity. We want their skills purely for business reasons. We see value in what they bring to the table."

Diversity in disability
Bringing on board the first set of autism spectrum employees at SAP India came with it's peculiar challenges. If anything, Ferose asked Sutariya and his wife, Shanti Raghavan, of EnAble India, an NGO that seeks to empower the differently abled, to take it up as a challenge because until then the duo had never worked with anyone with ASD.

"Enabling employability among the disabled is far more complicated than becoming a scientist. The complication is the diversity in disability," says Sutariya, explaining that even mildly hearing- or visually-impaired people have to undergo upto nine months of training, such as being able to read with the help of alternate tools (screen readers or auditory software), social skills, life skills, domain expertise, to become employable for corporates to even consider them as candidates. "And when it comes to severe disabilities, things become that much tougher."

Even though SAP India and EnAble India could rely on Specialisterne's model, the ground reality in India was stark. "We faced a completely different set of challenges, such as lower level of education of people in the spectrum, compared to the West," adds Ferose. "A weak support system at work as well as at home that did not cater to the requirements of people on the spectrum."

EnAble India found 10 ASD candidates that met SAP Labs India's requirement — graduates and 21-years of age or older — and with inputs from the company trained them. "During training, we found that the parents believed that their child won't be able to do it because they've always seen the child as being completely dependent," says Sutariya. "But when they came here, we told them that it was upto them to take charge... that we expect them to plan their commute, show up on time for training, plan their own sessions and so on. And within days we saw the transformation... their body language exuded confidence."

Of the 10, SAP Labs India hired six for software testing. "In the first five weeks, these six had a mentor to guide and watch over them," fills in Nair. "We assigned a buddy to each of them. We also did workshops to sensitise their reporting managers and HR personnel. All this awareness was done to ensure that they integrate into their respective teams."

The result of this 'pilot' had such an impact that it lead SAP's global management team to expand the Autism @ Work program across it's offices in 2013. Ferose adds that providing a supportive environment to those with autism boosts their confidence. "We currently have a retention rate of 92% of all the hired colleagues in the spectrum," he says. "An inclusive workforce brings significant advantages to a company as people with different backgrounds come with different perspectives and different way at looking at problems and possible solutions. Diversity is important to build an innovative mindset in any organization. As the saying goes: when everybody is thinking alike, no one is thinking."

About Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
Autism is a term for a complex disorder of brain development.

The disorders is characterised, in varying degrees, by difficulties in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication and repetitive behaviours. The wide variation in symptoms among children with autism has led to the concept of Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD.

Autism spectrum disorders affect three different areas of a child's life: Social interaction, communication and language (verbal and nonverbal) and behaviours and interests.

Specialisterne and EnAble India
Specialisterne People Foundation has chapters in many countries. In India, it works through it's partner, EnAble India, which trains the differently abled to place them in meaningful roles across 600 diversified companies

EnAble India's Dipesh Sutariya says organisations should be open to hiring those who are differently abled. "Look at talent, don't look at disability. If people are open, then inclusion happens. There will be challenges, but solutions come from challenges."

SAP's VR Ferose feels that there are at least 200,000-300,000 jobs in India for people on the autism spectrum. "I personally see that we have a supply problem. It is not so much about availability of jobs, but more of candidates that have the skills to do the role," he says.