Stupid Guest Tricks

I read about this in Wired a few days ago, and it got me thinking...
http://autismaspergerssyndrome.suite101 ... ialisterne

Is this sort of company really providing opportunity or exploiting its autistic workers? I would think that might be a fine line, capitalizing on their unique abilities in a commercial fashion. It appears that this guy is doing it for the right reasons. But what if a commercial minded company started a chain of them - think something like a geek squad scenario.

I know some of you have family members who are autistic, I'd love to get your take on this. My only experience with autism is a university roommate who was a graduate student in some form of economics. He claimed to be mildly autistic.

Without knowing first hand what these various conditions are,it could be a great idea or something that could come back to haunt him. PM me and I'll give an example.

Well, my view is that it is a dream come true for many-but not all-people with Autism. Those individuals with the right set of skills would benefit from an employer who understands their benign differences and has a nurturing environment.
What Darph might be alluding to is letting the negative Autistic behaviors exist to the detriment of others, which I suppose could happen if not kept in check-but most companies have rules in place that would prohibit extreme behavior anyway. Not all neurotypical people can handle these rules,and certainly some autistic persons will not either. Like I mentioned, if it is a relatively benign behavior-say-obsession with everything Disney- this may be tolerated as long as the person is productive in their work.
I wish more companies would try to help people with autism succeed- We were just in a meeting with someone from the Autism Speaks Organization, and she said current rate of Autism is in 1 out of 61 boy children now!
We need to research why this is occuring with so much frequency and what to do with our children so they grow up to be productive members of society.
BTW, tomorrow night on HBO, "Temple Grandin", starring Claire Danes, will premiere. It is the true story of a woman with Autism who is a University Professor, Author, and a respected consultant in the Cattle Slaughter Industry....
Thanks for the great article! I will forward it on! :)

darph nader wrote:Without knowing first hand what these various conditions are,it could be a great idea or something that could come back to haunt him. PM me and I'll give an example.

Of course most extreme behavior, and any negative behavior, is not really acceptable in a professional work environment. And I expect not all people with autism would be interested in that particular type of work. Its hard to keep images of some form of occupational therapy from clouding ones perception of the concept.

As a contrast, what about a window washing company that only hired window washers who are 6'2" or taller, and very thin,, due to their ability to clean all the way to the top of a window without a ladder or extension pole, and to move about the clients home into restricted access locations? Its an extreme comparison. But I have had situations in the theatre where only one guy, or girl, on our crews is able to do a particular job due to the extra height. Or lack thereof. Some jobs are best done by a person 5' or shorter. Often we need to crawl into a restricted space, and only the smaller than average will fit.
We make due with whomever takes the call, but sometimes we do have to discourage the big guy who is heavier than the capacity of the manlilft (240 lbs). By law he cannot be denied the work. But sometimes the work cannot be effectively done by anyone who doesn't posses a certain physical characteristic.

Or for that matter, how about the characters friends being assigned based on physical stature. I doubt that anyone has an issue with only friends of a certain height range being paired with each given character. after all, the friends costume is his/her workplace in a sense. If you cant fit into your workplace, you cant work there can you ? And there are opportunity's for friends of all height. But if I am 5'8" I am not going to be friends with Beast or Donald. Entertainment positions tend to be exempt from most anti discrimination laws here in Canada. You can be denied a role based on not looking right for it. This could be your stature, your color, gender, weight, but not sexual orientation.

DisneyMom wrote:Well, my view is that it is a dream come true for many-but not all-people with Autism. Those individuals with the right set of skills would benefit from an employer who understands their benign differences and has a nurturing environment.
What Darph might be alluding to is letting the negative Autistic behaviors exist to the detriment of others, which I suppose could happen if not kept in check-but most companies have rules in place that would prohibit extreme behavior anyway. Not all neurotypical people can handle these rules,and certainly some autistic persons will not either. Like I mentioned, if it is a relatively benign behavior-say-obsession with everything Disney- this may be tolerated as long as the person is productive in their work.
I wish more companies would try to help people with autism succeed- We were just in a meeting with someone from the Autism Speaks Organization, and she said current rate of Autism is in 1 out of 61 boy children now!
We need to research why this is occuring with so much frequency and what to do with our children so they grow up to be productive members of society.
BTW, tomorrow night on HBO, "Temple Grandin", starring Claire Danes, will premiere. It is the true story of a woman with Autism who is a University Professor, Author, and a respected consultant in the Cattle Slaughter Industry....
Thanks for the great article! I will forward it on! :)

Is the rate of autism actually increasing, or are the tools of diagnoses becoming more widespread and accessible? Are more doctors, teachers and parents aware? Could it be both? I am not challenging the fact, just curious.

This article really brought up more questions than it answered. I would hire this company if I had any IT requirements. But I would also wonder if I was exploiting the people working there. Its an interesting ethical problem. If the company were owned and run by an autistic person, would it relieve any ethical questions? I just don't know...

Wish I had HBO to catch that movie. Will look for it as a rental.

delsdad wrote: You can be denied a role based on not looking right for it. This could be your stature, your color, gender, weight, but not sexual orientation.

Sexual orientation isn't something that can be determined on visual examination - but you can certainly be denied a role based on your orientation in certain circumstances.

Kifaru wrote:Sexual orientation isn't something that can be determined on visual examination - but you can certainly be denied a role based on your orientation in certain circumstances.

Not in Canada. and this leads to some odd results!

delsdad wrote: Is the rate of autism actually increasing, or are the tools of diagnoses becoming more widespread and accessible? Are more doctors, teachers and parents aware? Could it be both? I am not challenging the fact, just curious.

This article really brought up more questions than it answered. I would hire this company if I had any IT requirements. But I would also wonder if I was exploiting the people working there. Its an interesting ethical problem. If the company were owned and run by an autistic person, would it relieve any ethical questions? I just don't know...

Wish I had HBO to catch that movie. Will look for it as a rental.

My feeling, and you will hear differing opinions from others, is that the criteria
determining what Autism is, has expanded greatly-so much that some people who are given the label might be so mildly affected, you wouldn't ever know it
by casual observation.For example, maybe only certain sounds cause them real distress. Many people with Autism learn to adapt their social skills to better blend in as they get older, and still might be odd, have few friends,but
know everything there is to know about cellular biology. Others may never speak, and function at a very low level. I do think that there is some environmental cause of the increase of incidence as well, but they have not found anything conclusively yet. They have found genes that seem to be related, again, nothing conclusive. Forgive me if I have omitted anything- probably a better source is someone who is aggressively fighting to get their child to speak and is searching for "a cure". Do not know if there is one, prevention seems to be a better goal. Some people with Autism will firmly tell you that they do not need to be cured at all! ;) It is good to embrace our differences, but most people with Autism are frustrated by everyday life.
It sounded to me like this particular employer is the caring sort and trying to provide opportunities. Not sure about exploitation. If they make a wage equal to those without Autism, (while having same productivity), it seems fine to me. :)

Diverging a little on delsdad's theatrical line... I do know that at least in in the US you CAN decline to cast people based on physical attributes, including height, weight and race. It's an exception to the discrimination laws at least up here (dunno about you lot down in FL or out in Cali.) But then, we're up here right next to Canada.

(Hey Dels, ever had to tell your own TD that the fly system isn't designed to lift human beings so, please come down now?)

8^P

Mayonnaise wrote:
(Hey Dels, ever had to tell your own TD that the fly system isn't designed to lift human beings so, please come down now?)

8^P

Thats more common than it should be. Some 23 years ago, a TD at one of our theatres here decided to not wait for the proper swing stage to arrive in order to install some anchors in the back wall. While the crew was on lunch he rigged a boatswains chair on one of the chain motors. grabbed his Ramset kit and up he went. At this point the boys were returning from lunch. They walked in to here the Bang of the ramset, then see it propel the TD in an arc 20' off the wall. Then, like any good pendulum, he swung back to the wall. Hard. He regained his senses and proceeded to do it again in order to set the next anchor. Genius! Hes lucky he did not kill himself. I had him as a university prof a couple of years later. He told us this story, as some sort of parable, but it message was lost in the tears of laughter . The moral of the story was twofold. DOnt work alone over lunch. And get the proper gear. They had to redo the anchors once the swing stage arrived. And with tag lines to control the swing it was done safely.

We have used counterweight sets for humans, loaded to half the humans weight. There are extra safety precautions that can be taken, and doubling up of braking. But even in a professional situation it is not the acceptable way to do it. proven technology exists in the Foy systems. Having a human who can feel the state of the load is much safer. using the counterweight pipes has no lateral stability. once the load squirms (they do), they will start to pendulum, and foul the pipe on neighboring linesets, smashing into lights, getting things tangled. A Foy system can have stabilizing lines to prevent this.
With the counterweight system the operator has no line of sight to the talent, he's staring at his lineset. That's a major no no. Its called flying blind and must have a spotter.On Lion King the operators were on deck, directly off stage of the talent. They could see their actors in order to safely maneuver them through their stunts and the ballet.
Foy tries to make their rental packages inexpensive enough that cost doesn't preclude people from using their gear. I know of High schools that have used Foy for Peter Pan.
There are others out there, notably ZFX who are big in Vegas. But they were not too impressive in what they did on Wicked. They hurt a few flying monkeys, and The star, due to computer glitches. It wasn't pretty. Running flying automation under Windows is a bad idea !

Do it right, or DON'T DO IT. No effect is worth risking a life or career over.

You can often get support fighting dangerous practices from your local fire department, as they are the high angle rescue specialists. When the fire chief speaks, the TD tends to listen. In many cities in the US, the stagehands ARE firefighters. or vice versa. On the east coast in particular.

delsdad wrote:Do it right, or DON'T DO IT. No effect is worth risking a life or career over.

You can often get support fighting dangerous practices from your local fire department, as they are the high angle rescue specialists. When the fire chief speaks, the TD tends to listen. In many cities in the US, the stagehands ARE firefighters. or vice versa. On the east coast in particular.

Oh believe you me. They're never getting my ass up on the fly, advantages of a small load or no. I'm strictly there for scenic painting, minor carpentry and running cable thru dark creepy assed crawlspaces bigger folk can't crawl thru. I'm near to useless at a light hang. I won't even go up on the scaff. It sways and heights freak me out. I'll hang shit on the bars if you fly them down for me but fuck all am I going up to hang shit on the trusses. They usually sit me in a corner with the gels and the safety scissors.

But I'm in volunteer community theater, so it's not like I'm getting paid or not paid based on this stuff anyhow

8^)