The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) Special intelligence Unit 9900 is dedicated to everything related to geography, including mapping, interpretation of aerial and satellite photographs, and space research. Within this unit there is another, smaller unit of highly qualified soldiers who can detect even the smallest details—the ones usually undetectable to most people.

These soldiers all have one thing in common; they are on the autism spectrum. Their job is to take visual materials from satellite images and sensors in the air. With the help of officers and decoding tools, they analyze the images and find specific objects within the images that are necessary to provide the best data to those planning missions. The IDF has also found that soldiers with autism can focus for longer periods of time than their neurotypical counterparts.

This story speaks to me personally. My son Trevor was diagnosed with autism at age five. The only thing I knew about autism at the time was Dustin Hoffman’s Rainman character. Raising a son on the spectrum drastically changed my point of view on disability inclusion, seeing strengths through the challenges, and cultivating those strengths while accommodating the challenges. He’s a grown man today, living on his own, working, paying his bills, saving money, and building relationships. His strengths outweigh his challenges.

The same reckoning with his strengths and challenges can lead to success with overseeing how an organization thrives, but how do you begin to ensure inclusion of disabled people’s strength in the workplace at scale with at an organization level? It has to start at the board and C-suite level. 

Recently our son Trevor published a blog post entitled Every Oscar Winner for Best Picture, Ranked Worst to Best. In this post, he ranks, from 90 to one, each and every Oscar winner since Wings won the very first Oscar in 1928. Each winner is listed by the movie name, year it won, a picture from the movie, and a review summary. It took him three years to watch, review and rank the movies, which he did in addition to living a full work and social life. The ranking list, whether you agree with where they fall or not, is not only a fun read but is a major achievement for Trevor.

Colleagues - I just created a daily calendar for dads using our Six-Word Lessons format.  Each month I focus on a specific topic, such as "Planning for the Future", "Balancing it All",  "Managing Your Career", etc.  Every day I send out a Six-Word Lesson for that topic (see samples above).  To avoid flooding inboxes with daily emails, I am doing only through social media.  If you would like to get these lessons in your social media feed click on one of the below social media buttons and follow me.  I also appreciate you sharing the lessons in your social media feed :-).

As always would love your feedback.  Please feel free to share your thoughts with me. 

15 million working age Americans have a disability. Only 4 million have jobs.

Much of today's talk about Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI) leaves out those with disabilities. Did you know 26% of people worldwide have a disability? My passion is to ensure that disability inclusion is front and center whenever someone talks about DEI. When I wrote Behind Gold Doors-Seven Steps to Create a Disability Inclusive Organization, my goal was to not just provide disability awareness but to give seven steps to help an organization become more disability inclusive. The seven steps are as follows:

Many with ASD are perfectly content being on their own, focused on their favorite activities. This can be perplexing, particularly when the autistic child has siblings who like interaction. Briana was a very social child who craved interaction. Trevor was the polar opposite. As an adult, he still needs his alone time.

See all 100 lessons at GrowingUpAutistic.com

From early on, Trevor showed obsessive interests in certain things. At age two it was puzzles. At age five it was the television show Blues Clues. Throughout his childhood he was obsessed with drawing just about anything. He still has strong interests such as movies (fortunately that is his chosen profession) but is not nearly as obsessive as when he was younger.

See all 100 lessons at GrowingUpAutistic.com