Managing, Supervising, and Recruiting Employees with Autism: Advice from Mentors

For Michael Chapman, workplace diversity isn’t a new business trend. The Director of Employment Services for the UNC TEACCH Autism Program has been working toward greater diversity, equity, and inclusion in workplaces for more than 30 years.

His top tip for employers? Don’t be afraid of change.

“Change is not going to be hard. It’s not going to be difficult. It’s just going to be a change, and in many ways, is going to be better for you” he says. “As a company changes, recognize that everybody’s different.”

Chapman and the team at TEACCH coordinate programs like TEACCH School Transition to Employment and Postsecondary Education (T-STEP), an intervention developed to support 16- to 21-year-olds with autism as they transition from school to the workplace. The acronym TEACCH stands for teaching, expanding, appreciating, collaborating, cooperating and being holistic – the core values of the program’s approach to autism treatment and support. At present, The Diversity Movement employs two interns from the T-STEP program.