SAP has said that the enterprise software company will initiate a global policy to hire people with autism to work in development roles, particularly in software testing. This follows a successful pilot in India and Ireland with participation of the job placement agency Specialisterne, a firm that specializes in placing people with autism into technical jobs. Tp date, SAP has hired six employees in India and plans to hire five in Ireland. SAP is planning to expand the program in the U.S., Canada, and Germany in 2013, potentially hiring hundreds worldwide.

Autism is a developmental neural disorder, characterized by impairment in social communication and interaction and repetitive and restricted behavior. However, autistic people do in fact perceive the world differently, and a small subset — those with mild autism — can work and apply their attention to detail to tasks like software testing. Approximately 1–2 in 1,000 people is diagnosed with autism, and as many as 20 in 1,000 are diagnosed as being in the autism spectrum, where less than full autism is indicated.

Aspiritech is an example of the new emphasis on autistic workers in software testing, working with major companies, like Salesforce.com, on a consulting basis:

from its website

Aspiritech is a non-profit organization headquartered in metropolitan Chicago.  Our mission is to provide a path for high functioning individuals on the Autism Spectrum to realize their potential through gainful employment.  We do this by leveraging their unique talents – attention to detail, superlative technical aptitude, ability to thrive in a highly repetitive task-driven work environment – and aligning those talents to the needs of the business community.  Specifically, we provide competitively priced testing services to client software development organizations.  Our major services include functional, compatibility and regression testing, as well as test case development.

Luisa Delgado, an SAP spokesperson, said the company believes that “innovation comes from the edges. Only by employing people who think differently and spark innovation will SAP be prepared to handle the challenges of the 21st Century.”