Michael Ungar explains that roughly 1 in 66 Canadians have an autism diagnosis, meaning a company with 244 employees likely has about four autistic workers. Most workplaces don't realize this talent is already there, just under-supported and invisible.
And invariably somebody would say at some point, my son, my daughter, my niece, my nephew, the boss's son. There was a connection to the autism community, which substantiates the fact that 1 in 66 Canadians currently has an autism diagnosis. So that's 450,000 Canadians who are available in the workforce that we are not supporting properly. One of the myths was we don't have anybody here who's autistic. Really? Got on the call with one person. I said, so how many employees do you have at your Canadian location? 244. I said, okay, so let's do the math for a sec. 244 divided by 66 is 4. I said, so it's statistically likely that you already have 4 employees in some role or another working within your facility who are on the spectrum. The guy's face, like if it could have fallen off, it would've.
