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Dear Secretary Kennedy,
The Aspiritech team would like to warmly welcome you to visit the offices of our Chicago-based tech company.
We’re a unique company, to be sure. More than 90 percent of our company is autistic adults, who have built and grown this organization in entry-level positions, management, and executive leadership. Our team performs a variety of tech services for companies all over the country. We retain our customers for years because we are very good at what we do.
That might be surprising to you, given your view of autism shared in recent months and most specifically in the press conference in Washington on April 16. We’d like you to meet 100 people who will help dispel the many misconceptions about autistic people that seem to be driving a false narrative.
You said autistic people will never pay taxes or hold a job. We’d like you to meet dozens of tax-paying employees of Aspiritech, who earn every penny of their paychecks and make meaningful contributions to tech, health care, accessibility, the financial services industry, and so much more.
You said autistic people will never play baseball or write a poem. We’d like to introduce you to the many poets and artists at Aspiritech who contribute to the world’s beauty daily. We’d like to introduce you to another autistic team member, who earned a scholarship in college gymnastics. We’d like you to meet yet another, an autistic father who leads Scout Troops with autistic children as successful, thriving members and serves on the Disabilities Committee for the Northeast Illinois Council.
We’d like to sit down for a discussion. Our company is built on the premise that all humans should be welcome as they are, and we’d like to welcome you into a few discussions we often have. Aspiritech is full of the most kind, respectful, and thoughtful people you’ll ever meet, and we’d like to bring you into that warmth.
We’d like to talk to you about how painful it can be when the myth that autism is caused by vaccines continues to circulate. Imagine how it might feel to have it suggested that your identity and way of experiencing the world is worse than the life-threatening measles virus. Is the suggestion that a dead child is better than an autistic child? I know it’s a jarring comparison, but that’s how it feels.
We’d like to talk to you about how the idea of a cure feels like you don’t want autistic people to exist. Autism is a birth-to-death condition, and many diagnosed autistic people view it as a critical piece of their identity.
We’d like to tell you about our $5,000,000 in client revenue that we earn each year and the 9.3 Net Promoter Score we earn through our work. We’d like you to meet the autistic executive leaders who drive this team forward every day.
We’d like to share how autism manifests in different ways in each individual. Yes, there are shared traits and similarities, such as sensory needs, social and communication struggles, and much more. But there are also many individualized experiences. Because autistic humans are humans, period—with strengths, weaknesses, capabilities, and needs.
And we’re here living, working, and caring—about each other, our country, and our world. We’d love to talk with you.
With warmth and gratitude for being open to our perspective,
Aspiritech’s Senior Leadership Team, Autism Advocacy Group, and Board of Directors
“We hired them for the mission. We’ve kept them because they are excellent.”
Aspiritech, NFP
