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“I can’t help but wonder what the world would be like if it operated the way it does in here.”
This is the question at the heart of our new short film—a quiet but radical thought voiced by Rider Hallenstein, a Quality Assurance (QA) Analyst and Creative Services Team Member working at Aspiritech. This simple query invites viewers to reimagine not just how society can include neurodivergent people, but how we can better redesign the systems we all live and work within.
Right now, those systems don’t support everyone as they should. And that’s a problem.
For many neurodivergent people—autistic adults included—mainstream approaches to employment, education, and community are fraught with obstacles their neurotypical peers may never experience. From social stigma to inaccessible environments, the demand to “fit in” requires people to mask who they are, hide how they think, and constantly prioritize arbitrarily defined “normal” performance standards set by their neurotypical peers. This never-ending effort comes at a significant cost to their wellbeing.
More than 80% of autistic adults in the U.S. are unemployed or underemployed. This isn’t because this population lacks the ability or desire to work. Rather, it’s due to society’s failure to recognize that potential, talent, and excellence do not look the same for every individual.
At Aspiritech, we’ve seen that failure. Many of us have lived it. And now, we’re reversing it.
We believe what neurodivergent people deserve goes beyond mere inclusion. They should be able to have workplaces structured with their strengths in mind. They deserve to be asked about their preferences, and for those preferences to be heard, validated, and honored. Our team members bring unique insights informed by extraordinary creativity, conscientiousness, honesty, innovation, and precision to everything they do. But more than that, they show what’s possible when people are allowed to work as they are, without the imperative to conform.
What happens when we design systems with the flexibility and empathy to meet every individual where they are, and accommodations that need no justification because the acceptance of differences is implicit? In the video, our team talks about the pressure to adapt to a world that isn’t built for them, and the freedom they feel in spaces where that pressure does not exist.
“One of the big things that Aspiritech provides me is acceptance. Acknowledgement of us being on a spectrum. It’s very much a relief,” shares Senior QA Analyst Julie Opalinski.
“It saved my life,” says VP of Operations Maxwell Huffman.
We could not be happier for that.
This new video, produced by Chicago-based creative director Kelly Dolan, is a testament to potential, a critique of the status quo, and a peek at what embracing neurodiversity can do to drive change not only at institutional levels, but within the lives of individuals who have navigated challenges within systems built to exclude them, and have persevered nonetheless.
If we want a world where everyone can thrive, we have to build it together. And we have to start by listening and understanding. Who can you listen to today?
“We hired them for the mission. We’ve kept them because they are excellent.”
Aspiritech, NFP
