Ford Looking To Hire Workers With Autism

A major American automaker is looking to tap the potential of workers on the spectrum. Ford Motor Company said it is launching a pilot program this week designed to employ people with autism. Through the initiative dubbed “FordInclusiveWorks,” the company said it will establish five new positions in product development that were “created to suit the skills and capabilities of people with autism.” If successful, participants in the pilot program will ultimately enter Ford’s standard recruiting process, company officials said. Read the full story here… And more here…

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Reveal fitness tracker records stressors for children with autism

Fitness trackers are great, but their applications could go far beyond simply tracking how many steps you take. For example, they could be used to seriously help people who need it — like children with autism. That’s the idea behind a new health tracker from a company called Awake Labs, which has just launched an Indiegogo campaign for the Reveal — a fitness tracker that’s aimed squarely at helping kids on the autism spectrum. So how does the Reveal help these kids? Reveal essentially measures the wearer’s body’s response to anxiety, helping understand…

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Autism with intellectual disability linked to mother’s immune dysfunction during pregnancy

From Science Daily: Pregnant women with higher levels of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines, proteins that control communication between cells of the immune system, may be at significantly greater risk of having a child with autism combined with intellectual disability, researchers have found. The research also suggests a potential immune profile for the differentiation of autism combined with intellectual disability, as distinct from either autism or developmental disability alone. “Inflammation during the second trimester in the mothers of children with autism who also have intellectual disability was significantly greater than in…

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