Career-oriented groups led by members of the Autistic Peer Leadership Group (APLeG)

One of the types of groups a well-developed autistic community would have is groups for people who work in, or aspire to work in, particular categories of professions / occupations / jobs.

Such groups, once fully developed, could help us in many ways. See the Autistic Workers Project page for some of these ways.

We will need to build these groups slowly, step by step. At first, they will just be small specialized support groups. Eventually we hope to turn them into full-fledged professional associations with lots of connections to employers in the relevant fields. (Doing so may require the help of "allistic auxiliary" groups of families and friends of some of our groups' members.)

Because the author of this website happens to work as a programmer, the first of our career-oriented groups is:

• Autistic Techies of the NYC Area, founded in February 2021, for current and aspiring engineers and computer professionals. So far, it's just a small career-oriented support group. We hope it will eventually become much more than that, as we grow.

We hope that autistic people in other professional/occupational categories will be inspired to organize similar groups. Possible examples could include:

• A group of lawyers and other legal professionals (and aspiring legal professionals).
• A group of accountants, financial analysts, etc. (and people who want to work in those fields).
• A group of people who work, or want to work, in health-related professions.
• A group of autistic autism professionals!
• A group of neurodivergent special ed teachers. The educational establishment could learn one heck of a lot from such a group. Hopefully it would be able to form a good working relationship with the teachers' unions.
• A group of neurodivergent psychotherapists. There already exists a full-fledged professional Association of Neurodivergent Therapists in the U.K., founded in spring 2021 (NOT affilated with the Autistic Peer Leadership Group). We need someone to start a similar organization here in the U.S.A.
• A group of people who work, or want to work, in civil service -- which has traditionally been a relatively friendly environment for unpopular minorities of all sorts. Hopefully this group too could form some sort of relationship with the various labor unions for civil service workers.
• A group of journalists, nonfiction writers, and editors.
• A group of fiction writers and editors.
• A group of people who work, or want to work, in skilled trades (auto mechanics, electricians, plumbers, etc.)
• A group of autistic small-business owners and co-owners.

If at least one of the leaders/facilitators of a career-oriented group also participates in the Autistic Peer Leadership Group, then their group will be listed on this page. (Honorary mentions may be also given to a few other, especially significant groups not affiliated with the Autistic Peer Leadership Group.)