Success Stories
JoyDew focus on leveraging the unique strengths of people with autism has resulted in some incredible employment opportunities with outstanding results. Some examples include:
JoyDew was a founder of the now famous “Roim Rachok” (Hebrew for “seeing better”) program to recruit people with autism to a special intelligence unit and harness their unique aptitudes to detect even the smallest details invisible to most of us. People with autism with exceptional visual perception, spatial intelligence and analytic capabilities were identified to map and interpret aerial and satellite images and space research for the Israeli Defense Forces. They found hidden stockpiles of weapons, car bombs, fire starters, and all manner of intelligence gathering activities. The pilot showed that participants’ abilities resulted in 3 times the productivity and 4 times the accuracy of their peers. Roim Rachok was so successful it has now been replicated, permanently adopted in the military setting, and expanded to employ over 300 autistic adults as soldiers today. Since then, one of the American Intelligence Agencies has adopted the same program and are using it in Ukraine.
Pattern Recognition/Data Analytics Project
JoyDew members recently completed a significant data analytics project for a large community college network in Florida to help them optimize class enrollment. 12 members participated in the project, 6 of whom are non-speaking, 4 with dyspraxia and one deaf.
They were given access to large data sets, SAS analytics tools and IT staff at the college, but they didn’t limit themselves to just that information. They identified external, free sources of data the college had not considered, as well as conducted interviews regarding course scheduling.
Leveraging their unique pattern recognition skills, members analyzed enrollment variables across terms, years, and geography to identify which factors, individually or interactively, enhance or impede student enrollment and speed of enrollment.
The result was that the members were able to not only confirm some of the organization’s suspicions about what factors were impacting enrollment and their magnitude, they also identified specific issues that the college system had not known about that proved to be invaluable to the organization.
Diagnostic Imaging Projects
Many adults with autism have exceptional visual perception. They can see subtle differences in shape, contrast, depth and color. This gift, along with pattern recognition and attention to detail, makes them ideal for diagnostic image review. Radiologist Dr. Lisa Weinstock worked with 7 JoyDew members on early detection and follow-up of breast cancer screenings at a nearby clinic.
This project demonstrated how their “superpower” to detect changes was useful in identifying early stage cancer and far exceeded those of trained neurotypical medical staff.
Since then, JoyDew has contracted with a major university medical center to study the potential added value of radiological pre-screening analysis by autistic adults. This 3-phase project is designed to assess the members to ensure equivalency with medical students on case studies, review images to determine their accuracy in pre-screening, and finally, to review historical images to see how early they would have been able to detect confirmed cancer.
Database Development/Engineering Projects
Many people with autism have the persistent, sustained concentration and the attention to detail that lends itself to a variety of data engineering jobs.
JoyDew’s members leveraged these capabilities for the Post 21 Club to develop a comprehensive database of all the programs for autism in the state of New Jersey. Extensive research was done across a series of databases and the internet to identify the programs and create and populate profiles on each. The results far exceeded the expectations of the client. Instead of a list of names and a few pieces of data, members provided 30 different facts about each entity and created 34 distinct profiles.
A similar project was done in-house to research all the certified support agencies in the State of New Jersey and collect data on the organizations and the support coordinators by county. This information was then integrated into a CRM system for use by the marketing organization.