Neurodiversity at Work with Tara May: Building Success Through Inclusion

Unlocking the extraordinary potential of neurodiversity in the workplace takes center stage in this eye-opening conversation with Tara May, CEO of Aspiritech. As both a seasoned digital transformation expert and mother to an autistic son, Tara brings a uniquely powerful perspective to her leadership of North America's largest employer of autistic adults.

From its humble beginnings at a kitchen table to a thriving tech company with over 100 employees and $6-7 million in annual revenue, Aspiritech's journey demonstrates how embracing neurodiversity creates both business excellence and meaningful social impact. What began as two parents' quest to help their autistic son find suitable employment has evolved into a revolutionary model where 93% of team members and 80% of executives are on the autism spectrum.

Tara dismantles common misconceptions about hiring neurodiverse talent, revealing that accommodations are typically straightforward and cost-effective. More compelling are the advantages: autistic individuals solve problems 40% faster on average than neurotypical people, bringing exceptional productivity, loyalty, innovation, and problem-solving capabilities to the workplace. Through services spanning quality assurance, web development, data analytics, cybersecurity, and creative design, Aspiritech delivers exceptional value to major clients while creating life-changing career opportunities.

The impact extends far beyond employment. When a 15-year-old touring Aspiritech declared it his "dream company" and could finally see what was possible for his future, it exemplified the transformative power of representation. Through extensive collaboration with educational institutions, businesses, and international partners across multiple continents, Aspiritech is addressing the estimated 80% unemployment or underemployment rate among autistic adults.

Tara leaves us with a profound insight about inclusion: it begins with extending kindness and grace to ourselves, embracing our own complexities and imperfections. Only then can we truly extend that same acceptance to others. Connect with Aspiritech at www.aspiritech.org or find Tara on LinkedIn to join this powerful movement transforming workplaces and lives through the celebration of neurodiversity.

Connect with Tara May 

tara.may@aspiritech.org

www.aspiritech.org

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taranmay/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/aspiritech/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/taramaytesimu/
https://www.facebook.com/aspiritech

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taratesimu/
https://www.instagram.com/aspiritech/

Stay tuned for the next episode of  Ready Set Collaborate with Wanda Pearson. Subscribe - Follow and Like Ready Set Collaborate with Wanda Pearson 

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:08

Welcome to Ready Set. Collaborate with Wanda Pearson. This is where ideas spark, connections grow and collaborations fuse success. Tune in for inspiring stories, expert insights and game-changing conversations. Let's build, connect and thrive together. Remember collaboration is the key to success.

Speaker 2 0:41

Welcome back to another episode of Ready Set Collaborate organization dedicated to creating meaningful employment for individuals on the autism spectrum. Tara brings a wealth of knowledge about inclusion, innovation and how businesses can harness the unique talents of neurodiverse individuals. I'm excited for us to dive into her story, espirit Tech's mission and the powerful ways to collaboration which is shaping lives and communities. Thank you so much, tara, for coming on this podcast. Say hello to this audience, tara.

Speaker 3 1:16

Hi everyone, and especially thank you and hello to you, Wanda, Absolutely.

Speaker 2 1:20

Absolutely. I'm so glad you found me because I tell you, this is a very a subject that is very dear to my heart as far as what you do, because of my grandson, and that really helps me to understand more about their characteristics. But what I love about what you do is that you have a workplace for them, and that is a blessing here. So I probably need to get in touch with you. My grandson he wants to work and just to get him going and getting out there, so he loves it.

Speaker 3 1:46

Graduation will be here before you know it. Sophomore year your mirror flies.

Speaker 2 1:51

He keeps telling me I'm a sophomore. Nana, I'm a sophomore. I said you are. So I found a baby picture of him and my other grandson, who's 20. And I sent it to him. He said, nana, why would you send this to us? I said because you were my babies. Now you're my big boys, always, always. Now you're my big boy. He was not too happy with that picture, but he was a baby and I remember when you used to be listen.

Speaker 3 2:15

The teenage boys never want to be reminded that they were babies once.

Speaker 2 2:19

No, but no, it's great though it's great to have them there, but no, they're such lovable kids and they do have their little outbursts. They come back and say I'm sorry, so that's their frontal lobe is still developing, right yeah. Yeah, yeah, no, thank you so much. I appreciate you finding me and asking me to be on the podcast Because, like I said, this is very much because it's a lot of autism that's going on in this world today.

Speaker 3 2:41

We hit it off right away. We have lots to chat about.

Speaker 2 2:44

Yes, definitely. So let me tell you about Tara. Let me read your bio, tara. Tara is a leader in the movement of neurodiversity in the workplace. She is a CEO of Respire Tech, a revolutionary tech company that employs more than 100 artistic adults representing more than 90% of its team. Tara is co-director of NeuroWorks and a member of the Strategic Committee for H-A-A-P-E, which is Helping Adults with Autism Perform Excel, advocating for neurodiversity and employment both nationally and internationally, and is a renowned speaker champion, embracing neurodiversity, mental health and, most of all, kindness in the workplace. I love that. I love that, what you're doing here, and it's just such a pleasure to have you, you know, because we do need advocates and we do need women, men like you, to be able to have them in the workplace. So thank you so much for doing that.

Speaker 3 3:43

Absolutely. I'm excited to tell your listeners about it today.

Speaker 2 3:46

Yes. So, tara, can you share a little bit about your personal journey and what led you to join Espirit Tech?

Personal Journey and Mission Evolution

Speaker 3 3:51

Yeah, absolutely so. I am, like all of us, a person of many identities. One of my identities is digital transformation expert, right. So I spent my career taking legacy print media companies like the Chicago Tribune, aol, windsight Media and turning them into thriving digital properties. So my career is steeped in that space. One of my identities is mom. I am mom to six beautiful children and the youngest of my sons is autistic. So now part of my identity is neurodiversity advocate, because as moms, as parents, as nanas, it's our job to be advocates for the people we love the most, and he is one of the people I love most in the world. So when this job opening to lead a Spiritech, which is such an incredible organization, came open, I thought what an opportunity to share and combine my professional identity with my personal identity and help grow this incredible mission and business into what it deserves to be in the future. And I fully intend to be here another decade or two growing this amazing organization.

Speaker 2 5:33

I am so proud of you and I tell you yeah, I was looking at your bio. Yeah, she is definitely a woman of many hats, but your passion is that I can see is a spirit tech. This was what you're doing. So what inspired the can see is a spirit tech? This was what you're doing. So what inspired the founding mission of a spirit tech, and how has that admission, how has that mission evolved?

Speaker 3 5:53

So our founders were, like many founders of nonprofits, two parents looking for a problem to solve, right? So their adult son, oran, was looking for work commensurate with his capability, and his parents, brenda and Moshe Weitzberg, aren't finding it. So they set out to help him solve that problem and they started doing research and found a company in Denmark called Specialisterna that was teaching autistic adults, quality assurance and then employing them. And from their kitchen table they built a Spiritech. Fast forward 20 years, right? We're 20 years later and we are now 100 employees Wow, six to seven million in annual revenue and growing and the largest employer of autistic adults in North America and one of the largest in the world.

Speaker 2 7:00

That is amazing. It really is, because, especially when you you don't because it's such a need for that in the community and you have your company, I really take my hats off to you have actually dived deep into that, especially from your own experience with your own children and their children to be able to create what you have here. So how has working with?

Speaker 3 7:23

Spirit Tech impacted you personally and professionally. So, professionally, I think it's opened my eyes to the way thinking about neurodiversity can make every workplace better. So here's the first thing I would say Every workplace is neurodiverse. Because neurodiversity refers to all of us, right? We all have these unique, complicated brains with 86 billion neurons firing, and so that means we all learn differently, we socialize differently, we communicate differently, we innovate differently. And so I always think to myself, as managers and leaders, wouldn't we want to tap into understanding our team members' brains and help them thrive, help them be their best self at work? That's so good for the organization. So that's one way that the team at Aspiritac has just opened my eyes and changed my perspective.

Speaker 2 8:25

That's awesome. That's awesome. That's awesome, and I think you already answered this question. But for listeners who may not know what is Aspira Tech, what makes it unique?

Speaker 3 8:33

So Aspira Tech is a tech company with a mission. So we are a tech company that does tech services for clients all over America quality assurance, web development, data services, cybersecurity and several other tech services. But what's unique about us, and what's really pretty cool about us, is that 93% of our team is autistic adults all the way from entry-level positions to 80% of our executive team is autistic. So we're pretty neat.

Speaker 2 9:09

That is amazing because I actually I noticed that with my grandson. He's very techie.

Speaker 3 9:14

Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 2 9:16

When I was at faculty. He loves coming, he likes playing. God, I forgot what the game is on my TV, but I remember I didn't know how to. It was so many different remotes. I was like okay, Amari, what remote should I use here?

Speaker 3 9:27

He's like Anna, I got you, I got you. He's like your personal IT consultant.

Speaker 2 9:31

Yeah, he was like about three years old, I don't even know but they're very unique as far as the techie part of it. What you had created is so true because they really they get into it and music so true because they really they get into that music.

Speaker 3 9:46

I don't know, are they into the music? So we have team members that are so passionate about sound and music that one of our biggest customers is Bose, so we do all the testing on Bose headphones and speakers before they go to market. And then we have some beautiful talented artists. So we've launched a creative services division for some of our artistic team members. So it's really just let's tap in to the talents and value that each individual person can bring to work with them.

Speaker 2 10:18

Yes, I love it. I love it. So how does the Spirit Tech support and empower individuals on the artistic autism spectrum?

Speaker 3 10:26

So many ways. The first is just letting them shine, right. Each one of us has our own strength and skillset and passion that we can bring to work with us. And work is so important, right? It's the way we put food on the table, roofs over our heads, but it's also the way we share our value with the world. So I think that's one of the most important things we do at Aspira Tech is provide that path for sharing our value.

Speaker 3 10:56

But we also have a support team. So at Aspira Tech, we have a support team that's completely dedicated to employee accommodations, supports, happiness in the workplace, and that's for all of us. That's called the support team, right? So that's pretty cool. We also have a community right. So we have employee resource groups for different subsets within our autistic community, including parents and caregiver, including people with chronic illness, including our LBGTQIA plus community and our autistic advocacy group. So we're always thinking about how can we create community for our team members to push away mental health issues, loneliness, those sorts of things that can be a real struggle for autistic team members.

Speaker 2 11:47

Yes, I love it. I love it. I never heard of it until you came out and said I didn't know about this. I have to tell my daughter about Spiritex. No, this is great. So do you do it in all states or is it just?

Speaker 3 11:57

Absolutely so. Our workplace is headquartered here in Chicago, but we hire from all over the country and we have employees in I always get this wrong, wanda, but I think it's 11 different states now and we also offer free training for autistic adults in tech careers, both QA as well as cybersecurity and IT fundamentals. So we really, in addition to our hundred employees, we want to open the door for career potential for autistic adults all over the country.

Speaker 2 12:32

That's awesome. That's awesome. I love it. So what states? Do you real quick, can you name the states that you're in?

Breaking Down Misconceptions About Neurodiversity

Speaker 3 12:38

There's not a state we won't hire from, but we have really deep relationships in North Carolina, okay.

Speaker 2 12:45

That's what I was going to ask. That's where my grandson is.

Speaker 3 12:47

New York, new Jersey, in Florida, in Colorado, in Utah and several others.

Speaker 2 12:54

Okay, okay, great, because it's amazing, because he listens to my podcast. You're the number one fan. He goes on YouTube and I wrote a book, I have my book and he reads my book, so he's very proud of his Nana. I love that. That's great. So can you share a success story that really illustrates the impact of a spirit text work?

Speaker 3 13:17

So one of our team members. I won't share his name, I'll respect his privacy, but he's one of my favorite success stories because he shows a level of exactly what our mission is about. So he has a bachelor's degree in cybersecurity but he struggled to interview. He's incredibly smart, incredibly capable. If you struggle to interview, that's a huge hurdle to getting hired. So now he's been at Aspiritek more than a decade doing QA, rising up the ranks on our QA team, showing off his incredible intelligence and capabilities. When we launched our cybersecurity program, he was the first person to raise his hand. He said I have a bachelor's degree in that. That he's never put to work.

Speaker 3 14:08

He met Michigan's former chief security officer, and that incredible leader with decades of experience in department of defense cybersecurity said this guy is brilliant, let's put him to work in this field. And now he is shining and showing what he is capable of in a very complex and technical field. And Wanda, what I think is most impressive he just saved up enough to buy his very first home.

Speaker 2 14:41

Oh, what a blessing.

Speaker 3 14:42

What a blessing, just what an incredible story. I would like to think, and I think he would say, that a Spiritech played a role in that story.

Speaker 2 14:54

That is definitely a great success story.

Speaker 3 14:57

Absolutely, and we've got dozens of them. Yeah, I'm sure you do.

Speaker 2 15:00

That's a great one to share. I appreciate it. Let's talk about collaboration. How do you collaborate with businesses and organizations to create employment opportunities?

Speaker 3 15:10

So I really love the topic of your podcast and I think we are collaborators in so many aspects of our lives as humans. I will say just raising an autistic child is a lesson in collaboration and the village mentality. It takes a village to raise a child times 10 when you have special needs.

Speaker 3 15:36

So I just want to like nod to what an amazing ethos you have. But I think, especially when you are trying to solve a systemic employment problem like the autistic unemployment rate, you have to collaborate across so many different areas of society. We are working really closely with education partners K-12 transition programs because right away it's starting as soon as there's graduates. There are employment gaps, right? Yes, we work with everything from Ivy League universities like Stanford and Carnegie Mellon to local community colleges. All have autistic members in their community that are going to be seeking employment.

Challenges and Future Vision

Speaker 3 16:26

Right, Work with other businesses and employer partners to talk to them about the benefit of hiring employees, autistic team members, both as full-time employees as well as contractors through a spirit tech. Talk to other nonprofits who are working to solve these problems right alongside us, and that's across the United States, but also across the world. We have collaborators in India, in New Zealand, in Belgium and the Netherlands, in Argentina and Peru, in South Africa, who are working with us because this is a global problem. So to me, when you're trying to solve a problem that big and that systemic, there's nobody I won't collaborate with, From an international government official to someone in DC to a mom who wants to make a difference.

Speaker 2 17:23

Yes.

Speaker 3 17:24

This is this amazing woman in Connecticut. She called me, she found me and she said I want to start Spirit Tech in Connecticut. Let's figure it out how amazing, how powerful.

Speaker 2 17:37

That is powerful and that is definitely collaboration. But I am so impressed with what your company does and I'm thinking about my grandson. I said, God, okay, this is because I never thought about this. This is a great way for him to start and he is in North Carolina, he's in by Charlotte, he's in Mooresville, but, yeah, definitely I would love for him to really get to know how to get into that.

Speaker 3 18:00

You're my next collaboration, Wanda.

Speaker 2 18:02

Yes, exactly, exactly. I would love it, I love it. So what are some of the misconceptions about neurodiverse employees that you'd like to break down?

Speaker 3 18:11

So I think the first is that it's going to be complicated or difficult to hire someone who is autistic, when the truth is it's not. And I often quote our head of support and inclusion at a spirit tech. She has been here almost since the beginning, almost 20 years, and she says in those 20 years there has never been an accommodation request that she could not, with a little bit of creativity, solve for free and quite easily. So I think when you're an HR person or you're a hiring manager, you're like I don't want to hire someone that's going to make things more difficult for me and that just isn't the case, right? And then I think what I would like to say is that you may not be thinking about the incredible benefits that come from hiring autistic team members. Autistic people on average have brains that solve problems 40 percent faster than neurotypical people. I bet you see this in your grandson.

Speaker 2 19:12

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 19:14

They do?

Speaker 2 19:15

Yes, I do. And just like I'm simple as a remote I didn't know which remote. I mean something like that. He has that problem for you. Yeah, he was only three years old. Yeah, I don't need him anymore. I was like, oh wow, this is interesting.

Speaker 3 19:27

But think about the benefits of that. As an employee, You've got incredible productivity, loyalty, retention, innovation and problem solving all wrapped up in a team member that might just have some difficulty interviewing and if we can get past that, we can have such talented, brilliant people in our workforce.

Speaker 2 19:49

Absolutely, absolutely. And that's my next question how can companies benefit from including neurodiverse talent in their on their teams? You can answer, but I can see the joy. As far as they like to have fun, they love to. I'll tell you he loves to interview people.

Speaker 3 20:05

I love that.

Speaker 2 20:07

What's your full name? What do you do? Do you have?

Speaker 3 20:10

My son, who's autistic. He likes to get to know people by memorizing their birth dates.

Speaker 2 20:16

Yes.

Speaker 3 20:17

Really put you in context, right, okay, grandma was born first and then we have this person and that person and it really helps him understand the world and he really shows a deep interest in people when he gets to know them.

Speaker 2 20:31

Absolutely. And numbers he knows my number from years ago, so he knows my heart.

Speaker 3 20:37

That old landline you had Wanda yeah.

Speaker 2 20:40

I don't have a landline anymore. He knows my stuff. So my 20-year-old grandson, he said what's landline? And he just rattles it out, he writes it. How do you know that? Because you remember You're giving such great examples.

Inclusion, Collaboration and Closing Thoughts

Speaker 3 20:50

Ray, autistic people, like all of us, are people. Like all of us are people. We have these amazing strengths and sometimes some gaps they might need help filling. We often reference this, what's called a spiky profile. So for most of us, our cognitive profile looks like this it has some strengths and some weaknesses up and down. For autistic people, the cognitive profile often has some big gaps. Maybe social interactions profile often has some big gaps maybe social interactions, things like that. But it will also have huge peaks of strength, whether that's numbers or creativity, and so if you can leverage that strength to fill a business need, that's a great team member, that's a great employee.

Speaker 2 21:32

Exactly, I love it. I love it and because it's just so many things that they can do for us, and including them, instead of excluding them, in the workforce is so important to do that I agree. So let's talk about what are some of the challenges you face in expanding Spirit Tech reach.

Speaker 3 21:49

So one of the biggest challenges is just the scope of the problem, right. So it's not widely tracked, but we often hear from the Department of Labor that we're guessing. About 80 percent of autistic people are either unemployed or underemployed. That's a lot of people anecdotally cite to you, wanda, that we get so many applicants to a Spirit Tech both our academy and our employment that we just we can't hire everyone right, and so that keeps me up at night. How do we expand fast enough to keep up with the demand? And so we are constantly thinking about how do we grow, how do we get new customers, how do we expand our business lines, how do we expand our funding for the academy so that we can do more and meet the needs of the?

Speaker 2 22:50

autistic community, right where they're at. Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, I love that and I know I don't want to keep you up at night, but I can understand as far as how you want to help everybody.

Speaker 3 22:58

It does keep me up at night, my husband he'll be like turn your laptop down, you can't solve everything tonight.

Speaker 2 23:04

Yeah.

Speaker 3 23:04

But we have so much work to do in this space.

Speaker 2 23:07

Yes, and by you starting it, that makes a big difference. How long have you been in business? Anyway, I'm going to ask you that 18 years. Wow, we're almost on 20. We're going to have a big party Okay, 2027. And that's why I'm going to ask you how do you see the future of?

Speaker 3 23:25

the workplace inclusive, evolving so fundamentally. When Aspiritac was started, we were offering QA services to other companies. Today we offer QA services, data services, cybersecurity services, creative services, and we only want that to grow. And then also we train other organizations on how to be inclusive to neurodiversity and autistic team members, and that is another way for us to expand our mission. Experitech is never going to be the single and only employer of autistic adults, so the more employers that we can get bought into why this is such a great talent pipeline the more impact we have. So it's expand a Spiritech, but also let's advocate for neurodiversity everywhere.

Speaker 2 24:17

I love it. I'm loving everything we're talking about here. So if someone's listening today that wants to support Spherotech's mission, what's the best way they can get involved?

Speaker 3 24:26

So we are always looking for new customers because we do great work, so you can hire us to do the work. You can talk about neurodiversity in your everyday life, because so many of us have autistic loved ones and we need to share how talented and incredibly capable the autistic community is. And then you can always look us up on our website and find out more ways to get involved, whether that's funding or volunteers. The more people we have in our corner, the more we can change the world.

Speaker 2 25:05

That's awesome. That's awesome, and I want to know what is your proudest moment since working with the Spirit Tech? I'm sure so many of them.

Speaker 3 25:14

I have so many, but I think one that I would like to share is the representation that we give to autistic young ones of successful autistic people at work. So we do tours through Espirit Tech on a regular basis and we're constantly doing tours High school students and one particular tour I remember, a 15-year-old man said this is my dream company, this is exactly what I want for my future, and now I see that it's possible.

Speaker 2 25:54

Wow, wow.

Speaker 3 25:56

What better thing can we do in the world than help people see what's possible?

Speaker 2 26:01

That's amazing for him to say that too. So collaboration is the heart of this podcast. What does collaboration mean to you personally?

Speaker 3 26:13

Collaboration to me personally means and this is hard for me because I'm a control freak admitting that I can't do it alone and knowing that with other people I am stronger, I am smarter and I am capable of anything. And collaboration brings that empowerment to each of us absolutely, and that's affirmation.

Speaker 2 26:36

I'm about affirmations and you're using all those affirmations that I would use because I actually mentor middle school girls too. So that is amazing.

Speaker 3 26:44

Oh, and middle school is it's where we lose. It's so important to keep our confidence as young women in that moment.

Speaker 2 26:50

Yes, the girl. I tell you, and that's what I'm a social, that's what my degree was in social work, sociology, and I worked in corporate for 36 years. I retired and I said, okay, god, what do you want me to do? Get back into doing what I love to do. So I joined forces with another young lady called the STARS program and we mentor middle school girls and that's where they kind of get lost and we want to make sure that they don't get lost, that their self-esteem, and I am the affirmation before they walk out the door. You got to give me a positive affirmation, as far as I love it, about their self.

Speaker 3 27:29

So if you can leave our listeners with the one message about inclusion and collaboration. What would it be? It would be to remember that being inclusive to other people starts with yourself. Can you be kind to yourself? Can you give grace to yourself and all your own strengths and weaknesses and millions of complexities? Because if you can do that, it will remind you to share that kindness and that grace with absolutely everyone you meet.

Speaker 2 27:55

Absolutely. I love it. I love it. Actually, my next book is called Forgiveness Walking the Freedom to God's Grace. That's the next one and forgiving yourself first. I had to learn how to do that. Forgive yourself first, with everything that's happening. Please share how people can contact you.

Speaker 3 28:10

So our website's a great place to start wwwaspiratechorg, and I am also very active on LinkedIn and I love to meet new collaborators there, so follow me there. Great place to meet up.

Speaker 2 28:24

Absolutely, and that will be in our show notes. As far as your contact information on LinkedIn and I think on Facebook as well. Yeah, facebook, instagram. Yeah, she's all over the place, y'all.

Speaker 3 28:35

I'm all over the place. Just find me on the socials.

Speaker 2 28:38

So thank you so much. Wow, what an inspiring conversation with Tara May from Espirit Tech. Her insights remind us of the power of inclusion, collaboration and creating opportunities where everyone's gift can shine. If you'd like to learn more about Esp, spirit Tech and how you can support their mission, be sure to check them out at spirittechorg. Thank you, tara Mae, for being on my podcast and I truly appreciate you sharing all the wonderful things you're doing. So thank you again, audience, for tuning in to Ready Set. Collaborate with Wanda Pearson. Remember collaboration is the key to success. Until next time, keep building bridges, creating impact and working together to make a difference. Thank you so much. Oh, and make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel. I keep forgetting to say that. Subscribe to my YouTube channel Ready Set. Collaborate also WD Pearson Associates. I would love to make sure you follow these great conversations that I'm having with these great guests that I have. Tara May, thank you once again.

Speaker 3 29:40

Thank you for having me.

Speaker 2 29:42

Thank you.

Speaker 1 29:44

That wraps up another episode of Ready Set. Collaborate with Wanda Pearson. I hope you found inspiration and valuable insights to help you build meaningful connections and successful collaborations. If you enjoyed today's conversation, be sure to subscribe, share and stay tuned for more great discussions. Until next time, keep collaborating and making an impact.