Autelligent Laboratories: Interview with Isaac Dealey
Published March 24, 2009 @ 10:19AM PT
Isaac Dealey was born in Dallas, Texas. He has been working in the software engineering field since 1994. Isaac is an Adobe Community Expert for ColdFusion and is also the visionary behind Autelligent Laboratories.
Elesia: Tell us about Autelligent Laboratories.
Isaac: AutLabs will create challenging and rewarding technical jobs for software engineers on the autistic spectrum. By creating a positive work environment in which autistic people can excel, we plan to provide excellent value to our clients, showcase the many talents of our employees and hope to achieve significant strides toward resolving other autism community issues such as communication challenges and social anxiety.
Elesia: Tell me about the conception of AutLabs.
Isaac: Fundamentally, my first goal is to make the world a better place to live in. On a personal level, I feel that Autlabs is the best way for me to make use of my talents in a way that fills a need that's currently under-served. There are a handful of companies that have started to seek out autistic workers although the ones I've seen are either on another continent or are within an established company. Autelligent will be the first company I'm aware of designed from the ground up to nurture the talents of autistic workers.
Elesia: How can the Autistic community become involved in this project?
Isaac: We encourage anyone interested in helping us to visit our website and to make contact with us. Spreading the word about our organization, via blogs and favorite forums, is also appreciated. We have particular interest in hearing from potential investors, as well as sales and marketing professionals.
Elesia: What type of skills should potential employees possess and will AutLabs be able to provide on-the-job training?
Isaac: Skills can be taught and yes we'll be learning them on the job. What employees need to have when they come to work with us is an interest in computers and software, as well as a strong desire to learn and excel. Software is among a handful of careers in which continual learning is absolutely essential, and I hope that we will continue to learn valuable communication and life skills as well.
Elesia: What are the advantages of basing AutLabs out of Dallas, Texas?
Isaac: There's a good technology base here in the Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) area with the telecom corridor in the north Dallas area. It's also a bustling metropolis in general and that's good news for any software company. It means we can find clients next door although I'm sure we'll have clients across the country and around the world as well.
Isaac has created a Wiki page in addition to the Autelligent Laboratories website. Click here to visit the Wiki page and learn more about AutLabs' mission, philosophy, and business model.
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Comments (9)
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Author
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Elesia Ashkenazy is Asperger's autistic, as well as profoundly deaf. Elesia is the mother of an autistic son. Currently, Elesia is co-directing Portland Autistic Self Advocacy Network (PDX ASAN) in Portland, Oregon. She is also a community board member of Academic Autistic Spectrum Partnership In Research and Education (AASPIRE). Elesia possesses a Bachelor's degree in Speech & Hearing Sciences and she is also a licensed Speech Language Pathology Assistant. She enjoys public speaking and writing. Her blog: aspitude!.
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End the Perpetuation of Pity
I'm getting a password dialog when the image on this page tries to load. Just thought you needed to be informed of this!
Posted by Cody Boisclair on 03/24/2009 @ 10:25AM PT
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Me too. I will alert the proper person at Change.org ASAP.
Thanks!
Posted by Elesia Ashkenazy on 03/24/2009 @ 10:56AM PT
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Me too - it says "authentification required" and that it is a protected area - weird!
By the way, a very interesting article. I'll be looking at Isaac's Wiki page.
Posted by Chun Wong on 03/24/2009 @ 11:00AM PT
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@ Chun Wong: I'm glad you enjoyed this article. I had a blast interviewing Isaac. He's a great guy to work with.
I've contacted the person in charge of technical difficulties. Let's hope this is taken care of quickly. Hang in there.
Posted by Elesia Ashkenazy on 03/24/2009 @ 11:03AM PT
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I have often wondered why such efforts are always focused on software development. There are many other areas in which our unique skill sets might prove useful, for instance urban planning. And, of course, there's always academia: they don't call it the "little professor" syndrome for nothing!
I sincerely hope Mr. Dealey intends to find a location in the DFW "Metroplex" that is accessible to DART, the area's rail system. Otherwise, he won't have a whole lot of workers. Perhaps a sister company could handle the non-software side of things?
Posted by Mark Romoser on 03/24/2009 @ 01:46PM PT
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@ Mark: I bet Isaac would find your comment about the DART system noteworthy. Also, I'm going to take a stab and say that Isaac most likely chose to start a business in software development because that is where his skills are best served.
Check out the Wiki page link. There are some AutLabs non-software issues that need attention.
Posted by Elesia Ashkenazy on 03/24/2009 @ 02:14PM PT
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Thanks Mark. :) The reason why AutLabs is focused on software is because that's the industry I've worked in for over a decade and because we already have some intellectual property.
You are right however, there are lots of industries outside of IT that could benefit from similar business strategies. I'm hoping that as our company grows others will use our business plans as a starting-point for businesses in other industries and in other locations. Choosing to make the business plan open (on the wiki) hopefully will help facilitate that kind of open dialogue with other startups. Perhaps one of us should make a note of this particular idea on the wiki. ;)
Also I am definitely planning to find an office location that's readily accessible to public transit. My first instinct is somewhere near Irving or Grand Prairie, but we're not quite ready to start office shopping yet, so I haven't examined the rail map or otherwise researched it yet.
Posted by Isaac Dealey on 03/24/2009 @ 02:21PM PT
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I actually went through this here a few weeks ago when one of the European companies was mentioned. My plan was to build on our inherent strengths in IT by doing it as a general management consulting firm. The large ones, like Accenture (please don't call it "Arthur Andersen"), BearingPoint, etc., usually have a well-developed IT component.
Also, is there a role for a) parents and siblings, and b) people with other disabilities? I put family members into a gray area between us and true NTs, because they've spent so much time around us as to become "de-socialized". Plus, the positions calling for "people skills", such as sales, could just as easily be filled with people with other disabilities (blindness, wheelchair users, etc.).
To the Wiki I shall go. Thursday is a state holiday out here, not that things have been that busy here anyway.
Posted by Mark Romoser on 03/24/2009 @ 02:34PM PT
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Thanks Mark! I'll be really glad to have your help on the wiki. You'll see on the business plan page that I antiscipated that our sales staff would be neurotypical, partly because I doubt many of us on the spectrum would be interested in sales jobs. If that affords more opportunities to collaborate with the broader disabled community as well, then great! :)
Posted by Isaac Dealey on 03/24/2009 @ 03:16PM PT
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