In a recent article for Inside Higher Ed, Gabriel Proulx (Athabasca University) discusses how institutions can ensure that the faculty hiring process is fairer for candidates with autism. Proulx explains that while campus visits are considered an opportunity for candidates to showcase themselves, in practice, they often serve as “social auditions” that can pose an insurmountable barrier for some academics. The author discusses how candidates with autism can be disadvantaged by standard interview formats. Written formats, writes Proulx, can give candidates with autism an opportunity to answer questions without an “unnecessary social filter.” “[T]he academy should be in the business of hiring those who can research, teach and think in transformative ways, whether they have mastered small talk and eye contact or not,” writes Proulx.
