Beyond the Spectrum: How Autism became Matthew’s artistic advantage

Matthew is a talented cartoon artist, currently working on his third children’s book.

He draws cartoons in tradition, mainly with pencil and ink pens on paper.

Matthew lives with autism and recently came to MAX to get support with his employment journey.  

Matthew had previously been with another provider, where he was placed to work in fast food restaurants for only 3 hours a week.

However, he wanted to get more hours of work and felt that his provider wasn’t doing enough to help him achieve this.

So, Matthew came to MAX, and initially asked if MAX could help him get more hours in retail.

However, Job Coach Chris got to know Matthew and was amazed by his talent as an artist. Chris says, “I talk to each customer to get to know them and what they do so that I can find the job that best suits them.”

The Easy Read Toolbox is a social enterprise developed by and employing people with disability.

It is founded by Karen Hedley, who has a passion for human rights for people with disability, in particular inclusion, accessibility and communication.

Karen is a recipient of the 2015 ACT Chief Minister’s Inclusion Award for Lifetime Achievement in Support Work. 

The Easy Read Toolbox creates resources and provides training for people to develop Easy Read skills and provides consulting services around diversity, accessibility and inclusion requirements. 

Easy Read is a way of presenting information so it’s easier to understand for everyone. It is especially helpful for people with learning disabilities, low literacy skills and people who are new to English. 

Easy Read uses a few key features to make information clear: 

• Simple text: Short sentences with common words are used

• Pictures and symbols: Images are used to help explain the text

• Clear layout: Lots of white space and a big font size make the text easy to read

This makes complex information easier to understand for everyone. Easy Read can be used for many things, like reports, brochures, forms and more. 

Examples of Easy Read documents can be found here.

Chris reached out to The Easy Read Toolbox and learnt that they were working on the ELSEY Project.

“Easy Life Skills for Every Youth” is a project that covers all life domains, starting with disability rights and employment.

Young people with disability are working on the project, where information will be presented in ways engaging to young people – think comics, short videos and more.

Upon speaking with Karen and learning about the ELSEY Project, Chris knew they would be a good match for Matthew, so he set up a meeting to introduce Matthew. 

Before the meeting took place, Chris supported Matthew with interview practice and creating an updated resume.

Chris also sent examples of Matthew’s work to Karen. 

The meeting took place over video call, where Matthew was able to learn about The Easy Read Toolbox as an organisation and tell them about himself.

His wit and sense of humour stood out to Karen, who said, “As ELSEY is a project aimed at young people with disablity, Matthew fits into that category and he is clearly a very talented cartoonist.”  

Matthew was asked to create a demonstration comic for the ELSEY Project, and within 10 minutes, Matthew had drafted up a comic strip that perfectly articulated the perspective of finding the right employment.

Karen was so impressed by Matthew’s talent, she created a specific role for him to drive content development for the ELSEY Project!

Matthew currently works at least 8 hours a week on the ELSEY Project, using his passion and talent to help other young neurodiverse people like him.

He meets with the ELSEY Project team each week via video call to discuss concepts of cartoons to draw for their newsletters.

Chris is continuing to support Matthew by facilitating meetings with Karen, providing administrative support and assisting with Matthew’s induction. 

For MAX, Matthew’s story is a reminder of how important it is for our skilled Job Coaches to uncover hidden potential in our customers and translate that into actionable career paths.

Ultimately, this sets our customers up for long-term success and satisfaction in their professional lives.

Sometimes, the perfect job description isn’t written on paper - it needs to be drawn into existence.