A Colorado dad wanted more for his son. So he opened a trade school for young adults with autism.
Bobby Lee, 20, doesn’t want a job bagging groceries or folding napkins in the back of a restaurant. But in a traditional job-training program for people with disabilities, that’s likely what he would get.
Instead, Lee is learning carpentry at a school in Englewood that helps teenagers and young adults with autism figure out what they’re good at — fixing cars, welding, electrical work, cyber security or using laser cutters and 3D printers.
Lee hopes to get a job crafting furniture. Already, he’s helped build dozens of wooden desks that TACT — Teaching the Autism Community Trades — sold to a school. Lee, who said he has learned far more in the carpentry program than he ever learned in high school, in particular loves working with a tape measure. “You get the most information out of it,” he explained.