My husband works in IT engineering and says at least 1/4 of the people he works with are somewhere on the Autism Spectrum - diagnosed or not.
That must be a remarkably diverse and unusual IT department.
Not the whole IT department, his particular subset which is very engineering oriented.
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Ability to interact with the "other" (insert race, religion, language, disability, etc.) will be a mandatory skill in the future workplace.
How is that a skill?
Whether you want to call it a skill or a knowledge base or whatever, I think it will be required in the future to know to how to interact with others that are different from you. Specific examples that come to mind is how to speak directly so a person with Aspergers can understand you (sit down vs. "take a seat"), knowing what different religious holidays are such as Diwali, Eid, etc. and why a coworker may be celebrating it, not having an uncomfortable reaction to a person of a different race, etc. I think not being able to navigate the increasing diverse workforce will be as much as a workplace faux pas as fiercely clutching one's purse when an an African-American client enters the room is today.
You may disagree, but for kids who are brought up in very diverse environments, a lot of that is just second nature. My kids go to very diverse public schools (race, economics, religion, disability) and I work in a similar school so I see it first hand. For example, at my job it was assumed I knew what Eid was and why many students took it off school (I am not Muslim). I probably could have asked, but I would it have reflected poorly on me that I did not know.