NEW JERSEY

NJ businessman working to help autistic individuals

NJ entrepreneur is developing innovative technology to help autistic children and adults

Grace Segers
@Grace_Segers
  • Nish Parikh recently won the NJBiz Innovation Hero Award
  • Parikh is founder and CEO of WebTeam Corporation and co-founder and chairman of Rangam Consulting
  • Parikh wants to help autistic individuals from childhood until they are able to enter the workforce


Nish Parikh may have the solutions to problems with American educational and employment practices.

Parikh is the founder and CEO of the WebTeam Corp., co-founder and chairman of Rangam Consultants, and recent winner of the NJBiz Innovation Hero Award. He believes that businesses should be employing more people on the autism spectrum, a segment of the American populace which he feels has great unused potential.

Nish Parikh, founder and CEO of the WebTeam Corporation, demonstrates the company's new Hekxo program.

“How can we get into this untapped area of temporary employment?” is the question Parikh says motivates his work at Rangam, a consulting firm which collaborates with companies to provide staffing services. He said that people with autism have difficulty obtaining careers after they turn 21, despite their strengths as possible employees.

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“They are amazing individuals with regard to employment,” Parikh said, noting that Rangam has experience hiring autistic employees. Rangam has also partnered with the organization Autism Speaks to create thespectrumcareers.com. This website provides services for autistic individuals searching for employment, as well as a forum for companies to post jobs.

Through this and similar initiatives, Parikh wants to encourage companies across the country to “create the right environment” for people with autism to obtain and maintain jobs.

“The funding is out there,” Parikh asserted. “It’s a manner of connecting the dots.”

A new venture

The interview with Parikh was conducted in the unfinished office space that will soon house the WebTeam Corp., an offshoot of Rangam which designs and develops technology that can be used for children with special education needs.

According to Parikh, the company needed the new office — which opens this week — because of its national expansion. He leaned on the plastic table that served as a temporary desk and enthusiastically described his plans for creating more hospitable educational and work environments for people with autism.

Parikh and his companies are motivated by altruism to help people on the autism spectrum, so that they can have more opportunities from the time they are in school until they are old enough to enter the workforce.

"Empathy — that's what is driving us." Parikh explained. He said that he wanted to improve efficiency in the workforce and school environment by treating the needs of autistic individuals. “This is the place I can make an impact,” he added.

WebTeam Corp. specializes in creating digital platforms which provide what Parikh calls a “holistic approach” for the learning and growth of autistic individuals. He said that the goal of his programs is to focus on the strengths, rather than the weaknesses, of children with autism.

ColorsKit is one of WebTeam’s projects that promotes this holistic learning. It is a digital platform which operates on tablets and smart phones, as well as WebTeam-designed kiosks which may be used in the classroom.

The ColorsKit platform contains a series of apps which have different educational focuses, and may be tailored to the use of individual autistic students. It also monitors user responses for parents, teachers, and health experts.

“A small app-based solution is not enough,” Parikh said. His aim, and the aim of WebTeam, is to engage autistic students using platforms that educate and entertain. “We’re using technology to bring them back to the real world through a different kind of interaction.”

Nish Parikh in the new offices for the WebTeam Corp.

New programs

Parikh and the WebTeam staff are also currently developing a new educational program called Hekxo. This program offers training in hand-eye coordination as well as mental stimulation.

Jian Yet Lee, a WebTeam employee, gave a demonstration of the Hekxo program. It includes scanning physical tags which correspond to images on a tablet or smart phone screen.

“We have developed a new system for learning by playing games,” Lee said, noting that the company wanted to reach children who are used to playing on tablets.

“The scanner allows for actual interaction,” Parikh explained. Users may scan tags related to math, reading, history, and other educational topics. Parikh is looking to market Hekxo to schools as well as families with autistic children.

“We want to provide a solution that will enhance the manner of teaching,” he said. He believes that offering autistic children a creative approach to learning will allow them to overcome behavioral issues.

“The whole philosophy was to make education fun,” Parikh said about the founding of WebTeam, a methodology which is clearly expressed in ColorsKit and Hekxo.

Parikh’s objective is to help autistic individuals at every level of development, with WebTeam developing digital platforms that cultivate learning skills and Rangam developing consulting practices that encourage job creation.

Parikh’s goal for “autism management” is an ambitious one, helping people on the spectrum from childhood until they are able to enter the workforce. Yet with his dedication to the cause of autistic individuals, and his capacity for innovation through WebTeam and Rangam initiatives, Parikh’s plan to solve educational and employment deficiencies in the United States may prove to be a success.