Soldiers (illustrative)
Soldiers (illustrative)iStock

For the first time, the IDF will enlist youth on the autism spectrum to serve full IDF service, Israel Hayom reported.

Until now, special needs youth, including those with ASD, were unable to serve in the IDF, other than as part of a special volunteer program, such as Special in Uniform.

On Wednesday, for the first time, the new program, called "Titkadmu" - Hebrew for "move forward" - will enlist 53 high-functioning ASD youth into the IDF. The IDF hopes that within two years, 500 such youth will be enlisted annually.

As part of the process, the IDF has opened to these youth job options which had been previously closed to them. In addition to the important social contribution that their enlistment provides, the IDF believes the ASD youth will be an asset, due to their talents in various fields such as math, computers, and others.

Among the placements the IDF opened to these high-functioning ASD youth are positions in cyber protection, quality assurance, system development in the elite 8200 unit, network management, marine intelligence investigators (as part of the Navy), visual intelligence analysis (as part of the Air Force), assimilation of teleprocessing systems, and photography and video editing.