Meet Drew Dietrick, Autistic Self-Advocate
Submitted by vector on Sat, 09/26/2009 - 04:10Drew is twenty years old, and he's a college student. In this video, he explains how having Aspergers has made his life complex and expresses his pride in his autism.
Tidewater Autism Association Plans Summit October 10
Submitted by vector on Fri, 09/25/2009 - 18:10Like most states, Virginia does not require health insurers to cover autism. The Tidewater Autism Task Force is planning a summit on October 10 to address the difficulties families in Virginia have getting adequate autism services. You can get addtional information here:
The Tragic Life of Ken McEwan
Submitted by vector on Fri, 09/25/2009 - 17:17http://www.theobserver.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1770229
This is what it is like to be an adult whose Aspergers makes it impossible for you to fit into society. His parents struggled to find a placement for him. He had a meltdown and was jailed. He was sentenced to fifteen days but remained in jail for six months until his family came to claim him. He lasted there two weeks, then had another meltdown and threw a chair at a nurse. Two months later, he is still in jail because there is no place for him to go.
No Myths Public Service Announcement
Submitted by vector on Fri, 09/25/2009 - 12:59A superb PSA from Kent Creative, the Dan Marino Foundation, and the Autistic Self Advocacy Network.
Researchers note Autistic Capacity for Analogy
Submitted by vector on Fri, 09/25/2009 - 12:15http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/47791/title/Autism_may_includ...
In a break with how some have viewed autism in the past, Kinga Morsanyi and Keith Holyoak report that people with autism are unimpaired in their ability to find relationships between people and objects. One of the striking elements of this story is strongly it reminds us how little we understand about ASD.
Those people amused by such things will enjoy the doubts posed by Uta Frith, which are based largely on the idea that the children in the study by Morsanyi and Holyoak are able to reason because they do not have unusually large heads. Which could be true, but it's still funny.