Saturday, July, 24, 2004

Today, I found wonder of wonders a site that has pictures of adults with autism on it. I ran by it by accident. I was trying to find a viable link to replace the dead link on this page about Asperger’s Syndrome. The find is amazing because it’s very hard to find information or pictures of adults with autism. 99% of the info you see has pictures of cute kids on it. This gives one the impression that autism is solely a childhood disorder, which irks me to no end. It’s one of the reasons I did not renew my membership to the American Autism Society. 99% of it’s articles were focused on parents of autistic children. I felt ignored and virtually invisible. Do they believe that after puberty we magically disappear from sight?

So hats off to Ooops Wrong Planet for co-sponsoring the autistic adults picture project. For the most part I have to say that we look pretty much like normal people. Ok, there was a person on the front page that looks like a cross dresser and I did see a mime... But other than that it’s a pretty normal looking group. Maybe, I should add my picture to add some colour to the group.

Also in adults with autism news: I recently found out that a movie is going to made that was inspired by the life of Jerry Newport and his wife, Mary Meinel. The couple both have Asperger’s Syndrome. They met during an adult Asperger’s Syndrome group that Jerry helped organize. I own Jerry’s book, Your Life Is Not a Label. I greatly enjoyed reading it. I found it funny and witty.

Anyway, the movie, Mozart and the Whale was written by Ron Bass the same man who was reponsible for Rainman. It’s expected to come out during the fall. It should be interesting to see how he tackles a film about two high functioning autistic people. Jerry has a BA in Mathematics from University of Michigan his wife is an actress. Jerry was diagnosed at age forty-seven. The reason for such a late life diagnosis is because Asperger’s Syndrome did make it into the US DSMV until 1994. It had been recognized in other countries for years.

Oh, before I go I recently ran across an article written by a college professor about why she shields her son away from Autism “Awareness Month” which I believe is every April. It’s really good. I think everyone should read it.