To close out Autism Acceptance month, we are happy to reprint these comments from the Arc of Indiana by Carol Quirk, an ally, on her growing understanding of the many abilities of autistic individuals. Her insights provide much food for thought and capture what we know and experience so well here at Green Bridge Growers

I once thought autism meant a lot of inabilities: cannot talk, cannot switch topics, cannot give eye contact, cannot handle transitions or new routines, cannot read social cues, cannot control motor movements, etc. And I once thought some of the can-dos were not necessarily “adaptive” (as they say in the psychological and educational literature): perseverates on the same activity or conversational topic, gets anxious in uncertain situations, uses aggressive and/or destructive behavior, engages in self-injurious behavior.  In my early days as a professional, I assumed – as too many people still do – that intellectual disability was a part of the package.
 
So what happened to change my views on all of this? I got to know some autistic people who had acquired the ability to communicate, verbally or through pictures/typing, as well as some who did not yet communicate in any kind of traditional manner. I read the writings of autistic people. I listened to parents who said that, despite the testing results, they KNEW that their child was smart and understood what was going on. I listened to them say that their child was not only empathetic, but almost preternaturally so. I began to “presume competence” rather than make assumptions on face value. And I paid attention (or at least tried) in order to interpret meaning from the point of view of the people I met, not just from my own neurotypical point of view. There are still too many people who make important life decisions FOR autistic children and adults based on limited understandings and prejudicial attitude. Too many professionals have not really known, loved, or spent personal time with an autistic person; but rather base their authority on their professional training alone. Non-autistic people need to know and be helped to understand that our life experiences cannot be used to judge or value the behavior, appearance or needs of an autistic person.
 
We non-autistic people MUST listen and learn from those who are autistic. We must do what we can to support self-advocacy and dispel the myths about autism in the public and professional communities. The autistic community must remain vigilant in its outreach, community education, and demand for inclusion in public policy decisions. Awareness of what it means to be autistic is still lacking for the world at large. Acceptance of autism as a natural condition in the human experience is necessary for real dialogue to occur. That is my hope.

- Carol Quirk, Maryland Coalition for Inclusive Education

 thOn April 2, in honor of World Autism Day,  the Comprehensive Autism and related Disabilities Education and Training (CADET) Academy released a livestream of a virtual discussion panel about inclusion in the workplace for autistic people. One of the panelists was Dr. Stephen Shore, a professor at Adelphi University in New York who is on the autism spectrum. Dr. Shore is somebody I’ve learned from through his autobiography Beyond the Wall and through Living Along the Autism Spectrum, a DVD documentary that involves a dialogue between Dr. Shore and another expert on autism who is the father of a son on the spectrum.

The April 2 discussion provided a lot of useful information on inclusion and helping those on the spectrum develop interests which might potentially lead to a career.  Dr. Shore said that when he was very little, around 18 months old, he began showing many of the symptoms of autism. It took his parents about a year to find a doctor who could diagnose him. When they found someone, the doctor said, “We’ve never seen such a sick child,” and they recommended institutionalization. But fortunately, his parents advocated on his behalf, and they convinced the school to enroll him after about a year. During this year, his parents implemented what most people today would call an intensive home-based early intervention program. This program paid off, and his speech began to return at age four. He says the reason the program was successful was because his parents stopped trying to get him to imitate them, and instead imitated him. Doing this helped him become aware of them in his environment. He said that a prerequisite to doing successful work with an autistic person is developing a trusting relationship with them, and meeting them where they are.

Dr. Shore said that introducing children to household chores at a young age can prepare them for having a job when they get to be adults, because doing chores is similar to employment in that it has to be done on a regular basis every day whether you want to or not, and that you have to achieve a certain proficiency with your chores the way you do with employment.

When he was in his late childhood and early teens, Dr. Shore did a paper route, dropping off newspapers at people’s doorsteps. That was another way he was exposed to employment early on. He also taught himself how to take bicycles apart and put them back together again. This allowed him to ask the people he met on his paper routes if he could fix their bikes for them. That was another way he was able to earn money.

He also spoke about some of the challenges he experienced in terms of employment. He used to work at a restaurant cleaning tables, but it was a very bad job for him, and a bad fit for him. There was too much noise for him, and it was a sensory overload for him. It led him to realize that he needed to find a job that was 1. not only something he was good at, but also 2. something that he enjoyed and that allowed him to use his strengths.

Dr. Shore said that he eventually got to the point where he was able to build his own bicycle entirely from the ground up. After this happened, he started biking to all the bike shops in the area to show off his bike to the manager, and talk to them about bikes, and after a period of time, he would ask them for a job. It took him 12 tries, but on the 13th time, he finally found a manager who would hire him. He said that looking back on this experience, what’s important for job-seeking autistic people to do is to find a way to actually show your prospective employers the work you’ve done in the domain you’re interviewing for, to lay it out for them to see for themselves. That allows you to sidestep all the parts of a formal interview process that are difficult for people on the autism spectrum.

So, he said, one of his suggestions is for people supporting an autistic individual to learn the strengths and abilities of the individual, usually by observing them.

Dr. Shore said grade school was hard for him. He was bullied often, and his teachers didn’t understand him. He spent most of his time in grade school reading books about topics that interested him, like astronomy, aviation, volcanoes, earthquakes, weather, etc. He said his obsession with science books meant his teachers didn’t know how to reach him, but at the same time, they mostly left him alone to continue reading because he wasn’t a behavior problem. Back then, not much was known about autism.

He said middle school and high school were actually easier for him than elementary school, because it allowed him to focus on his interest in music. He joined the band. Being in the band was a structured activity for him. He learned how to play almost all the instruments in the band. So when he went to college, he discovered that one of the requirements for music education was that you had to learn how to play all the instruments. Since he already knew most of them, that seemed to be a good career fit for him. He was able to help pay his tuition by doing bicycle repair.

So in short, he was able to succeed by finding his abilities and areas of interest and focusing on them. He said that same lesson can be applied to all people on the autism spectrum, no matter where they fall on the spectrum.

I hope some of this is helpful to other people on the autism spectrum, whether they’re employed or not. It was definitely helpful to me. I learned a lot from this panel.

​-Chris Tidmarsh