00:00How does autism affect me now?
00:13Social interaction, there's still some challenges in addition to sensory issues.
00:18So for example, mixed messages can be very difficult.
00:21To accommodate for that, I have people that I trust.
00:24Where I work, here at Adelphi University, I might ask, well this person did this, I
00:28said that, what does this actually mean?
00:47I lost functional communication, had meltdowns, withdrew from the environment.
00:52The doctors said they had never seen such a sick child, and they recommended institutionalization.
00:58Fortunately my parents, like we see so many parents today, they advocated on my behalf,
01:04and they convinced the school to take me in about a year.
01:12So then it was on to kindergarten, where I was a social and academic catastrophe.
01:17I remember repeating the letter B over and over again, and I guess that didn't endear
01:22me to my classmates.
01:23In elementary school, I was about a grade behind in most of my subjects.
01:28However, I still liked school, I liked the routine, and perhaps what was most interesting
01:34was my being able to go into the library and get all the books on my favorite subjects.
01:49Most of my research focuses on promoting, fulfilling, and productive lives for autistic
01:54individuals.
02:06No one person, such as myself, can reflect all of autism.
02:11No one character in a movie or other media can represent the entire spectrum, but they
02:20do teach us what the characteristics, or some of the characteristics, of autism are.
02:33Beginning to see mostly IT companies actively seeking autistic people as their employees,
02:40because they know that given our particular skill set, there are things that we can do
02:47that other people can't do, or we can just do them much better in the IT arena.
02:52Some autistic people are similar to me, and may be teaching at universities.
02:59There'll be others who perhaps have more challenges and need more supports, but if they're given
03:03these supports, they may be employed and in the community just like anybody else.
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