I saw this article from a feed in RBCason's blog. I found the story quite touching as Chris Gajilan, a senior producer with CNN Medical News wrote about the meeting with Amanda Baggs, a 26-year-old woman who has low-functioning autism. She is part of a new generation of adults with autism and communicates using a computer or a voice synthesizer. There is no cure for autism, and causes are unknown.
Amanda posted a video of herself in Youtube (the videos are in the CNN link above). It's amazing what technology can do to help people like her communicate with the world in her own way and keep up with the demands of society. If it were not for a device that synthesizes words as she types on a keyboard, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a Chief Medical Correspondent said, he would not have been able to communicate with her at all.
She told Dr. Sunjay that because she doesn't communicate with conventional spoken word, she is written off, discarded and thought of as mentally retarded. He said that after his talk with her, it made him wonder about autism and how many more people like Amanda are out there, hidden, but reachable, if we just tried harder.
I'm sure others like Amanda have also experienced being ridiculed by people who don't understand her condition. I think it's time we all opened our eyes and reached out to them. They are really no different from us. We just have to understand them a little better and maybe be a bit more patient in understanding their fears.
4 comments:
Thanks for posting about Amanda. Some of us in the autism community have great hopes.
Best wishes
Thanks for the lost Lylin, it goes back to Ignorance, what we don't know we can't understand. Glad you enjoy informing people, it really helps! Keep up the great work!
Thanks Mcewen, it only takes for people to be aware and understand. My best wishes to you, too.
Matt,I hope sharing information like this helps others understand. Thanks for your comment.
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