[DerbyX]

Wow.

[Brenda]

This sheds a whole new light... wow is right...

[DonnaWho]

This made me cry.
Thank you for posting it Derby.

[ShepherdsDog]

Autism doesn't always mean intellectual impairment. Look at Asperger syndrome, considered a milder form of Autism. Studies have shown that many people we have considered geniuses or highly talented likely had it. It has been part of their ability to focus on the task at hand whether it was a work of art, a musical piece or a complex scientific theory.

[andyt]

Some jobs are actually much better suited to Asperger's and I'm sure even severely autistic people.

There's also that woman who's kind of an animal wisperer. She's been able to work with the cattle industry to make treatment of cattle much more human and reduce injuries because she can put herself in a cow's place. One example are curved shutes so the animal never sees where it's going, just follows it's nose around to it's destination. I believe she has a PhD in biology and overcame a lot of challenges to get it.

[Arctic_Menace]

Wow, that was something else.

[ShepherdsDog]

andyt wrote:

Some jobs are actually much better suited to Asperger's and I'm sure even severely autistic people.

There's also that woman who's kind of an animal wisperer. She's been able to work with the cattle industry to make treatment of cattle much more human and reduce injuries because she can put herself in a cow's place. One example are curved shutes so the animal never sees where it's going, just follows it's nose around to it's destination. I believe she has a PhD in biology and overcame a lot of challenges to get it.

Dean Koontz wrote a Frankenstein series where the good(tongue in cheek of course) doctor wanted to re-engineer society into a caste system(amongst other things). The lowest caste, he wanted to be engineered with autism, so they could be used to do repetitive menial tasks, essentially human machines who needed no social contact and only focused at the task at hand.

[ivywmn]

Andy T, that's Temple Grandin.

I'm a 58YO woman who was diagnosed with Asperger's two years ago. I went my entire life with no one knowing, and it's been a hard life. It wasn't autism, which this young woman has, but I'm so glad for her that she has the technology and nurturing to be able to express herself and show people how intelligent she is. I wish the so-called neuro-typical world were more accommodating for people with differently functioning brains.