Successful "Non-verbal" People on the Spectrum?

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I'm trying to challenge the way others categorize autistic people's abilities just by their labels and since there seems to be this feeling out there that autistic people can't live happy, successful lives, I'd like to challenge that using examples of people who break that stereotype to put on my website.* Unfortunately, all the easy to find (read: famous) successful people I've found fall into the categories of Aspies/'verbal'/'high functioning', so I'm concerned that people who know someone who doesn't fit those categories would just brush off what I'm saying about not putting limits because of labels. For that reason, I'm looking to find more successful people that fall outside of those labels, which would probably mean someone who is 'non-verbal' or 'low functioning' (in society's eyes).

I'm looking for people who the average neurotypical person would look at the traits of (job, publications, ability, etc) and think "That's a successful person."**

These don't have to be famous people - someone obscure who is an artist, or helps with research, or does advocacy work would all qualify...the list goes on. All I need is a name, a picture, the field they're in, a sentence or two of details of what they're doing, and a link to read more about them if one exists (but the last bit isn't necessary). If you wanted to use yourself as an example, that would also be acceptable and awesome/greatly appreciated.

Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated!! !!

*Yes, I realize that not everyone is successful/happy...but some people are, and I object to the whole categorizing whether or not someone can be successful just by their label, as opposed to seeing them for who they are.

**I don't actually think of those as indicators of success myself (I would use happiness), but since this is going to be used for public consumption, I'm trying to find people that would meet most everyone's measure of success, which tends to rely on jobs, etc.

Are these what you mean?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tito_Mukhopadhyay

http://www.autismsupportnetwork.com/new ... ng-3789242

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/0 ... 98657.html

http://www.goldenhatfoundation.org/abou ... blog-70211

Thanks, redrobin62! Some will be able to be used, while others won't - although I take the blame for that, as I wasn't clear in my criteria.

You made me realize I should acknowledge and include savants in the article - after all, they are certainly talented in their own rights. But I really would only make that a supplemental section because if not handled carefully that could feed the savant stereotype about people on the spectrum

However, I'm really not looking for people with savant capabilities for the main section about non-verbal people. Michael Weinstein was a great example of what I'm looking for, which I thank you for - someone who's on track to be what all would agree as being successful in life.

Tito as an author could be good. Although I'll have to do more research about his method of communication, just because I want to avoid anything controversial (eg facilitated communication) so people focus on the person and I don't give them a reason to just blow off what I'm saying.

Unfortunately, I don't think everyone would agree that Katz is successful - I'm afraid he might fit the stereotype, at least in the article, of someone given a job out of pity, which probably wouldn't qualify as success. (Again, thinking of large public audience when I say this, not myself.)

Tito Mukhopadhyay is a really good example, he originally couldn't even hold a pencil, and communicated by pointing at letters, because his mother was doing his therapy, because he was in India, and they were somewhere that didn't know about autism, but then they worked up to him writing, and now he types. (From my understanding.

Carly Fleishmann is another person who's interesting, though apparently she's "controversial". I don't know why. She's in college for journalism now, and has done autism advocacy.

I suspect pretty much all the cases you'll find will have a lot of people making contriversy. People will accuse them of them not really being the ones communicating, people accusing them of not being autistic, people saying that they only succeed because others pity them not because they're actually qualifying.

People find any reason they can to discredit people.

i am successful. i make good cakes and pizza.

Tuttle:

I've noticed that...which is why I try to give them the least reasons possible (I put SO much effort in my website just into trying not to make people angry, which would give them reason to discredit me). I even have a page dedicated to Controversies, which meticulously addresses each side as impartially as it can, without telling the reader which is right. At some point, I'm sure I'll have to use someone controversial, but I really would rather avoid it.

AdamAutistic:
If you think most people would label you successful, feel free to elaborate with more information about yourself.

Last edited by BigSister on 19 Nov 2013, 8:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.

That totally counts. Those grocery-store cakes with lots of sugar and no flavor--ugh! Give me a nice home-made one every time. Even a cake mix is better than the tastelessly sweet commercially made cakes.

BTW, have you ever tried putting a bit of instant coffee in your chocolate cake batter? A friend of mine brought some mocha brownies in to game night, and they tasted wonderful, reminded me of dark chocolate. Turns out he put instant coffee powder in them. A trick you really have to try.

Anyway, as for non-verbal autistics, I think you should try to find some blogs by non-verbal autistics and by their parents. Unusually successful ones are encouraging, of course, but learning more about their everyday lives seems to be more realistic to me. The one I read most is by Amanda Baggs, who lost speech in her teens (and never really used it much for communication to start with). There are also quite a few on the Autism Hub, though I haven't checked that too much lately. I know there's one by a non-verbal autistic runner. Or anyway, he's not very good with speech. But he likes long-distance running and his blog is about that. Also, some from parents raising non-verbal kids, which are interesting.

I second the looking at blogs of non-verbal autistic adults. I love reading blogs of those who are non-verbal.

Amy Sequenzia?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ariane-zu ... 71276.html

Amy Sequenzia's writing is awesome. Read it if you haven't. It's awesome.

Documentary "No Pity" by Drew Morton Goldsmith:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3DwCn6VeZY

Ralph Savarese's article about his son DJ, who was accepted to Oberlin College:
http://goodmenproject.com/families/nonspeaking-autistic-oberlin/

Jeremy Sicile-Kira's commencement speech:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chantal-sicile-kira/non-verbal-autistic-teen_b_623567.html

Ido Kedar's blog:
http://idoinautismland.blogspot.com/

I think that non-verbal autistics are some of the most amazing people on this planet, and that we should all learn from these exceptional people.

Sick for my husband dear,

I leave it by the road.
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