Autism/Asperger's Presentation at Jewish Museum- Help Needed

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Hello all,
I went to my local Jewish history museum yesterday and they said I can do a presentation on Asperger's/autism for Jewish Disability Awareness month! Very cool!
I am now trying to figure out what to center it around. I was wondering if anyone would mind answering these questions for me to help me figure out general themes that I should focus on. I want it to target educating people in the community about what our lives are like.

If you would prefer to email the responses to [email protected] you can do that too. Thank you very much!

As an adult with Asperger's, what is your biggest challenge?

How have you found ways to mitigate or get around this challenge?

If you could change one thing about your childhood, and the way you grew up in regards to how people helped or didn't help you with Asperger's, what would it be? (This still applies to people who weren't diagnosed.)

If you could say one thing to parents of today's parents who are raising the next generation of kids with Asperger's, what would you say?

If you could say one thing to teachers and other professionals in the community what would it be?

Do you feel having Asperger's has any advantages?

Do you have a desire to find a community of other people with Asperger's?

Do you find it difficult to find a place in the community where you feel you belong? Please explain.

What do workplaces need to do to better accomodate adults with Asperger's?

What one thing would you like the world to know about Asperger's?

Please let me know if it is okay to use any of your responses in my eventual presentation.

Would I be right in guessing you're looking for people who are officially diagnosed as either being Aspies or being somewhere on the autism spectrum?

No "I think I have it" or "I'm self-diagnosed" people?

As an adult with Asperger's, what is your biggest challenge? Being able to explain my thoughts and ideas in a way that is both acceptable and easy to understand, and without coming across as arrogant or 'weird'.

How have you found ways to mitigate or get around this challenge? I put my thoughts and ideas on paper, with plenty of illustrations and references to valid resources.

If you could change one thing about your childhood, and the way you grew up in regards to how people helped or didn't help you with Asperger's, what would it be? (This still applies to people who weren't diagnosed.) I would have immersed myself more in learning STEM subjects, and at an earlier age.

If you could say one thing to parents of today's parents who are raising the next generation of kids with Asperger's, what would you say? Stay clean, stay sober, stay healthy, stay out of jail, and stay together. If you violate any one of these directives you will make life Hell for your Aspie child.

If you could say one thing to teachers and other professionals in the community what would it be? Just one thing? No way! How about: "My questions are not stupid", "You're scaring me", "I do not deserve to be bullied", and "PLEASE EXPLAIN IT TO ME!! !"

Do you feel having Asperger's has any advantages? I can focus on a problem that no one else can solve until I find a solution that works.

Do you have a desire to find a community of other people with Asperger's? Not really ... unless they share my interests.

Do you find it difficult to find a place in the community where you feel you belong? Please explain. I used to ... but then I stopped trying. Accepting the fact that I will never fit in was one of the most liberating experiences I have ever had.

What do workplaces need to do to better accommodate adults with Asperger's? Don't expect us to socialize like those shmoozy drunks in Sales or those macho-posturing jerks in Installations and Network Support. If fact, don't expect us to socialize at all! Our evaluations should focus on attendance and how well we do our jobs; not on how well other people like us.

What one thing would you like the world to know about Asperger's? I am not a 'ret*d' or a 'nutcase'; I am a human being and you had damned well better get used to it!

Please let me know if it is okay to use any of your responses in my eventual presentation. Please use my responses. The handle is 'Fnord', which rhymes with 'snored'.

Enjoy!

As an adult with Asperger's, what is your biggest challenge?
Sensory issues; they get in the way of everything. When I'm put off by an environment, I can't concentrate, my social skills decline, I become irritable and generally bad company. They also prevent me from doing or enjoying a lot of things like movies at theatres, theme parks, crowded restaurants, etc.

How have you found ways to mitigate or get around this challenge?
Sensory dampeners mostly; I carry earplugs with me whenever I go out in case I need them, and wear sweaters with hoods to block out light and rapidly moving visual stimuli when need be.

If you could change one thing about your childhood, and the way you grew up in regards to how people helped or didn't help you with Asperger's, what would it be? (This still applies to people who weren't diagnosed.)
I wish my mother would have gotten me tested when she first suspected something might be wrong with me at the age of eight or nine. She never did because we couldn't afford it, but I wish she would have found a way; it would have saved many years of me wondering why I was so different, and I would probably be a lot farther along with regard to my social development if she had.

If you could say one thing to parents of today's parents who are raising the next generation of kids with Asperger's, what would you say?
Be patient; kids like us can be hard to raise, especially the farther down the spectrum we get, but we have strengths and gifts just like everyone else; remind yourself of them the next time your child has a meltdown in the supermarket or keeps asking the same questions over and over again out of anxiety, and try not to get too frustrated,
those behaviours, or at least the situation that prompted the behaviours, are usually as annoying for us as they are for you.

If you could say one thing to teachers and other professionals in the community what would it be?
Learn as much as you can about your specific autistic students, and about the spectrum in general; too few professionals today really understand what autism is, and they will need people like you to explain it to them so they can be the best teachers possible for their students.

Do you feel having Asperger's has any advantages?
Yes, it brings many gifts, including a greatly heightened capacity to focus, a genuine love of learning, unique and out-of-the-box perspectives, and often high intelligence. It also produces people generally less prone to prejudice and popularity contests because they know what it's like to be excluded and teased for their differences.

Do you have a desire to find a community of other people with Asperger's?
Yes, I think it would be a lot of fun to make friends with a group of people who shared my unique brain wiring and who inherently understood me without my having to explain what I'm feeling or what I mean by things, because they will know those things too.

Do you find it difficult to find a place in the community where you feel you belong? Please explain.
Yes, even among my family and best friend I always feel like an outsider looking in, because they always talk about things they inherently seem to understand that I have to ask for clarification about. There is rarely a time when I feel "normal" or completely at home among NTs.

What do workplaces need to do to better accommodate adults with Asperger's?
Be aware of slower instruction and auditory processing; write things down when possible to help aspies remember; be aware of the environment, if you work in cubicles, give the aspie as quiet a space to work as you can, with a way to block out the fluorescent lights if need be. If you're working fast food, allow them to take periodic sensory or social breaks of five to ten minutes; bright, fast-paced, loud places with lots of verbal instruction and expected norms of customer service are hard for us to process, give us the time we need, and we will give you our dedication.

What one thing would you like the world to know about Asperger's?
We are different, and we may come across as strange, but we need and deserve the same respect and equality as everyone else. We need jobs just like everyone else, we need a safe school environment just like everyone else, we want to succeed in college and in our communities just like everyone else. We may need some help to get where we want, but we are worth the time and effort that help requires, because we have important things to bring to the world.

Yes, you're welcome to use any or all of these responses in your presentation as you like.

Start by thanking them for coming.

The biggest thing of all for that people need to understand is they need to listen hard and really try to understand what the Aspies in their life are saying.

They need to understand that it is a neurological difference not character flaws or psychiatric disorder.

They need to understand that Aspergers is a pervasive conditions that involves way more then the socially awkward geeky Aspies they see in the media. Explain Sensory overload, Executive Function special interests etc.

Explain the spectrum concept. Not everybody will have all traits and the intensity of the effects vary etc.

That while it is true that most people have some autistic traits they do not even remotely understand what it is like. Make comparisons with the diaspora of having to arrive in a different country where they nothing about culture, habits etc. Comparisons to discrimination against Jews based on fear of difference. I would be weary of Holocaust comparisons, there is no state sponsored roundup of aspies.

Positive aspects: special interests can be a good thing with hyperfocus, loyalty etc. Alternative thinking or thinking out of the box is a good thing.

Summarize by noting we are human, we do feel but there are profound differences, that assumptions abut certain things, and approaches that work for them and all their friends might backfire with us.

Thank them for taking the time to listen.
Prepare a information sheet for them listing various books and websites (with Wrong Planet) to be given out after the presentation.

If you are comfortable with this tell them that if they suspect that they or somebody they care about is on the spectrum have them email you. If you have not done this already I would create a separate email account for Aspergers.