Aspergers' and blindness, Is it so unheard of?

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I just joined this site, and here I can say I have Aspergers' without anyone thinking it's weird. But is it absolutely unheard of for someone like me who is blind, or someone with some other disability to also have Aspergers'? The blind+Aspie thing happened twice in my family, with me and an older brother. One of the doctors I visited seemed to believe that people like me spend every waking moment thinking about how blind we are. Come on! I'm not pathetic. And crowds and loud noises don't bother me because I can't see them. It's because I have to hear them and feel all the people touching me. I know people who are blind from birth like me who choose to party on sixth street, for what reason I haven't a clue. But the so-called professionals" can't seem to make the distinction between a vision problem and a social one. Do any of you have knowledge regarding this? And why do these deaf NT's think it's not okay to cover your ears when something loud goes by?

How do you do this if you're blind? Does someone else read it for you or are you yankin' our chains?

I have always had quite bad sight, until had implants and I'm lucky can really see now. But have been on the edge of not seeing and living in a bubble... found whole experience very lonely and isolating.

Thats why I think the autistic blind kid from Christchurch, NZ where I live is a great role model for all of us. I loved the fact he played play station games better than his brother just by sound alone, the boy seems to be truly amazing in what ever he does...

I think we can all learn from him, he does not try to be anyone else and seems very happy in his own space.
You hum it, this blind savant can play it
http://www.rugbyheaven.co.nz/4258122a10.html

I think vision problems are common with AS, light sensitivity, strabismus, convergence, binocular accomodation is common and more serious eye disorders.
Vision has a huge impact on brain function, I think future research will probably show defects / differences in the visual cortex of people with AS.
Or it could be that blindness gives rise to similar difficulties as shown in AS, like executive function, social interaction deficits etc due to the deficit in one of the senses.
I'm sure theres probably info on the link between autisitic spectrum disorders and vision somewhere on the web.

IpsoRandomo I think you need to be rather more circumspect, that remark was not great.

Thats actually not uncommon, not common, but not extremely rare, for somebody to be blind and on the spectrum. As for her writing on this, she probably uses braille, which is a common way of typing for people who are blind. Theres also a thing where you can highlight things, and its read out loud to a person. Being a childrens hospital all the time, you see the coolest things hehe!

It depends why you are blind.
Bad eyesight and AS might be unheard of, as we are known to be particularly sensitive to lights and visuals, although blindness may be a whole other story aside from just plain bad eyesight.

Being sensitive to light, in this case, has absolutely nothing to do with the function of your eyes. You're talking about sensory integration dysfunction, which is purely neurological. It affects the way sensory input is processed in the brain, but not the way that sensory data is gathered.

She's not lying.
The expression of her looking is only used as an expression.
Most likely her computer is reading it to her.

Seconded,there are programmes called screen readers,the disability forum-ouch has many blind/VI users who use this software.

Am do not know of any blind or VI aspies,but am have heard of a blind autie before,he was on that extreme makeover house programme.

I'm visually impaired but not enough to require the use of VI software. I do carry a blind man's stick and will never be able to drive though. Oddly enough I am an avid amateur street photographer!

A lot of profoundly deaf people I know will say they heard about something. It's a figure of speech for having gotten the information prior to the current discussion. Looking at the stats here means she (via whatever accomodation she uses) understands and has interpreted the information.

That said, I am possibly an Aspie and was born with a high frequency hearing loss which doubles the pleasure in social situations... Without aids I don't hear many speech sounds, and even with aids there is still distortion to work with.

But yeah. I don't constantly think about my hearing loss. When I tell people, they apologize as though I just said my uncle died last night. Some tell me about a cousin's friend's brother who is in a wheelchair/blind/epileptic. Fascinating story, but has nothing to do with me or my bad ears. :-p And no one ever thinks, 'maybe she seems like she didn't hear me *because* she didn't hear me!' I get called a b***h, racist, etc on occasion, the occasional dirty look. This would be a bigger problem if I ventured into the land of the living more.
For me, having the aids in is an unnatural experience. I've always had bad hearing, and it's what I'm used to and it takes a lot of work to build up my tolerance for amplifications. But I don't cry myself to sleep over this. What's the point? The nerves are dead. They're going to stay dead.

Top it off, certain sounds drive me batty enough without having the volume turned up. >_< And no, turning up the TV is not a substitute for closed captioning! I HATE LOUD TVS!

Sorry for the vent. I'm sure you have a similar list of the social interactions that come with being having a more 'obvious' impairment than Asperger's. I find the symptoms which may be AS-related to be more frustrating than the hearing loss.

1 in 8 blind children are autistic according to one study that examined 257 blind children for autism and found 30 (12%) met the criteria for autistic disorder.

Come on Randomatic. DO YOUR HOMEWORK! You must be living in the dark ages. Wooooooow! I said dark!! ! Normally this would be considered an intelligent question, but you were so quick to jump to conclusions that you examined my other posts to try and determine that I'm making this all up. And when I say "jump", I don't mean you're literally "jumping" anywhere. So to set the record straight, though records are always round, I do use a screen reader called voiceover, which is built into the macintosh OS leopard. I hope to be getting a braille display sometime this semester, and then I guess I could say I literally felt up your post. There are many screen readers out there, including at least three for windows that I know about.

Oh I also did intend to say that if you have any other good questions, I'm all ears. I'm really not the bitter type, it just baffles me to think I might be suspected of lying and creating some sort of false identity or blind persona for people to pity. To act like someone else is not in my nature,, it's just I. And as a matter of fact, blind computer programers are on the rise.

I am adopted. Never taken to a doctor or a therapist afterward. But before, with my first family, There was some problem with my eyes when I was realllly young. I don't know what it was; if my brain wasn't registering sight at all or something else. I just remember doctors, something about my eyes, then going through this process of light and ultimately seeing like everyone else. There was some electroshock for my brother and I in the immediate following years. A few sessions. I never heard any terms refering to 'mental disorder' or anything.

Later I developed amblyobia in my right. My eldest has the same ambliopia in his left-so we see eye to eye. I wonder because of this if we are nature or nurture. If by my gazing into his eyes with a half sight so often caused his eye to not develop. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Science???

Spending my life with half-sight I got my first eye appointment in junior high as a stayed with a second family. I was told then that I was off the scale and would be blind in both eyes by 20 with daily migranes if I opted for the huge strength glass the doc reccomended or by 30 if I just went on as I was-so I tried to see every little thing which is what I did anyway, to a lesser scale. It actually got a little better, and science grew as well, but no fix; not contacts or lasik-nothing-probably not transplant: though I wouldn't unless they were both blinded.

I evolved from 10/20 20/off the scale to 20/20 20/200

Blindness is not always total black blindness.
600 in both eyes I would still need a dog and a stick.

It is a common misperception.


Are you totally black blind-no light?