My criticisms of Atypical’s freshman season were certainly no secret, as I shared my feelings both publicly in various news outlets and privately with Robia Rashid, the show’s creator.  At the time, I mentioned that a lot of issues could be fixed, but my biggest problem with season one was the lack of autistic involvement.  To remedy this problem, I suggested that, at the very least, an autistic consultant needed to be hired for season two.  Fortunately my suggestion was taken to heart, and with the addition of autistic consultant David Finch many of the show’s major problems have been addressed.  From the moment I began watching season two, I felt freed from the brackish misrepresentations that distracted me in viewing the first season and I was consequently able to enjoy the show. I even laughed out loud during a few of its funniest moments.

I am very surprised that the show improved as much as it did and while I intend this review of season two to be very positive, I think I will need to go through some of the problems I had with season one in order to fully convey how big of a leap forward the creators took in the show’s sophomore year.

Alex Plank with cast members Keir Gilchrist & Michelle Farrah Huang

Another incident in the first season that I felt was not positive was the depiction of Sam breaking into his therapist’s house to leave her a box of chocolates. In season two, Sam continues talking with his therapist, who surprisingly takes his calls despite his behavior in season one.  I think that she seems accepting of this communication out of guilt over the way she handled things in the first season.

In general, Sam’s relationships in season two are much more realistic and, more importantly, are extremely positive from a standpoint of portraying autism in an accurate and constructive manner. For instance, instead of furthering the myth that those on the spectrum cannot have a romantic relationship, season two goes a step further and features multiple women vying for Sam’s affection. If anything, Sam treats these women with more respect and maturity than they show towards him which is one very enlightening commentary on how being autistic can actually make one more compassionate, not less. 

Season two further explores the one thing I liked most about Atypical in season one, its portrayal of family dynamics. I believe that the viewers who loved season one focused on that part of the show and either forgave the autistic representation issues or did not notice them. I think that’s why a lot of parents were excited about the show while autistic people, even those with a roseate view of the series, could readily point out specific issues that they felt should be fixed in the second season. 

I appreciate that season one resonated with many families who watched and were ecstatic to finally see a family like theirs being represented on television. Thankfully, season two improves even more on that front, as the way that Sam interacts with other characters indicates a positive shift towards his being treated more as a real person and less as simply a diagnosis.   Moreover, the way he is talked about is also more positive. 

Alex with actor Brigette Lundy-Paine (Casey)

Many reviews of Atypical have focused on the plot lines centered on autism. To me, these elements of the show seem like PSAs, and while I appreciate that Robia and her writers felt the need to include these important topics in an effort to teach the audience about things we face in the autism community,  I think the scenes that are designed to deliver exposition information about autism actually end telling us the least about autism. For instance, while I appreciate the intentions behind bringing up the issues of police being untrained when it comes to dealing with autistic people, that storyline seemed a bit forced. In contrast, I felt much more was conveyed about autism with much more depth in the storyline of Casey’s birthday involving a tradition of rituals that Sam adheres to as his way of expressing his love for her. This year, Casey brushes Sam off and expresses frustration due to a belief that Sam is obsessing over these birthday rituals from a place of selfishness when she clearly is trying to deal with other issues. However, the resolution of this conflict, and Casey’s realization regarding Sam’s true intentions, stands out as the most beautiful moment of season two. 

Alex with Atypical Creator Robia Rashid

In conclusion, the second season of Atypical far exceeded my expectations, and, if it continues going in such a positive direction, by the third season I think it could more than make up for the problematic representations from season one. Robia’s receptiveness to suggestions makes me excited to see how she further includes autistics in season three. 

In that vein I’ll end this piece with my biggest suggestions for season three. First, I think an openly autistic writer should be added to the writer’s room. David Finch, the show’s consultant, who I believe was instrumental in fomenting the major improvements of this season and penned a hilarious  New York Times best-selling memoir, would be a perfect candidate.  I personally served as a consultant on FX’s The Bridge, so I know how difficult a job it is to ensure that autism is fairly and accurately represented while concurrently serving the overall story and tone of a show. David did a remarkable job and I think those on the spectrum who’ve been critical of season two fail to acknowledge how difficult a job it was to improve the representation of a character who had already been developed for an entire season. Atypical accomplishes this with a character arc that fixed the issues gradually while not changing him drastically enough to betray the underlying character viewers had come to expect. 

Finally, I want to see even more autistic characters in season three and I want to see another autistic character with a bigger role. Autism is often thought of only in reference to kids or teens. If Atypical wrote in an adult autistic character, perhaps one Sam could see as a role model, I think that would be a powerful addition to a show that I’m actually really starting to dig. And if you’re looking for an autistic actor to play him, contact my agent. I think I have some availability.

The post Atypical’s 2nd Season is a Step Forward in Autism Representation appeared first on Wrong Planet.

For many autistics on the spectrum, moving out from your parents house and living independently can seem like a daunting task. We like routines and familiarity so any change can be hard to handle. But I think we need to embrace growth, even at the expense of comfort. Since college, I’ve lived in a variety of different places, but I’ve made a point of always living away from home.

Alex in his Dorm Room

Living in dorms is a great way to prepare you for living more independent after you graduate. But I would recommend getting a single room because sharing a room for an autistic person is the worst possible thing I can think of. I need my own space. Fortunately my University had accommodations for individuals with disabilities and I was able to get a single room.

Even with a single room, I quickly had to learn to deal with issues like noise that come with living in dorms (and apartments). I have a sound sensitivity so the bass from other people playing music was hard to deal with. I’ve written about the importance of noise canceling headphones, but I didn’t have those at the time. I’ve also developed simple strategies for improving sound over time like using foam to seal the door frame and even a jacket on the door to block sound, and having a white noise machine, fan, or AC to make it harder to hear outside sounds.

I moved from the original dorm into a four bedroom apartment style dorm I shared with three other people. This brought up new issues I had to deal with, such as keeping the common areas clean and sharing the space. An autistic friend of mine commented that the most important thing you can do with roommates is to keep things clean. If you can do that, there won’t be many other problems.

In the summer after my freshman year, I got an internship at AOL headquarters in northern Virginia. Since I could only live in the dorms during the school year, I lived at my grandparents’ house which was close to the metro. I could take a train some of the way and a bus the rest of the way. But the whole trip, including transfers, took an hour and a half (see my article on the benefits of driving & autism).

After a while, I decided to rent a room from an engineer at AOL who worked on my team. I was able to carpool with him every day or we could ride bikes along the bike trail from the house to our work. This was much better because driving with him cut out an hour an 15 minutes for me (saving 2.5 hours a day). Living with someone older taught me a lot of things that would help me in the future for living with roommates. I learned the importance of helping to clean (doing things like sweeping and vacuuming, for example). The next summer, I rented the basement of a house in Washington, DC. I picked a home a block from the subway so I could easily get to work. Living independently in a city is much easier if you don’t have a car so this experience was great for me.

I started dating a girl in college while I was living in DC. We eventually decided to move in together. Living with a significant other brings a whole new set of issues, some great, and some challenging. We decided to rent a house. While the relationship didn’t last, I learned a lot about living with a partner and the importance of having your own space. I do recommend making sure you have your own space if you’re going to live with a partner. A studio apartment might be challenging!

When I graduated from college, I lived with my grandfather again for a little bit and then moved to western Massachusetts where I lived with my friend John Elder Robison. After almost a year, I decided to move to Los Angeles. This was one of the scariest moves for me because I’d be leaving the east coast where I had my support system of friends and family. I went on Craigslist to find an apartment in Los Angeles and I still live there. Making the move to LA was one of the best decisions in my life. It gave me countless opportunities that I didn’t ever have on the east coast.

While I had to go out of my comfort zone in order to become increasingly independent, doing so has given me many opportunities and has increased my quality of life. I’ve also gained confidence knowing that I’m living on my own, supporting myself. While some people may think living at home is the best option, I urge you to at least give living on your own a shot. After all, if it doesn’t work out, you can always move back home and you’ll merely be back to where you were. After all, life is about experimenting, trying new things, sometimes failing, and sometimes succeeding. But without trying, you’ll never grow.

The post Leaving Home & Living Independently on the Autism Spectrum appeared first on Wrong Planet.

Jim Sinclair became one of the first openly autistic adults online, joining a digital mailing list run out of St. John’s University in New York frequented primarily by parents and professionals. Its founder, Ray Kopp, was the father of a legally blind girl named Shawna who had sought unsuccessfully for years to get a more specific diagnosis for her than “developmentally delayed.” Kopp launched the list in 1992 with a dyslexia expert at St. John’s named Robert Zenhausern. On the threshold of the addition of Asperger’s syndrome to the DSM, one of the most frequently asked questions on the list was whether Kanner’s syndrome could persist into adulthood.

With Donna Williams and Kathy Lissner, Sinclair also launched the first autistic-run organization in history, calling it Autism Network International. Early on, its founders decided that ANI would stand up for the civil rights and self-determination of people all across the spectrum, not just those considered high-functioning like the members of the MAAP list. All of ANI’s original founders had been branded low-functioning as children and had gone on to earn university degrees. They understood that functioning levels change not only in the course of the life span but also day to day. Even a chatty “more able” adult could temporarily lose speech, and the term low-functioning often obscured talents and skills that could be brought out by providing a more suitable environment or an alternate means of communication.

Like any nascent subculture, this emerging community gave birth to its own in-group slang. The most enduring ANI neologism was the term neurotypical, used as a label for nonautistic people for the first time in the group’s newsletter. With its distinctly clinical air, the term (sometimes shortened to NT) turned the diagnostic gaze back on the psychiatric establishment and registered the fact that people on the spectrum were fully capable of irony and sarcasm at a time when it was widely assumed that they didn’t “get” humor.

Carrying the meme to its logical extreme, an autistic woman named Laura Tisoncik launched an official-looking website in 1998 credited to the Institute for the Study of the Neurologically Typical. “Neurotypical syndrome is a neurobiological disorder characterized by preoccupation with social concerns, delusions of superiority, and obsession with conformity,” the site’s FAQ declared. “There is no known cure.”

Taking a cue from the radical Deaf community, ANI members began to refer to themselves as “Autistic” instead of saying that they were people with autism. “Saying ‘person with autism’ suggests that autism is some- thing bad—so bad that it isn’t even consistent with being a person,” Sinclair observed. “We talk about left-handed people, not ‘people with left-handed- ness,’ and about athletic or musical people, not about ‘people with athleticism’ or ‘people with musicality’ . . . It is only when someone has decided that the characteristic being referred to is negative that suddenly people want to separate it from the person.”

The emergence of e-mail, electronic bulletin boards, Usenet news- groups, Internet Relay Chat, America Online, and ultimately the World Wide Web provided a natural home for the growing community of newly diagnosed teenagers and adults, where they could interact at their own pace in a language that often felt more native to them than the spoken word. Carolyn Baird, a mother of four who took over management of the St. John’s list, spoke for many of her peers when she told a Dutch journalist:

Autistic people seem to have an affinity with computers and many of them were already working in computer-related fields prior to the advent of the Internet. The appeal of a computer is that there is only one right way to tell it to do something—it doesn’t misinterpret what you tell it and do something else as people do.

For many of us, this medium has given us the opportunity to be accepted for the first time in our lives as being just like everyone else, and gives us our first hint at what it feels like to be accepted on the quality of our thoughts rather than the quality of our speech.

The ANI posse began making regular appearances at conferences, where they set up booths and handed out newsletters and buttons emblazoned with slogans like “I’m not just WEIRD, I’m AUTISTIC” and “I survived behavior modification.” Their information tables became little oases of autistic space where people could take a break from the probing stares, the swirl of perfumes, the press of flesh, the unpredictable outbreaks of applause, and the constant reminders that their existence was a tragic puzzle. While the NT attendees lined up for lavish banquets and celebrity-studded comedy showcases, the Autistics would pair off to chat and stim in quiet hallways and coatrooms, camping out on the floors of each other’s hotel rooms at night, or sleeping in their cars like impoverished science fiction fans crashing worldcons in the 1940s.

At a conference in St. Louis, one parent-ally of the group managed to get access to the whole vacant upper floor of an office building under renovation near the convention center. Amid dusty heaps of plaster and drywall, the Autistics unfurled their mats and sleeping bags, brought in a couple of floor lamps, and set up empty refrigerator cartons for anyone who needed to retreat to an enclosed space for a while. After fielding questions from parents and psychologists all day, it was a relief to return to a place with the fellow members of their tribe that felt like an enchanted cave after dark. When someone pointed out the window at an old radio tower and said that it was for sale, Sinclair replied that, since the aliens were all gathered in one place now, they could transmit the request to the mothership to come take them home at last.

Reprinted from NeuroTribes by financial arrangement with Avery Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC, A Penguin Random House Company. Copyright © 2015, Steve Silberman

The post The Dawn of Autistic Space – Excerpt from NeuroTribes appeared first on Wrong Planet.

Today, we officially announce the addition of Jack Robison to the LBRY team as Core Developer. Jack has been working on the project for some time, and we thought it was about time to recognize his growing role.

We value Jack for his bursts of creative energy. In fact, Jack has quite a history with explosions. In high school, some of his homemade chemistry experiments caught the attention of law enforcement. The incident quickly became national news and goes to show that Jack doesn’t do anything half way, which makes him a perfect fit for the LBRY team.

“When I was in high school my interest was chemistry, starting with energetics. Rockets and cannons fascinated me, and I wanted to know how they really worked,” Jack explained. “I pursued the answer to that question, and after a couple years I’d synthesized many of the common explosives used in the military, and I was experimenting with some compositions of my own design. That interest got cut short by the law, fortunately the outcome didn’t involve any orange jumpsuits.”

The case involved big booms, YouTube videos, and overzealous prosecutors. He faced up to 60 years in prison. You can read more about it here.

That experience pretty much nixed Jack’s passion for explosives. As he put it, “I pretty thoroughly lost interest after they indicted me.” So he redirected his focus into other areas of chemistry, specifically designing compounds for medical use.

This might sound like a wild story, but it’s actually more common than you’d think. Peter Thiel revealed in his book that several of the co-founders of Paypal built explosives in high school. It’s not that tech companies look to hire firecrackers. It’s just that people who disrupt industries have to be willing to take risks in the name of creating something cool. Jack has just that mentality.

We’ve seen him hone various aspects of our nascent protocol with a laser-like focus. This is common for people on the autism spectrum, which Jack discovered of himself after his indictment. In fact, his atypical mind may have blinded him to the possibility that his explosions were anything more than the ambitious chemistry experiments he saw.

Jack’s acquittal made him something of a celebrity in the “Aspie” community and he continues to advocate for autism rights. He has spoken on the subject around the country, even appearing on National Public Radio. The New York Times published a feature-length story about his activism and life, which is well worth a read.

Jack later developed interests in economics and Bitcoin. That led him to us. As he puts it:

“LBRY quickly caught my interest; I don’t know how a distributed content marketplace and delivery platform couldn’t. It has the right incentives to get people to act as they should, and by doing so, makes content available at the most efficient price. The market for information is muddled with friction throughout; LBRY gets rid of that. It’s a good time to be a nerd for markets! The blockchain has the potential to enable direct person-to-person transactions on an unprecedented scale.”

Having successfully pushed the boundaries in the autism community, he’s now ready to focus his talents on pushing the boundaries of technology and the Internet.

LBRY co-founder Jeremy Kauffman is thrilled to be working with Robison:

“Jack is one of the sharpest and most creative minds I’ve ever met. It’s surreal to think that mind could have gone to waste if things had gone a little differently. We’re all very glad we’re in the universe where Jack did not go jail, and I’m personally excited to have such an innovative mind working on LBRY.”

Jack jumped into LBRY with both feet and we quickly discovered he is an amazingly fast learner. His sharp mind and astute problem solving skills are quickly turning Jack into a leader on the LBRY team.

Here’s the original announcement

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