Paul Swann is a Commissioning & Planning Officer with Department of Adult Social Care at Wrexham County Borough Council in Wales, UK. In the run up to an evening lecture I’m doing in Wrexham on Tuesday 9th Sept 2008, I offered Paul to set me 5 questions for an email interview. He did a wonderful job, setting in depth questions as good as any of the 100 or so journalists who’ve interviewed me over the last 20 years. Here’s out interview: Read the rest of this entry »

My parents were underclass party people in the 60s and 70s, a criminal family with colorful friends: armed robbers, gun dealers, celebrities and entertainers and crooked cops. Bravado, power, endangerment, sadism, mockery, and at the very least laughing things off, came as standard. Read the rest of this entry »

Hi Donna, I wonder if you could answer a quick question. Do auties experience feelings of love? If so can they experience trauma through loss of a person, attachment or object? Many thanks.

Here’s my reply: Read the rest of this entry »

I got this a question about the nature of ‘Autism Spectrum Disorder’. I was asked

In your opinion is ASD a learning disability, a neurological
condition or a mental health issue…or something entirely unique perhaps?

Here was my answer…. Read the rest of this entry »

Someone wrote to me about the differences between Exposure Anxiety (EA, as written about in the book, Exposure Anxiety; The Invisible Cage ) and Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA). Here are my reflections on those differences: Read the rest of this entry »

I am seriously telling people in drought stricken suburbs, cities and towns to collect any large rubbish bins or industrial size builder’s tubs and place them around your back garden. Even put them under your rain pipes. Read the rest of this entry »

Chris Draper, a scientific researcher with the Born Free Foundation contacted me about a new ‘therapy’ ready to cash in on the tail of that equally hot money spinner in the ever expanding autism marketplace, dolphin therapy. Read the rest of this entry »

Our local postmasters are wonderfully autie friendly. However I might get away with being meaning deaf, meaning blind, mono tracked, lacking simultaneous processing of self and other and tumbling pretty much what’s left, these people handle it well with everything from a good natured ‘chuckle with’ to turning a blind eye… CONSTANTLY. Read the rest of this entry »

From harsh beginnings Aisha came into a fortunate adoption with an autism friendly family who are able to see the person she is and work to shape a world in which her personhood can blossom and be appreciated. Here I talk to her adoptive father, David Clark who has an exciting idea of starting an autism community in Brasil. I’ve asked him about it, and about Aisha. Here’s our interview. Read the rest of this entry »

Heta Pukki is a public speaker diagnosed on the autism spectrum who is listed on http://www.auties.org . She she is speaking about the autism world in Finland. She has some interesting things to say about autism history, activism and relationships Autistic style. Here’s our interview. Read the rest of this entry »