The strangest thing happened on my way to pneumonia… Read the rest of this entry »

Sally Colletti is involved with Advocates for Autism (www.advocateforautism.com) and is compiling a book about Atypical Seizures. When I mentioned my diagnosis in my 20s of Atypical Epilepsy she asked me about my own experiences. Here’s our interview: Read the rest of this entry »

Some of you may remember the Autie Christmas Poem I did on YouTube a few years ago

Well, it got turned into a song called “Merry Christmas” over on

http://www.aspinauts.com

Read the rest of this entry »

Over on the 2009 online AWARES International Autism Conference the host there, Adam Feinstein, wrote:

What do you think of the latest study (from the University of Cambridge) showing that the brains of people with autism are less active when engaged in self-reflective thought. Read the rest of this entry »

Melanie Hadley is in her final year at Birmingham City University studying Textile Design.  She is  researching for her dissertation and is focusing on the benefits of art with children with disabilities, people on the autistic spectrum and adults.  She asked me some questions about how art has affected my life and about my ARTism.  Here’s our interview: Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to Autism 2009, the fifth online world conference to be held within the AWARES conference centre.

This conference opens on Monday, November 30, 2009, and runs for a week until December 7, 2009. Paper abstracts will be accessible from early November.

Speaker list includes*:

Professor Simon Baron-Cohen
Donna Williams
Dr Susan Folstein
Dr Gary Mesibov
Professor Susan Leekam
Dr Wendy Lawson
Dr Manuel Casanova
Stephen Shore….
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I knew these things, but somehow ‘the advertising’ got in the way
but I’m awake now and I know, I’ve always known,

that being ‘needed’ is not being ‘loved’

and being ‘controlled’ is not being ‘cared for’

BUTTERFLIES by Donna Williams

if someone takes your disabilities and makes them your gilded cage
then you take charge of your disabilities like never before
for they are your fallibility, the keys to your cage

a key you allowed someone else to call theirs
because they taught you this was love and caring
and in the light of day you realise it had nothing to do with you

so you look in the mirror and say, wow, there’s a fool
and brush off the dust and say, ok, so the world is full of fools so I’m in good company

and you look at your life and say, wow, there’s an island
but islands can build bridges

and you look at your smile and say
wow, I’d forgotten I could wake up with this

and you look at your time and say
you ain’t Florence Nightingale, so follow that smile
because a heart shouldn’t be heavy
it should be light
because a heavy heart will never fly
and butterflies can.

Donna Wiliams

http://www.donnawilliams.net

http://www.aspinauts.com

Musically supported by The Aspinauts Donna Williams performs How To Be A Boy and Mirror from the rock musical Footsteps of a Nobody.  Filmed by Lindsay at The Guild Theatre in Oct 09, the show was well received and travels next to the USA in Jan 2010 before returning to Australia for a show in Geelong.

Info on upcoming shows can be found at http://www.aspinauts.com Read the rest of this entry »

A parent, Sarah O’Connor, has started her own blog drawing on her experiences with her autistic daughter, Beth.  I invited her to send me some interview questions.  Here they are. Read the rest of this entry »

Jame Jar, produced by Charlie Stuart for UK’s Channel 4 TV in association with Fresh Film UK and directed by Simon Everson, Jam Jar was filmed in Wales in 1995 about author, Donna Williams.

SYNOPSIS:

Bestselling author Donna Williams lives on a farm in rural Wales with her first husband, a man on the autistic spectrum.   Here they live according to a different culture and rules that are taken for granted in the world beyond their own.  Donna becomes a tour guide showing us the person beyond the labels on the ‘jam jar’.   Poetic and artistic, Jam Jar explores Donna’s meaning deafness, meaning blindness in the context of autism and the social, emotional and communication bridges she uses to navigate with the world. Read the rest of this entry »