So many websites have ‘captchas‘ now… those combos of jumbled letters and numbers.  What of the dyslexics who tumble them both?  3 and E, come on guys, they look the same.  A and 4 and 7.  Where’s the difference?  2 and 5 and s?  8 and B?  d and 6 and 9 and b and p and q?  W and M?  Z and N?  I and 1?  F and H?  O and 0?  u and n?  Anyone else have this alphanumerical soup?  When I was 9 I was struggling with lots of these and got through that enough to read even though visual verbal agnosia means I still read without meaning unless I use gestural signing and I still use my BPI tinted lenses for Scotopic Sensitivity so the print doesn’t swim about on the page.  But these ‘captures’, I’m sure I take 3 times longer to get one right than most people.  Ah, they don’t design the world for funky brains like mine.

Donna Williams *)

http://www.donnawilliams.net

http://www.myspace.com/donnaandtheaspinauts 

A reader from Aspergers Parallel Planet, Alyson Bradley, sent me interview questions about the fourth book in my autobiographical series, Everyday Heaven (published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers).  A brave woman indeed for she is diagnosed with Asperger’s, is Dyslexic with learning difficulties and cognitive challenges and not a big reader.  Her questions are interesting.  Here’s our interview. Read the rest of this entry »

  POLITICAL CORRECTNESS IN 3 DIFFERENT AUTISM WORLDS – By Donna Williams.

Whilst there are many political roads one can go in the autism world, I see there are at least three quite BASIC ones : Read the rest of this entry »

  Heidi Everett is an awesome performer so it was a great honor to get this review from her.  Enjoy.  Here it is:

“The gig – ‘Rock and Rebuild’ benefit concert for Victoria’s bushfire crisis, was organised and promoted by Kaine Marsh, head of Finbar Production.  The bands – A very eclectic yet thoroughly charismatic line up of artists who have some sort of connection with the towns affected by the fires. The location – Hurstbridge Oval, an iconic picture of pure Aussieness.

Tigger-dog and I had a visual introduction to Rock and Rebuild as the officially on-time Connex rolled into Hurstbridge station. A sun dried brick of a country oval transformed wonderfully into a fruitful orchard of stalls and country folk milling around a flat bed truck pumping out music with a whole lotta heart. As we lounged around in front of the stage, Donna and the Aspinauts sauntered into their first number and had the audience looking up from their snags to see what the hell had hit them front and centre between the eyes and ears.

A-ha! These were no ordinary folk songs to be kum-by-ya’d around the campfire, no way! As the guys in the Aspinauts band changed gear quicker than a red Ferrari, front-woman Donna kept apace brilliantly with her phonetically charged lyrics and mesmerizing hands shaping the melody like an artist at the easel. I watched, captivated like the crowd around me. Each song blurred deliciously into the next with Donna’s spoken word etching out the poetry of human condition, always so very eloquent and astutely connected to the song the band was about to launch into, such a poignant moment when Donna painted the scene of a blackened landscape, burnt by the very fires this benefit concert set to quell.

The set itself was just the right amount of time for Donna and the Aspinauts own musical genre to be smacked firmly into the hearts and minds of the audience. As a muso myself, I intuitively looked around to see the reaction of people who might not have had the chance to experience such a richly flavoured ensemble before, and as a muso, I can confidently say that The Aspinauts had the crowd in the rather elusive ‘palm of the hand’.

I’ve seen this band a few times now and I thoroughly recommend an audience with a Donna and the Aspinauts event if you are ever given the chance. I say event because they are so much more than just a band playing music, each of your five senses will be buzzing before the end of the first song, and by the end of the show, you’ll be definitely Aspi-fied.”

Heidi Everett

http://www.heidieverett.com.au/Home.html

  Last month, with The Aspinauts, I had the honor of playing with a wonderful performer, Heidi Everett.  This is my interview with her. Read the rest of this entry »

  I was asked some questions by Elaine Meyer, a freelance journalist and student at Columbia’s journalism school, who was writing an article about autism as a metaphor in literature.  She explained that a literature professor at Cambridge named Andy Martin recently came out with an article comparing the writers Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus in which he said Sartre’s writing and personality exhibited autistic tendencies and Camus’ exhibited what he considered opposite empathetic tendencies.  She said he cited Simon Baron-Cohen’s work as an influence and asked if she could ask me a few interview questions on the topic.  Here’s our interview: Read the rest of this entry »

This month’s art work is called Coming Out.

Coming Out can mean many things and for me it is an important and valuable concept.  This painting helps me celebrate the importance of coming out and the endurance and challenges it takes for any of us to do so.  Read the rest of this entry »

   OK, so February got lost somewhere in the Victorian bushfires and their chaos and yes, my blog has been so quiet.  But, welcome to the March 2009 poetry challenge.  Who knows, any of you coming to see us at any of the upcoming gigs for Donna and The Aspinauts may actually see some of the poems performed, complete with gestural signing and characterisations.

But right now, you have 30 days to send in your poetry challenges for the March 09 poetry jam.  So off you go – feel free to send me a TITLE or THEME to write to in the comments section and in the next 30 days, you’ll find I’ve responded by posting a poem here addressing it.   Come on, give it a try. Read the rest of this entry »

Katherine Kasper is a reader on the spectrum who read the third book in my autobiographical series, Like Colour To The Blind.  When she emailed me about the book I offered her the opportunity to send me 10 interview questions about it.  Here’s that interview. Read the rest of this entry »

  The world of Synesthesia is broader than you think.  I see musically.  I process the meaning of what I hear through the kinesthetic movement of gestural signing and representational objects.  I sometimes have colors and patterns trigger in my brain in response to touch.  I talk of green smells, bright tastes, crunchy sounds and fluffy, scratchy and hard edged people.    Here I interview hill’s artist and singer-songwriter, Tracey Roberts, on how her own Synesthesia relates to her ARTism.

Donna Williams

http://www.donnawilliams.net

http://www.myspace.com/donnaandtheaspinauts