Lisa Niehoff works for Mainstream Living, Inc which provides services to the disabled in Iowa. She is editor of the company’s monthly newsletter, ‘The Insider’ which profiles disabled artists. She asked if I could write a profile piece for her magazine so instead I invited her to pose me some interview questions, and rather personal they were. Here’s our interview: Read the rest of this entry »
It was 1996, a time when the rate of autism was still thought to be 1 in 10,000 people, high functioning people with autism were still thought to be rare and it was still believed that around 70% of people with autism were severely mentally retarded.  In that year my honors year that the Sociology lecturer mentioned in my first book, Nobody Nowhere, story writer, Dr Chris Eipper of La Trobe University, got involved with journalist, Kathy Gollan at ABC radio with a story. With no qualification in child development, psychology or psychiatry (nor any medical qualification whatsoever), he was going to deliver to her people who would dispute my formal diagnosis of autism by one of Australia’s leading autism specialists, Dr Lawrie Bartak. To back himself up, he would: Read the rest of this entry »
Fiona Crosby is a second year English Literature student at Teesside University currently doing an assignment on The Representation of “disability”. She wanted to ask me questions in relation to the representation of “autistic presence†in contemporary cultural forms. This is our interview: Read the rest of this entry »
This month’s featured art work is titled “Eleanor“. It’s title comes from the Beatles song Eleanor Rigby which I feel is a song that captures aloneness. I have rarely felt lonely but I experience aloneness all the time. I’m solitary by nature and by choice and I cherish my solitude enormously, often too much Read the rest of this entry »
Sometimes there are things which would be funny if they weren’t so annoying. One of those is where the use of the title “Dr” is taken to mean the person is qualified as a medical doctor, as a psychologist or psychiatrist. In fact “Dr” simply means they have a ‘doctorate‘, a PhD, a piece of paper showing they have achieved the highest level of education in a given field. But that could be a doctorate, a PhD in Philosophy, Sociology, Engineering, even in Biology and they’d have no more expertise to diagnose language, psychiatric, information processing, developmental or personality disorders, than a well read garbo. Read the rest of this entry »
 Zealots love a conspiracy and there’s nothing anyone can do to HELP THEM get over the manifestation of what might even be THEIR personality disorder. So why do some people pull out all the stops to gather others with their same orientation to escalate their theories into hate, even into public shaming forums and as far as cyber stalking. Read the rest of this entry »
  Welcome to the May 2009 poetry challenge. Tou can send in your poetry challenges for the April 09 poetry jam. So off you go – feel free to send me a TITLE or THEME to write to in the comments section and up to the end of April, you’ll find I’ve responded by posting a poem here addressing it.  Come on, give it a try. And don’t forget, 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.
Here’s the poems so far… Read the rest of this entry »
 The stereotype of Aspergers is of relatively emotionally unexpressive people who lack empathy and imagination. When I met Anthony, he struck me as the closest thing to a walking cartoon. He’s a formally diagnosed Aspie, a fellow ticcer, and one of the most surreal humans I know. His capacity for imagination is broader than most humans can get without psychedelic drugs. He’s also someone naturally empathic whose quick to help or lend an ear. Here’s our interview. Read the rest of this entry »
 Welcome to the April 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 can send in your poetry challenges for the April 09 poetry jam. So off you go – feel free to send me a TITLE or THEME to write to in the comments section and up to the end of April, you’ll find I’ve responded by posting a poem here addressing it.  Come on, give it a try.Â
Here’s the poems so far… Read the rest of this entry »
This month’s featured artwork is titled Blah Blah Blah. It’s a painting about meaning deafness Read the rest of this entry »
Donna Williams is an Australian born adult with autism who was assessed as psychotic at the age of 2 in 1965, labelled disturbed in the 1970s and diagnosed as autistic in her 20s in 1991.
She acquired functional speech in late childhood and went on to become a qualified teacher with an honors degree in Sociology and a degree in Linguistics. She is the author of two international bestselling autobiographies and has 10 published books including 4 text books widely used in autism education and two books of poetry and prose.
As a screenwriter, she wrote the screenplay to “Nobody Nowhere”, the first book in her 4 book autobiographical series. That screenplay is currently under option to become a Hollywood film. She is an professional artist, singer-songwriter and published poet as well as a world renowned public speaker on autism now living with her husband in Australia. In her presentations she draws not only on her own experiences but on international experience as a professional autism consultant since 1996.
Donna’s is a speaker in demand around the world due to her unique perspective and ability to share her feelings and experiences on a very personal level. More information about her and her life’s work can be found on her website at http://www.donnawilliams.net .