Review of Know Yourself Conference
by Alex
Dear Readers,
On July 18 AANE held their 3rd annual conference for adults with AS entitled Know Yourself: The Key to a Better Life. I attended it to hear the opinions of those speaking and to also write my thoughts on the conference into the blog. The main speaker was Ari Ne’eman, founding president of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network which seeks to advance the principles of the disability rights movement in the world of autism. He had many points about the current state of help that is offered to people on the autism spectrum. Two I felt were the most important. The first is that we as people diagnosed with a disorder don’t always receive the rights given to us by the Disabilities Act. Upon seeing us with no visible disability, most people can’t realize we are different in how we function. When we are discriminated against for how we act in certain environments do to our condition, we are not offered the same treatment as someone with a missing limb might. This thinking must change to allow us fair treatment in the workplace and elsewhere. The second point Ari made was in regards to how some experts, parents, and others view how people mental disabilities. They see us as delinquents unable to fend for ourselves and so they are in charge of decisions regarding us. This outlook must change as well. No one but ourselves knows what we need and these people outside of our perspective cannot make all the right decisions that will affect us positively. We must speak up for ourselves and express a vested interest in how we want to live other whys we’ll have no control. These two points are what I felt were the most important.
After an hour break for lunch, everyone attended two workshop sessions, each lasting for about an hour and a half. The first workshop I went to was entitled “Effective Advocacy and Disclosure” with Stephen Shore as the speaker. He gave a synopsis about how he grew up with Asperger’s Syndrome even there was no diagnosis for it. Afterwards Stephen discussed about disclosure of a persons condition whether it was in the work place or else where. I felt that one idea was most important of them all. If part of a person’s lifestyle is disturbed by certain surroundings it is not necessary to fully disclose your entire condition. The example that was given was when some people work under florescent lighting they get headaches and cannot function properly. In this case, only disclosing the fact that florescent lighting causes you pain is all that is required to get the proper reaction to have the lighting changed. A full discussion on your diagnosis is not needed in this case. The only time you might want to disclose your condition is when nothing is being done to change the lighting in a way that will benefit you.
The second workshop I went to was entitled “Thriving With Aspergers”. The speaker, Paul, also gave a brief description of growing up with Aspergers and how it affects his current daily life. At the moment he is the director of engineering at a high tech company. Paul’s job requires him to manage around 250 to 300 people. He made some interesting points about how he reached this position. One I found most interesting is that whenever a mistake is made, he’ll take responsibility for it regardless if someone else is to blame. This was because Paul didn’t want to sit through three or so hours of bickering between the people he managed about who was actually at fault. As a result more important matters are attended to such as how to fix the problem that occurred. Such a method of operation may have consequences in the long run but if it keeps things running smoothly then no issues should arise.
Overall I felt the conference was a great experience and I learned many new things about the culture in which I am a part of. If you didn’t get a chance to come this year, I hope next year you will as it was certainly enlightening.
August 27, 2009
Posted in: AS Community & Culture, Events
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