From isolation to globalization - autistic people radio shows

It has not been a year since we began our 'Autistic People, People First" radio shows! We have had profile views of over 13,000 people and listeners of 10,000 in less than 6 months of daily shows. To some people this may not seem a great deal, to others it is a BIG deal! Autistic People, radio shows??? They can actually speak, let alone articulate their thoughts, communicate and share? - believe it or not, some people DO actually think this, I have met them!

On the other hand many other people think differently - these people are usually the ones who "GET" differences and that when someone has a difference they also have a commonality because they are part of the human race, the human condition, if you will.

How we view things, what our perspectives are of the world around us is generally shaped by our values, beliefs and EXPERIENCES. We reflect on the goings on around us through the lens of our upbringing, our life experiences and the conditions we have been raised in.

So, autistic people can speak, can communicate, do have a voice and are valuable human beings in our society. We have been in existence for generations, and centuries. We are not a new [condition] of human beings, we are not a phenomenon, abnormal, odd and weird, we simply are a group of people who have often been misunderstood, ostracized, isolated, institutionalized and drugged. Many of us have not been given the opportunity or exposure to a [normal] upbringing of experiences deemed necessary for growing children such as: access to being around other peers, play, art and music, theatre, physical activities in a natural group setting rather than with one to one adults.

All human beings learn from one another, all children learn from one another - some people learn be observing, others learn by doing and still others learn by interacting. Some are stronger with audio, others with kinesthetics, others visual and so on... this holds true with the population of autistic people as well. So what differentiates us from those human beings who are not on the autistic spectrum? Not a lot, as it appears in the last 20 years of research, observations, and hearing from the voices of those who are autistic.

What I have noticed is that there are more things in common than are not. If we as a society and we autistic people as an emerging autistic society can recognize the human traits, the human commonalities and need, we can actually learn from one another. I believe the identification of autistic people in an 'awareness' mode in society in general has been especially helpful to all. Why? Because autistic people have brought to the discussion an openness and willingness to decipher how we, as a group of human beings process information, see the world and environments around us and can actually "share" these attributes for other groups of human beings to learn from.

As I have often said in speaking engagements and training seminars - autistic people are not so far from the 'norm'. View ANCA's youtube video"Understanding Autism" in which I discuss this topic. And listen to the archives of all our radio shows by clicking this link and 'hear' from autistic people themselves and their families and friends from around the world.