Hi everyone. I'm Adam from Cincinnati, OH, USA. I was diagnosed with Asperger's @ the age of 12 by neuropsychiatrist Dr. Brian McConville MD @ Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. I am so weird & proud of my ways. I'm NOT dangerous or criminal or anything like that. I just don't let nobody control me except the law. I've been this way since 1999.
I took sign language in college and I loved it. But lately I've been rejected a lot by the Deaf, Hard-of-Hearing, & Deaf-Blind a lot. So I found there are quite a few Aspie signers on this forum and I decided to join. So far it really feels like home. I am trying my best to be appropriate and follow the rules but be myself simultaneously.
Talk about "night vision"...sometimes I have it sometimes I don't. However I'm very good at feeling for information like the blind do (example: feeling the position of the switch on my thermostat to know if my air conditioning is set to kick on or not). It just depends on where I am @ nighttime and how much light I have to see by. There are quite a few things I can see with very little light. I'd love to get a light meter & measure how many lux it takes for me to see certain images. (I like to measure in metric cuz I'm a unity activist).
As for communication, I have the most trouble with spoken language. I always find it easier to understand WRITTEN English. I own & use a TTY (teletypewriter) for most of my telecommunications, and it utilizes written English. Thankfully these forums are all written. I am verbal, but the more I refuse to speak the more comfortable I am. I am most comfortable with American Sign Language (ASL) in the tactile mode used by the Deaf-Blind. Definitely weird cuz I can see & hear fully. I just have auditory & visual processing deficits that I'm struggling to get diagnosed. I also read Grade 1 (uncontracted) English Braille. A former Deaf-Blind friend taught me Braille. Too bad internet technology with refreshable Braille costs $1,000s. I can't afford it, so I gotta read the forums in print.
Before I ever got with the Deaf-Blind, I never had much desire for human touch. But since the Deaf-Blind all pushed me away the very next night after my Grandpa died, I have missed the touches they gave me a lot! The Deaf-Blind have far more reasons for giving touch than most other people do. They are very fun people. The way the Deaf-Blind give so much touch and really take their time communicating made them ideal friends for me in 2003. They are a larger population than most non-Deaf-Blind people realize. But until I figure out where to go to meet new Deaf-Blind friends and have newfound opportunity with the Deaf-Blind, I'm going to stay around Cincinnati's West Side area, most likely in this newly renovated 3-family house up on the 3rd floor in East Price Hill.
15 Aug 2007, 7:41 pm
