Are there any totally blind people with Asperger's syndrome?

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ZenDen
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02 Feb 2014, 12:17 pm

I'm not, but wonder if this is common or even possible.

denny



EzraS
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02 Feb 2014, 12:20 pm

There were a few autistic kids I went to school with that were either totally blind or legally blind.



FallingDownMan
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02 Feb 2014, 1:10 pm

My wife is blind and went to a state school for the blind. She tells me that there was a high percentage of classmates with multiple handicaps, including autism.



lostonearth35
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02 Feb 2014, 1:47 pm

so you're saying i don't have to worry at all about becoming blind because I have Asperger's? Great! I've always wanted to stare directly into the sun. :lol:
-Okay seriously, I really don't see (no pun intended) why people with Autism aren't any less likely to be blind than NT people. And of course most people in general aren't totally blind, they can see a tiny little bit.



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02 Feb 2014, 2:18 pm

lostonearth35 wrote:
so you're saying i don't have to worry at all about becoming blind because I have Asperger's? Great! I've always wanted to stare directly into the sun. :lol:
-Okay seriously, I really don't see (no pun intended) why people with Autism aren't any less likely to be blind than NT people. And of course most people in general aren't totally blind, they can see a tiny little bit.


I wonder if the real question is "Will autism be properly diagnosed in a blind person?", suggesting the blindness might cause the doctors and such to miss the autism all together, and come up with some other diagnosis.

It's a cinch the eye contact thing won't come into the picture. :(


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LupaLuna
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02 Feb 2014, 10:48 pm

lostonearth35 wrote:
so you're saying i don't have to worry at all about becoming blind because I have Asperger's? Great! I've always wanted to stare directly into the sun. :lol:


Great! Now I can stop wearing the stupid mask when I am welding.



Callista
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03 Feb 2014, 12:46 am

Yeah, blind folks do tend to have repetitive movements, and sometimes that can make it harder to tell whether they're stimming or whether it's just blindisms. And they're already part of a minority group, so their social distance from others is going to already be there even if blindness is the only thing that's different about them.

I'd expect autism to be a bit more common among people with visual impairments than people without, because of how different disabilities tend to occur together--like if you had prenatal trauma, difficult pregnancy, genetic defects, you might end up with blindness and autism together, related to the same cause, probably with other issues on top of that. Haven't seen any stats on it, but wouldn't be surprised if that were the case.

Of course they can occur together just by chance. Even if there aren't any prenatal/genetic glitches that raise the risk of both autism and visual impairment, one in a hundred people with visual impairment would also be autistic.


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LostInSpace
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03 Feb 2014, 8:36 am

Sethno wrote:
I wonder if the real question is "Will autism be properly diagnosed in a blind person?", suggesting the blindness might cause the doctors and such to miss the autism all together, and come up with some other diagnosis.


There is a blind forum member who has actually posted on this. They've said that their doctors want to blame all of their problems on blindness, and ignore the possibility that the person has AS.


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Mike1
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03 Feb 2014, 9:01 am

LostInSpace wrote:
Sethno wrote:
I wonder if the real question is "Will autism be properly diagnosed in a blind person?", suggesting the blindness might cause the doctors and such to miss the autism all together, and come up with some other diagnosis.

There is a blind forum member who has actually posted on this. They've said that their doctors want to blame all of their problems on blindness, and ignore the possibility that the person has AS.

It's kind of sad that some doctors force blind people to fight their ignorance, in order to get the help they need. Society owes it to these people to listen to their concerns. People who have difficulty seeking help shouldn't be fought against while trying to do so. People who aren't well equipped to find ways around the ignorance of others should be treated with more care.



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04 Feb 2014, 4:12 pm

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1440-1819.2007.01608.x/full

This study found that 30 out of 257 blind children, or 11% of them, were on the autism spectrum. Estimates of autism prevalence in the general population are usually around 1-3%. So it seems that autism is more common among blind children than would be expected.



KathrynJaneway
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16 Apr 2014, 2:37 pm

I am totally blind. I wasn't officially diagnosed until I was about 24 years old. I am 30 now, and will be 31 this year. It's really frustrating for me, being diagnosed later in life. I think a lot of the issues I have were blamed on "blindisms" and I was often accused of not trying. Now, I am relieved to be officially diagnosed. Most of the people I know who are on the spectrum happen to be visually impaired, which I find interesting.



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16 Apr 2014, 3:05 pm

ZenDen wrote:
I'm not, but wonder if this is common or even possible.

denny
Don't know if it is common but yes, there are totally blind people on the Spectrum.


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KathrynJaneway
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11 May 2015, 12:13 pm

Yes there are, as I am one of them. Why wouldn't there be? Interesting question however, as I find it difficult to find much about blindness/visual impairment and Asperger's Syndrome. I wasn't diagnosed as aspie until I was 24, and have been totally blind most of my life.



anthropic_principle
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11 May 2015, 12:22 pm

KathrynJaneway wrote:
I am totally blind. I wasn't officially diagnosed until I was about 24 years old. I am 30 now, and will be 31 this year. It's really frustrating for me, being diagnosed later in life. I think a lot of the issues I have were blamed on "blindisms" and I was often accused of not trying. Now, I am relieved to be officially diagnosed. Most of the people I know who are on the spectrum happen to be visually impaired, which I find interesting.


Sorry to hear that, but may I ask how you are reading this forum and commenting if you are 'totally blind'?
Or am I somehow misunderstanding the meaning of that.



KathrynJaneway
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11 May 2015, 12:39 pm

I use a screen reader which reads to me what is on the screen. It's a free screen reader called NVDA, which stands for Non-visual Desktop Access. It also tells me what I'm typing, though I've basically memorized the keyboard.