What I said for Autism Day at the Oregon Capitol Senate

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My name is Merle Xxxxxxxxx and I am an Asperger’s autistic. I was undiagnosed until my late 50’s and have recently come to understand my unique life in the light of my diagnosis. I have to say it was a challenge listening to the stereotypes of autism offered from the first panel to testify. But this I do know and feel ; the adult autists of today can help in what the children on the spectrum will need tomorrow.

I became involved with a web site that is a world wide forum for Autistic peoples, WWW.WRONGPLANET.NET where after years of volunteer service as a moderator, my dedication to the site was rewarded with yet more volunteer work in training other moderators. I know a community of autism spectrum folks can flourish in the online medium. I have 'met' hundreds of neuro diverse folks of all ages. Through them, I have realized the opportunities open to the autistic by utilizing primary and secondary online schooling as enhancement for home schooling and online universities and colleges for autistic adults. I know that the tuition savings alone are worth budgeting for eLearning in the educational curricula.

ELearning is Quality education, made affordable: The fact that instructors of the highest caliber can share their knowledge allows students to attend courses across physical, psychological and economic boundaries, at minimum costs. This can drastically reduce the expenditure of higher education, making it more affordable and accessible to the autistic who is not constrained to be in the same location as the instructor or the other students. Environmental irritants, allergic reactions, light and sound sensitivities, all are solved at the flick of a computer on switch.

ELearning Reduces environmental impact: eLearning allows people to avoid travel, thus reducing the overall carbon output, reducing dependency on parents or hiring facilitators to get them to and from physical classrooms and maximizes class attendance. Taking classes in a virtual environment also allows for student comfort in familiar surroundings with little need for either the student or the learning facility to adapt existing physical accommodations.

ELearning is convenient and flexible, it is self-paced and the learning sessions are available 24x7. Learners are not bound to a specific day/time to physically attend classes. They can also pause and review learning sessions at their convenience sharing the information with others.

I know that the Oregon Connections Academy or ORCA is perfect for children on the autism spectrum (http://www.connectionsacademy.com/orego ... chool.aspx ) and I encourage you to continue to support, fund, and expand that program. For post secondary education Oregon University system has the Oregon Network for Education has audio, video, and computer technologies for statewide educational access. http://www.ous.edu/one/distance.htm#

I would like to help bring our beloved Oregon into the new millennium by speaking to and for those who may not be able to speak or express what it is they need from those around us. We who are in the daily struggle to fit in, to measure up and to be counted need this reasonable accommodation to be productive citizens in our Oregon patchwork.

*cheers Merle*


M.

Cheers! I'm so proud that you did that. (I live in Oregon so maybe your speech will impact me

Great job, Merle!

Oi, sounds perfectly correct for a speech, visuals would likely have made this somewhat more important and mediatized, but i suppose that'll come eventually... =/ One day, maybe.

If all else fails, mount posterboards on sticks and draw pictures on them.

I am glad that you spoke up for us in public, you were speaking on educational matters are you planning on speaking out on other things which relate to us ?

_________________
Health is a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity I am not a jigsaw, I am a free man !

Diagnosed under the DSM5 rules with autism spectrum disorder, under DSM4 psychologist said would have been AS (299.80) but I suspect that I am somewhere between 299.80 and 299.00 (Autism) under DSM4.

I will be attending a focus group for those with developmental delays (including autism). I intend to bring up e learning as well.

Well done!

Good one Merle, very well done.

Generated a few thoughts. I need to stress that I've never done anything like this, so I'm just some guy in the bleachers yelling at the people actually playing the game.

It seems that in dealing with politicians and government, we could stress that the sort of things you're proposing would significantly benefit the government's budget problems and the overall economy.

Most people see education as a path to employment. I've never seen it that way, but most people do.

Most aspie/autistics are capable of productive work and an awful lot of us want to work. Nevertheless, employment is one of the most common problems we face.

This is not only bad for us, it's bad for the government and everybody else. An unemployed autistic is a cost. An autistic who is working, paying taxes, and spending money is helping the economy.

On an unrelated note, something I've wondering about. Even before the recent economic crash, Oregon had one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. Washington seems to be geographically identical to Oregon, but for some reason the economy of Washington seems to do much better. I've wondered what the difference is.

This is great - while you were there, did you happen to meet ASAN Board Member and ASAN-PDX Chapter co-leader Dora Raymaker, who also gave testimony? If you aren't already, check out ASAN-PDX: http://www.meetup.com/PDX-Autistic-Self ... y-Network/

Yes, and I got her permission to post her review of the conference!
Here is her Email to the ASAN group!

Merle
__________________________________________________________________

I headed down to Salem yesterday and met up with Merle and Xxxxxxxxx (another person from the Salem area). There were other people on the spectrum present too--one of them spoke up with some comments throughout the day, but Merle and I were the only folks who ended up testifying at the hearing.

Unfortunately the "NPO table" wasn't something for people to sit behind and answer questions--it was a table pressed against the wall on which to leave flyers. Which of course I did, and some people did take our materials. I didn't get any direct questions about ASAN or SAAL though, probably because there was no way for people to associate me with those particular materials (see lack of ability to actually "man" our slot at the table).

I am exceptionally glad that Merle and I were there and gave testimony to the eduction committee. Nearly all of the other testimony given was from people who said extremely degrading, stigmatizing things about us. It was hard to listen to, frankly, but not, unfortunately, unexpected.

I was particularly glad to have Merle at my side, as I think the more of us there are the more powerful our message becomes. Then it's not just one pesky self advocate, it's a community. Someday maybe we will have just as many self advocates as parents at these events

I sent a copy of the testimony I developed with your help to Representative Edward's aid Tim and to Kathryn Weit, the policy analyst for the Oregon DD Council (for them to add to the record of the hearing), and Kathryn sent me back the following very nice message. Hopefully we are starting to make a difference! Thanks everyone who gave input on Merle's and my speeches--sounds like we all were heard.

Quote:

Dora,
Thank you so much for coming down. We will make sure the testimony gets
submitted. I received a call last night from Rep. Gelser, chair of the
Education Committee, saying how much she appreciated the reminder that young
children experiencing ASD grow up!!

A great reminder of "Nothing about me without me!"
Kathryn

-Dora